Earthquakes, Dogs, and Squirrels – What Can Your Policy Handle?

In this episode of Insurance Hour, hosted by Karl Susman, the focus is on listener-submitted questions about various real-life insurance scenarios. Topics include homeowners insurance covering fence damage after storms, filing claims for auto damage from accidents like paint spills and potholes, and understanding how neighborly mishaps, like children breaking windows, are handled. Karl also discusses when earthquake insurance is essential, the nuances between collision and comprehensive auto coverage, and why small claims may affect premiums. The episode closes with Karl encouraging listeners to stay prepared with the right coverage and emphasizing the value of consulting insurance agents for tricky situations.

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Transcript

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Buckle up everyone you are strapped in and ready for the insurance hour with me your host Karl Susman informing educating and entertaining one policy at a time this is insurance hour. Hello hello this is insurance hour I am your host Karl Susman thank you so much for being here today we have a full show so we're going to get right to it after some quick housekeeping remember the phone lines are open 559-656 -0317 you may call or text that number or you may email your questions in to Questions@InsuranceHour.com remember if you miss any part of the show later jump online search for insurance hour you'll be able to find this show and all the others are going on over a year now of entertaining and educating informing all backwards from my intro and so let's jump right in today we are going to go over listener slash viewer slash you questions that have been sent in let's jump right in first one and I'm just going to read these emails as they appear so let me just get started. Hi there this is Dennis from Kansas all right and I had a wild storm pass through here last weekend the wind was so strong that it ripped open about 40 feet of my wooden fence clear off the posts now I'm stuck with a half destroyed fence and my dog keeps trying to escape I'm curious if my homeowners insurance would help cover the costs to repair or replace the fence or if I'm out of luck because it's just a fence and not part of the house itself did they even look at stuff like that let me know what you think great question so in different states have different types of homeowners policies when we say homeowners insurance it's more of a generic term because different states will have different exclusions different things that are included and when it comes to wind damage depending on where you are there may be coverage or may not be coverage you may have to purchase a separate wind policy depending again on where you are. This is something you should be able to find relatively easily by checking in your insurance policy, talking to your insurance agent or broker, all that other good stuff. Now as far as would there be coverage because it's not the house and it's not attached to the house, the answer is more unlikely, yes. There is part of standard homeowners insurance policies called other structure. Now I know the fence is hardly a structure but it does fall under that same category of other structure. So for example if they were a fire then you would be looking to collect on the other structure portion of your homeowners insurance policy for offense. So I suppose the best answer I can give you at this point is the the likelihood is high that you will have coverage for something like this but you need to check with your policy specifically, talk to your agent or broker and I'm sorry to hear about that. Storms, storms are crazy these days what we're seeing really, really they are. Next email. I was moving some paint cans for a project and classic me, I forgot to secure them. I slammed on the brakes and two cans toppled right over onto my back seat, spilling white paint all over my new leather seats. The car is less than a year old, so I'm pretty devastated. I have full coverage on my auto policy, but they do not even handle, or do they not even handle dumb accidents like this? Should I try and file a claim or is that just going to hurt my premiums for nothing? Wow, I like classic me. Very self -deprecating, always a nice thing. Now, automobile insurance policies do have different types of coverage. And if you're looking for damage to the inside of the vehicle, specifically while the vehicle is in motion, that will typically be under collision coverage. Now, if you're looking for damage to the vehicle while the vehicle is not in motion, that's typically going to fall under comprehensive coverage. Now, this is a unique situation all by itself because the vehicle was in motion, but there was no actual collision. I think what you're going to need to do is speak to your insurance agent because this type of a loss is, I would like to say a fine line between what might be and might not be covered. Now, because it's something that happened by itself, meaning another party wasn't involved, there wasn't another vehicle involved, there wasn't anything, there wasn't an accident per se. It was just something that happened to you. More than likely, if there is coverage afforded on the policy, it will impact your premium because, again, something did happen and it was your fault. Classic you, as you said. So, what I would suggest doing is talk to your agent or broker, find out if this is something that could be submitted as a claim. If not, obviously, you're going to have to take care of it. And if so, find out if it's going to be covered under your comprehensive or collision coverage. Now, the reason that's important is most states will not surcharge you or they will not increase premium if it's a comprehensive accident or a