Home insurance to cover business equipment

Insurance provider Aviva is extending its home contents policy to cover business equipment as standard.

The company made the decision following the release of statistics from the Future Foundation, which showed that a quarter of the working population will be based at home by 2020.

Contents insurance will provide cover for loss or damage to office equipment and furniture up to the value of £5,000.

Julie Fromant, home lifestyle manager at Aviva UK, said: "We recognise the growing trend in home working and that for many, working from home requires additional investments that need to be protected.

"We felt it was right that this should be covered as standard, as part of the home contents policy, and hope this provides extra security for home workers in the UK."

The cover is available to all new and existing customers when they renew their home insurance policy.

Figures released by the Trades Union Congress in May of this year showed that 3.5 million people in the UK work from home.

Subsidence home insurance claims 'to rise'

Homeowners have been warned that subsidence may be more of a problem this summer than in the past few years.

Subsidence, the gradual sinking of an area of land, is expected to increase because of the hot summer forecast this year, Halifax Home Insurance explained.

Incidences of subsidence increase in dry, sunny weather, as vegetation in the garden grows more quickly and requires more moisture.

In the past four years, the problem has cost the insurance industry £823m, spread across 144,000 claims.

"Signs that a property might be suffering from subsidence include cracks in walls, particularly if they start from the corners of windows or doors which themselves may become difficult to open or close," advised Neil Curling, Halifax Home Insurance senior structural claims manager.

"The good news is there are... several measures homeowners can take if they are worried, which can go a long way towards avoiding a problem."

Tall trees located close to the property should be removed as they use up more water from the soil, while a drainage survey can help identify any potential problems, Halifax explained.

Excess Flood Insurance: Do we need it?

We live between two rivers, in a coastal area that annually is threatened with hurricanes. So having basic flood insurance is a no brainer. After all, if your house is flooded, your homeowner’s policy isn’t worth a lick. Your homeowner’s policy is terrific if there’s damage
Severe weather, including this water spout that developed in the Charleston harbor on Saturday (Daniel Island is in the backround), as well as thunderstorms, like the one that hit this palm tree on Daniel Island, are not uncommon for Daniel Island. Add to that the threat of hurricanes and one wonders, “Should we seriously consider purchasing excess flood insurance?”
from wind, or destruction by fire. But flooding? That’s where FEMA-backed flood insurance policies kick in, and that’s why mortgage companies require area residents to take out separate flood insurance policies.

But FEMA’s flood policies max out at $250,000 for structures and $100,000 for contents (legislative sidenote: bills are pending in Congress to raise those limits). So what happens if a flood takes out the entire house? Do we, as residents, need to seriously explore "excess" flood insurance?



Now I’m not into fear mongering, and I’d heartily recommend that you don’t run off and immediately purchase excess flood insurance. After all, what are the chances that:

1. They’ll be a flood that overtakes Daniel Island and surrounding areas; and

2. That the flooding will be the central cause of the damage; and

3. That the damage will exceed the FEMA limits?

After all, wind-induced damage (which IS covered in your basic homeowner’s policy) is often the chief culprit in major storms. But the topic bears study. So we began an exploration, first asking five insurance agents, plus the folks at FEMA, one simple question: what are the chances that flood damage will exceed FEMA’s $250,000 limit?

Surprisingly, no one has been able to deliver the definitive analysis (we promise to keep asking). It’s safe to assume that insurance companies which offer "excess flood" (among them, Lloyds of London, Lexington, Bankers Trust and PURE) are relying on some form of data. After all, how would they set their rates from year to year? So we’ll keep searching for the holy cost/benefit grail.

In the meantime, we thought it instructive to pose a second question: how many residents typically take out policies for excess flood insurance? You’ll be shocked by the answers.