comprehensive claim in this situation. So, But you want to find out what your options are. You want to find out what is going to happen. But most important thing is find out first, is find out if there is coverage, if it's going to be under comp and collision, and then have your trusted advisor chitchat with you to see what it looks like from there. Also keep in mind there will be whatever deductible you have for comp or collision that is in place part of this claim. That's assuming there is coverage. And if it turns out to be a particular comp or collision claim and you're not carrying comp or collision, well, even if it would have been covered, then obviously you would not be able to file the claim and have any type of reimbursement come. Okay. Next one. Good afternoon. Quick question. I live next door to a rambunctious group of kids and last week one of them managed to break one of my front windows while they were out playing catch. They're good kids so I'm not looking to cause trouble but it's not exactly cheap to replace the window. I'm wondering if this is something I could bring up with my homeowner's insurance or is it just best to ask the parents to help cover the cost. How do something like this typically get handled? Okay, first good on you for not just freaking out. Kids will be kids and I actually remember when I was a kid, we were playing catch, a friend of mine across the street and I actually threw the ball and it was not such a great shot and it ended up hitting the lamp that was mounted above the garage door. I can still see it like it happened yesterday and at the time it was a big deal because that particular light had one of those automatic turn -ons at dusk so it was a little extra expensive for the time but to answer your question, the first thing I would suggest doing is talk to the neighbor or talk to the parents' family and say, hey look, this is what it costs, your kids did it, will you take care of this for me? And chances are they probably will. If they won't, then you have two options. One, you can go and file a claim against their insurance policy because likely their homeowners insurance policy will pay for damage that's caused by their kids, assuming the kids are minors and they are residents of the household where your neighbors live or where they live, then you would potentially be able to collect on the policy under those circumstances. None of this is going to go over well, obviously. The best thing to do would be to be able to have the neighbors or have the parents of the kids just step up, do what's right and take care of it. But again, you never know until you find out. But again, I appreciate the fact that you're trying to do the right thing and not cause trouble. It was obviously nothing intentional, I hope. You didn't allude to that in your email, so hopefully that's the case. And hopefully, like I said, the parents will step up and do the right thing. As an absolute last resort, you could potentially file the claim with your homeowners insurance carrier. But again, unless you're talking about significant dollars, I would not recommend that because it will be a claim that shows up on the record for your homeowners insurance policy and for your property in general. Time for a quick break. When we come back, more of your questions. You're learning from Insurance Hour with me, your host, Karl Susman. We will be right back. Let's talk about earthquakes for a minute. Look, we know we live in earthquake country here in California. Powerful, devastating earthquakes have happened here before, and science says that they will happen again. They can't tell us exactly when. They can just tell us that it is going to happen. Count on it. Prepare for it. Did you know that earthquakes are not covered by your homeowner's insurance policy? You need a separate policy to give you the peace of mind that you will be able to recover without getting financially wiped out the next time we get hit with a big one. There is a great company here in California that will provide you with earthquake coverage you need at a price you can afford. That company is Giovera. I have a policy through Giovera. I really like how easy it is to choose from all of their great coverage options backed by the financial strength that lets me know that they will be here for me when I need them the most. Go to GetQuake .com forward slash insurance hour to learn more. That's GetQuake .com -slash -insurance -hour. Make sure you're ready for the day when the ground shakes again. Hello, hello. You are learning from Insurance Hour, and I am your host, Karl Susman. Thank you so much for being here. Phone lines are open. Give us a call, 559 -656 -0317. You can call or text that number. Or, of course, you can send your questions in to Questions@InsuranceHour.com. Before I go back to the next set of questions, I just wanted to mention our sponsor is GEOVERA Insurance, and they are an earthquake insurance company, and I just want to make a quick statement here. They are a sponsor of the show, but I also want to let you know that I do personally have my earthquake insurance with GEOVERA. As you can imagine, I can probably get my earthquake insurance wherever I want, and the carriers would love it if I did. They like me to be able to say, hey, when I'm selling a policy, I even selected them myself. I select GEOVERA. I've had them for many, many years. I think they're a solid company with a lot of good coverage options available. So if you do want to get a quote free and simple, just go to getquake .com forward slash insurance hour, and you'll be able to get a quick quote. It literally takes about 15 seconds start to finish. We thank them for their support of Insurance Hour. Moving right along, let's get to the next question we have here. It is as follows. Hello, I am Jamie, and I'm at my wits end. Uh