Few Seek Bids, Even Fewer Take Policies


Rick Iriart, with State Farm, whose company doesn’t even offer excess flood insurance, said that of the roughly 1,500 homeowners policies that he’s written, only 1 percent (or about 15) even requested a quote for excess flood, and of that group, Iriart recalled, roughly three decided to take it. Two other agents – Hill Shaw of Atlantic Shield Insurance Group and Danny Haberman of Palmetto Insurance, agreed that Iriart’s anecdotal numbers matched their experience. Few homeowners request a bid on excess flood, and only a fraction of those take the policy. Why?

From all appearances, it’s strictly about money. Excess flood is expensive, and quite volatile, year to year. Shaw said that, recently, he bound an excess flood policy for $1,450,000. The price tag? $4,000/year (equivalent to $2.76/1000). Another report found an excess flood insurance policy for $190,000 at a cost of $380/year (or $2/1000). So rates vary, and the factors are too numerous to name, but include: the type of flood zone that the house is located in, type of structure, type of foundation, current elevation and age of construction.

What to do?

Certainly, it’s worth a call to your insurance agent, to at least price out "excess flood." In that way, you’ll know the options. And if you have an extra moment, it’s probably worth a second, or third, quote, to compare. (On a personal note, for our underlying homeowner’s policy, we were quoted two different rates by the same company; so rates do vary). And keep in mind that you can’t simply buy excess flood when a hurricane approaches – there’s a 30-day waiting period (naturally).

Atlantic Shield’s Shaw said that if your home is worth $650,000 or less, "you’re probably not an excess flood customer." And Allstate’s Iriart points out that he knows of no cases in the Charleston area, in recent years, where excess flood has kicked in. Said Iriart, "Obviously homes right on the water, where they potentially get completely washed off their pilings in a storm, would certainly need the excess, assuming $250,000 would not rebuild it."

He added, "I am sure there were numerous incidents . . . during Katrina, since a number of homes were washed away from the slab, and I’m sure some were more than $250,000 to rebuild – although a major issue down there was that many didn’t even have the basic flood coverage. There was one case that was relatively famous there, where Sen. Trent Lott’s home was damaged by flood, and only had the $250,000, but needed upwards of $1M."

So, it’s worth considering. And here are some questions to ask:

1. Contents loss – does your basic flood insurance policy cover contents? And if you do have contents coverage through FEMA, up to $100,000, will an excess flood policy cover additional content damage?

2. Loss of use/living expenses – which of your existing policies, if any, cover loss of use and living expenses? (in other words, if there’s damage to the house, and you have to move out for a period of time, does one of your policies pick up those costs?);

3. Garage – which of your existing policies, if any, cover flood damage to the garage?

4. Insurance carrier – is your insurance carrier "admitted or non-admitted"? ("Admitted" means that the State of South Carolina will guarantee the policy if your insurance carrier goes belly-up); and

5. Waiting period – what’s the waiting period for excess policy insurance?

Consumers urged to check home insurance cover

Consumers should check that their home insurance includes protection for lost or stolen personal belongings, one financial services provider has urged.

According to Cheshire Building Society, it is important for people to check the details of their home insurance cover before they go on holiday this summer.

Many Britons automatically assume that their items are protected when they take a policy out but this is not always the case.

The building society's home insurance product offers consumers the option of cover for personal belongings in the event of accidental loss or damage, at an extra cost.

Karen Torson, product manager at Cheshire Building Society, said: "While personal belongings cover away from the home is an additional cost to your home insurance policy, the upside is that you don't need baggage cover when taking out travel insurance, giving you that little bit extra to spend while you're away."

Previously, the insurer advised people to take out cover for items which are left outside overnight including garden tools and furniture.

Sunflower growers get insurance against low prices

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — The federal government is expanding an insurance program for sunflower farmers — two years after almost killing it — in a move that could help protect growers against fluctuating prices and low crop yields.

The protection could be especially important this year as sunflower seed prices continue to fall, and some farmers contemplate planting fewer flowers. The U.S. Department of Agriculture projects an 18 percent decrease in the number of sunflower acres planted nationwide.

A small sunflower crop could mean higher prices at the grocery store for cooking oil, snacks and other items made with sunflower seeds.