oh, this is going to be interesting. I was driving home from work and hit this massive pothole. It completely wrecked my car's suspension. I filed a complaint with the city, but they're saying it could take months for any response. My question is, would my auto insurance cover damage caused by a pothole, or am I just out of luck until the city does something? Great question. I actually had something that I had to deal with almost exactly like this. My daughter, after some of the large rainstorms that we were having a few years back, had this exact thing happen. She was driving, she got off the freeway, there was a pothole, and she backed. the car in it. Now, how does this work? The first thing you want to understand is when there's damage to your vehicle while the vehicle is moving, that's considered collision coverage, right? Now, I understand you might be thinking, well, I didn't collide with the pothole, but there's those, the two types of physical damage coverage on an auto policy are comprehensive and collision. Comprehensive, once again, damage to the vehicle if the vehicle's not moving. Collision is damage to the vehicle if it is moving. So, to answer your question, collision coverage should be the type of coverage you would have to be able to pick up and take care of this type of damage. Now, depending on the state that you're in, they may consider it comprehensive because it's not an actual object. It's rare, but I have seen that happen in the past. So, depending on the coverage you have, you should potentially be able to have coverage under either comprehensive or collision more than likely collision coverage. Now, what's going to happen is your insurance carrier, of course, is going to have to pay for that. And in the event that they do, they're going to want to get their money back from the city. Now, you mentioned should you just wait for the city to do something, you can and they may or may not decide to pay something at some point. My personal experience, this is just anecdotal because I'm one person with one situation that happened. The city doesn't care. They're going to say, thanks for letting us know. Moving right along. I don't know that you're necessarily going to be able to actually get money back from them for the damage. Again, in my situation, their issue was that, well, the storm just happened. What could we possibly have done? Not, excuse me, not an unreasonable way to respond, but yet frustrating. So my suggestion would be to reach out to your insurance agent or broker, see what coverage you have that would potentially kick in. I would suggest either collision more than likely, comprehensive, very possibly, but, you know, not more on the fringe. And the next question, which you didn't say, I'm sure you're going to ask, is this going to affect your rate? The answer is potentially yes. Now, we did an entire show about why having claims means your premium goes up. You can go back and listen to that. But in general, just understand that when the insurance carrier has some type of a claim, they're going to evaluate your driving. They're going to evaluate the exposure and what you're costing them. If you're costing them more money, then you are a higher risk and your potential premium will be reflected by that. All right, let's move on to the next one. Hi there. I'm Sarah. Hello, Sarah. I have quite the scare last week. We had heavy rain and apparently a drain in our front yard was clogged. So all the water overflowed and ended up flooding our basement. The basement's finished with carpet furniture and everything. I'm not sure if the insurance will cover water damage from a drain overflow or if they'll say that's somehow the responsibility to keep the drain clear. What should I do? This is a great question. And man, it can, it sounds simple, but it could be so complicated. So make sure you take this explanation with what I would say grain of salt, but it's a challenge. So here's the thing. If damaged by a pipe breaking happens, that's what water damage that's typically covered under a homeowner's policy. If there's water rising from the outside of the house coming in, that can sometimes be considered flood damage, which would be required for a flood insurance policy. A clogged drain outside that's filling up and backing up and overflowing into your basement, the question becomes, is that water now rising, meaning flood damage? Or is it simply water entering the house and that's water damage? Like I said, it's not clear enough from the information you've given me for me to be able to say, I think it is dot, dot, dot. But it's definitely something that you should look to file a claim for. This sounds like it was significant damage. I do not think you should be concerned that the insurance carrier is going to come to you and say, well, it's your responsibility to keep the drain from getting clogged. There's no way of knowing was the drain clogged before the rain, meaning you didn't maintain it, or was it clear as can be and the storm was bad enough that it simply caused that damage. So again, this is one of those times you want to reach out to your agent or broker, give them the situation, tell them what happened, and find out. Also find out what the type of deductible is you have for a claim like this. Some homeowners' policies have one deductible regardless of the type of claim. Other policies will have separate deductibles for separate types of losses. For example, some states will have a wildfire deductible. Some states will have a wind deductible. Some states will have a water deductible. Also, some policies will actually have limitations on the amount they'll pay out for water damage. So again, you want to find out what the specifics are before you file the claim. Find out what your deductible is, find out how much money you would potentially