The program, which guarantees farmers a minimum price for their crop, could encourage some farmers to plant more sunflowers, said John Sandbakken, international marketing director for the Bismarck-based National Sunflower Association.

"Having something like that helps you sleep at night," Sandbakken said.

Sunflower seed prices, like those for other crops, have dropped during the recession. Farmers have lobbied for years to get protection from low prices as well as low yields. This year, the federal Risk Management Agency is expanding a program known as "revenue assurance" to most areas where sunflowers are grown in significant quantities.

U.S. farmers grew about 2.4 million acres of sunflowers worth just under $670 million last year, most in North Dakota, the nation's largest sunflower producer.

While traditional crop insurance protects farmers from production problems, revenue assurance policies also provide coverage for price drops, although profits still vary with production costs.

Revenue assurance allows farmers to lock in the springtime market price and pay extra on their premium to have the option of taking the harvest price if it's higher. If the harvest price is lower, they still get the spring price.

Mike Clemens, 52, who farms near Wimbledon in southeastern North Dakota, participated in the program last year, when sunflower prices in North Dakota dropped about 17 percent from the spring to fall. Since then, prices have dropped another 32 percent to $16 per hundred pounds.

"For our crop to be competitive, we need to have an RA formula that works," Clemens said. "I carry RA on my farm on all my crops. The important thing is you're protecting revenue — not only yield loss but also the price component."

The federal government offers revenue assurance for eight major crops, including corn and soybeans. Clemens testified before Congress in 2006 to persuade the government to keep and improve the sunflower program instead of eliminating it.

Because there is no sunflower oil futures market, the revenue assurance policies for sunflowers were based on the Chicago Board of Trade soybean futures market. But both the National Sunflower Association and the federal Risk Management Agency said that formula was not in line with what the sunflower crop was actually worth.

The agency was going to eliminate what it said was a dysfunctional program, but sunflower growers persuaded it to change the formula instead. That's when Clemens signed up.

Be prepared for next bushfire

Being ready is the key to coping with the threat of future bushfires, writes KEVIN BUTLER.

This article explores strategies to prepare for the next inferno. The strategies are ranked in priority order.

1 Reduce the fuel load. When I was as high as my Dad's knees, I remember sheep grazing out paddocks around the shearing shed and house, especially on the north side. I remember Dad creating fire breaks in the late spring by cutting the grass on the roadside and burning it once it had dried off a week later.
The lessons I learned when I was young led me to have 20ha of nil fuel load over three paddocks for my sheep to safely go to each summer over the past several years, in case of fire.
Creating these bare areas of impossible combustion status is a yearly insurance. You may prepare them each year for a whole lifetime, but a fire will incinerate you the year you don't.
Similarly, many farmers had large dams, which cattle simply walked into while the fire roared around them.

2 Install galvanised-pipe sprinkler systems around, and even inside, your home and sheds before the 2010 fire season.
Install a bore and a new dam to store two megalitres of water, to fight a fire for up to two days. It is wise to have up to four sources of water supply, with pumps: bore; dams; water tanks collecting from the roof, and mains water.
This is where my preparation could have been better - I should have had a saturation system for all garden beds and roofing installed beforehand. Properties which did this and were in the path of the fireball, or a lesser-intensity grass fire, survived.
When trying to save your home and sheds with a fire bearing down all around you, with all its embers as well, you will not have the time to be everywhere at once.
So automatic saturation, all around and over the buildings, is a splendid strategy.
All poly pipes and fittings from dams and bores should be buried a minimum of 300 mm underground or else they will simply melt from the heat, as many did on Black Saturday.
As I write, the tractor and grader blade are deep-burying the 50mm poly pipe from my bore and dam complex to the farmhouse and shearing shed.
Also, I should have taught my wife and daughters how to start the diesel-powered bore well before the fire season started, rather than teaching them on my mobile phone while I was fighting to save a neighbour's home.
Preparation is the key.

3 Move farm animals to safe places by 9am on a day of total fire ban.
This strategy proved to be an absolute winner, as on Black Saturday I had moved my 1200 ewes to safe ground an hour before the fire broke out.
The fire leapt up to 11km in one minute, meaning if you had not moved stock before the fire had started, and they were in the fire's path, you faced horrible losses.

4 Beware of falling into a false sense of security just because you have paid your insurance premium.
Your insurance will never recompense you for the loss and suffering resulting from a mega fire. Can you find insurance to adequately replace beautiful 150-year-old oaks? It is far better to insure well and have the contract checked by your legal advisor annually, and then lock it away in an off-the-property safe and pretend you have no insurance at all. This will cause you to be far more fire vigilant during summer.

5 Be outside your home watching for smoke signals between 10am and 8pm on a day of total fire ban.
The act of closing blinds, switching the air conditioner on and watching TV on a day of total fire ban proved to be a disastrous one for many people.
Furthermore, I am of the firm resolve that the Kilmore East fire started at 11.18am on that day - 29 minutes before the first call to 000 and 45 minutes before the first of the two Kilmore tankers arrived on the scene. Had a vigilant neighbour spotted the fire earlier, before it moved out of heavily grazed paddocks into the forest, there is a great possibility the tankers would have been there on time to stop the inferno developing.

6 Only grow trees around your home which will not explode into a wall of flame.
Cut down all gum trees and replace with oak trees or fire-resistant natives. These trees will not make the fire worse. A gum tree, cypress or pine is similar to the fire itself - a great friend in one season but a terrifying foe in another.

7 Switch your radio to the ABC emergency channel all day and have battery back-up.
Consistently monitor the CFA website - every minute. We all have a communal responsibility to not only take care of others, but not to be a burden on our welfare system as a result of not taking due vigilance on a day of total fire ban.

8 In heavily forested country, have the car well fuelled up and be prepared to leave your home at the first instance of fire.
In fact, if your only experience of a fire is of blowing candles out on your birthday, you are best to leave. You cannot prepare thoroughly enough beforehand, survive, or help others and property survive in a fire unless you have had several experiences beforehand that have frightened the life out of you.
The fact that I have fought several fires during my life, including one I accidentally started on a tractor, has been a great teacher to me.
Be of the mindset that in mega fires you are on your own and that the fire front will move far more quickly than the official updates that come to you.
It was painful and pitiful for me to watch the impotent CFA first response to the Kilmore East outbreak at noon on Black Saturday. It was even more painful watching and realising in the next 90 minutes that the communities of Wandong and beyond, which were in the path of the fire, had no warning from the media or from any authority until I phoned and spoke to 774 ABC radio at 1.35pm.
And finally, the Black Saturday fire-recovery program has been a bigger disaster than the fire itself. We could not stop the fire, but we could have started and completed the rebuilding well before the cold weather and wet months.
Nothing lifts bushfire survivors' spirits faster than a quick clean-up of the ruins, followed by overwhelming and prolonged community support until the job is done to their satisfaction.

After four months, many thousands of kilometres of fencing, gardens and hundreds of homes and buildings still lie in ruins. Furthermore, the names of thousands of people who have offered volunteer rebuilding work have been lost in government databases, with few practical conduits to tap into volunteers' time and energy.
History will judge the preparation before the Black Saturday fires and recovery after the fire as being largely uninformed, disorganised and reactive - from property owners to all levels of government and their authorities.
Since Ash Wednesday we have, indeed, reaped what we have sown.

State Farm sets up shop

FISHERS, Ind. (WISH) - Insurance companies are already handing out money for damaged caused by Tuesday's hail storm. State Farm Thursday set up mobile claims centers in the Home Depot Parking lot near 96th Street and I-69.

Nearly 50 cars got checked out then the car owners got their checks.

"We inspect them, we figure out how much damage is done and then we write them a check. Then they leave here and they can go to a body shop and get their car fixed," said State Farm Spokesperson Missy Lundberg. "We've seen everything from pings, where there's just little dents in the car, to I've seen whole back windows smashed out. So we're seeing a huge range of damages."

State Farm plans to be at the site for at least a week.

There are stations for both car and home damage.