be able to recoup in the event that you file the claim, and then you can make an educated decision from there. The key is educated decision. And I appreciate the question. It's a good one and I wish I could give you more of a specific, but it is just challenging. You know, it reminds me I should probably make a quick statement. I like to do this every once in a while. You know, I've been doing this for a lot of years. I'm not a claims adjuster. I'm a licensed insurance broker. A lot of times I'm getting questions from people that are about, is this covered? Is this not covered? And while every claim is evaluated by the insurer based on their own individual merits, I do the best I can to give you the information you need to maybe ask the right questions and to try and set your expectations somewhere. But understand that this is not my profession, so I might get it wrong. If it turns out that you're getting information that doesn't sound right or doesn't pan out the way I have discussed it here, please reach out and let me know because if there's something that I can learn and pass on to everybody else, then better for everybody to have correct information. There's no ego here for me. I just want to get the best possible answer for you that I can. And if that means having some egg on my face and finding out that I had said something that did not pan out or I didn't have enough information to give the right answer, then by all means, I do want to do that. On that humble note, it's time for another quick break. When we come back, more of your emails. You are learning from Insurance Hour, and I am your humble host, Karl Susman. Be right back. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, in just a few moments, the window to the Magic Podcast show will begin. My name is Patrick. My name is Calvin. I'm Mouseketeer Greg. My name is Paul and I will be your guide through the wonderful world of Disney sound experiences. This show is a weekly trip into the world of the Disney theme parks and resorts, and this is the place where you get to use your ears to surround yourself with the magic. For your safety, please remain seated while listening to the WindowToTheMagic .com Podcast. Maybe there's a name for this, something like Disnotic Obsession. Please visit WindowToTheMagic .com for more information, or you can find us on Apple Podcasts and in the iHeartMedia app. Hello, hello. You are learning from Insurance Hour. I am your host, Karl Susman. Thank you so much for being here and welcome back. Phone lines are open, 559 -656 -0317. Call or text that number, or you can shoot us an email to Questions@InsuranceHour.com. We are taking your questions that are submitted. Remember, if you do send an email, let me know if it's all right to read on the air. If you leave a voicemail, make sure also you let me know. Can I play your recording on the air or just read the question? I want to honor your privacy however you want it. Next question from you. I just bought a new car and wouldn't you know it, my nephew accidentally scraped it with his skateboard when he was playing outside. There's a pretty big scratch down the passenger side door now and it's not cheap to fix. Is this something I can file a claim for or should I have to chalk it up till life happens? Do car insurance policies even look at minor stuff like scratches? Thanks for any advice. First, I can't help, but when I hear skateboards, it brings me back to my youth. I was not a skateboarder, not ultra coordinated and not very physical. So I remember all of my friends, they had their cool skateboards and they skateboarded around and I got a skateboard because I had to be a part of that crowd. And it never went well. I would fall off. I felt like I had to push two or three times and I would go two feet and have to push two. Never worked out for me. First, I have to say, I hope your nephew is okay and enjoying his skateboarding days for those who actually have the skillset to do it. I clearly never did, but I digress. So here's the situation. You can file a claim for the damage to your vehicle. There is no such thing as too minor or scratches. It's damage to your vehicle. Now having said that, if it's just scratches, it's likely going to fall underneath the deductible that you have for the vehicle. Now you have two types of coverage. We've talked about this actually quite a bit today, comprehensive and collision. I'm not going to go back into it, just go ahead and rewind or go back to the beginning of the show and I discussed it in quite some detail. But you don't have to chalk it up to life happens. You can potentially file a claim if you want. But again, the way you're describing it, I don't think you're necessarily going to see enough damage that would be above your deductible to make it worthwhile. Maybe talk to his parents, see if maybe they want to cough up a few bucks. But you might be able to find someone that can either buff it out or if it's just scratches, maybe you can get some touch -up paint from the dealership. I've seen that done with a lot of success at some point. And like you said, life happens. Let's get to the next one. Hello, my name is Alan. I was playing video games with my teenage son. Hey, good for you. And let's just say he got a little too into it. He threw his controller and now my TV screen has a giant crack in the middle. I didn't think homeowners insurance would cover accidents like this, but I'm hoping there's some way to salvage the situation. Okay, well first, you know, good on you for playing video games. I'm the generation that started video games, okay? Just saying. But we just had a joystick and it went in four directions with a push button on top. Now this generation has joysticks and buttons that I think there's 15 different options of buttons and switches and levers and knobs. My brain was never able to pick it up. So good on you for playing today's video games because man, I look like there's something wrong with me when I try and do it. So you use the term accidents like this. It would be difficult to claim that someone hurling their game controller at the TV was an accident. They may have said, oops, but that doesn't make it an accident. The short answer is this is not something that you're going to want to file a claim for. The likelihood of having coverage is very low. The likelihood of you having the damage be lower than the deductible anyway is extremely high. And this would be a claim that if the insurer did pick up, they would definitely... right based on this, that's your next renewal, right? They'd say, well, if he's got someone in the house throwing stuff and breaking stuff, who knows what else that person might do. It's not an unreasonable thing to be thinking. So I think maybe what you need to do is take a deep breath, deal with it, and chalk it up to one of those things, right? Maybe the kid needs a little bit of anger management, right? Again, sorry that that happened, but I'm going to say I do not think this would be something you want to necessarily take up with your insurance company. All right, next one. I'm reaching out with a crazy problem. My automatic garage door malfunctioned and somehow came down right on the hood of my car while I was pulling in. The car is still drivable, but the hood is dented and the paint is messed up. I'm not sure if I need to file a claim under my homeowners policy or my auto policy, or if either would even consider this happened since it's in my own garage. Could you shed some light? This is a great one. Who's this from? Tim, Tim, that's a great question. Now, Damage to your vehicle is damage to your vehicle. So we're going to be looking at your automobile insurance policy. Now, if your garage door fell on someone else's car, then we'd be looking at your homeowner's insurance policy, right? But in this situation, we would be looking at your auto policy. Now, what happened is damage to your vehicle while the vehicle was in motion, right? The car was moving and the garage door fell on it. Now, this is something you could file on your auto insurance policy, but this would be a chargeable incident. This would be something that is, for lack of better terminology right now, a chargeable at -fault incident. So before you do that, check your deductible, see if this is something that's worthwhile to file a claim on. It might be less expensive to take it to a body shop, have them kind of bang it out and buff it out and see if they can make it look in a way that's satisfactory to you. I have to tell you, I'm not personally a big car person. I was when I was... I don't even want to say I was when I was younger. Maybe even I was more than I am now, because now a car is just a car. But, you know, a little dent here or there, a little scratch here or there. We had another person that sent an email in about his skateboard. I think it was his nephew damaged his car with his skateboard. There's some scratches. I mean, keep in mind, insurance policies are there for large losses. They're there for catastrophic loss. They're not there, really, to pay for a few scratches here, a little dent there. They're there in case someone steals your car, in case you're involved, you know, hopefully never, in a massive accident where the vehicle sustains massive damage and potentially there's liability where someone gets hurt or even worse. And I think we sort of fall in this situation these days where we look to our insurance policies more as maintenance policies or OOPSI policies, where that's really not what they're designed or priced for, for that matter. So if something small happens, the first knee -jerk response should be, OK, if I'm walking around and talking about it, then it's not that horrible. And let me... Let me see what the cost is first. You don't want to necessarily always try and find a way to get coverage on your policy, especially for small claims, because again, if the insurer is going to pay something and it's your fault, meaning there's not a third party that's responsible for it, then that's something they could potentially rate you for when your policy renews. So you might be able to wiggle your way in to get coverage, but if all of a sudden your premium goes up because you did something that caused damage, then was it really worth it? So again, my two cents is I would not look to file this claim unless it's significant and you're comfortable with the potential of your premium going up. But thank goodness you didn't get hurt. Garage doors falling down can be very dangerous and you definitely want to find out why that happened and get it fixed because next time it could be you standing under the door and not the car hood, which would be just horrific. Time for another quick break. When we come back, more of your questions. Your Learning from Insurance Hour and me, your host, Karl Susman. Have you been dropped by your insurance agency or senior premium skyrocket? Susman Insurance is here to help. We're a family -owned and operated insurance agency that's been serving our community for two generations. At Susman Insurance, we know how stressful it can be to find the right coverage, especially when prices go up or you're left without insurance. That's why we're committed to finding you competitive rates, whether it's for fire, home, earthquake, flood, auto insurance, you name it. We've got you covered. Give us a call or send a text to 310 -820 -5200 or visit us online at Susmaninsurance .com. Plus, stay updated on all things insurance by joining our text group. Just text 567-FOR-KARL-with -a -K. That's 567 -367 -5275 to get the latest updates straight to your phone. Susman Insurance, your family's insurance solution. Hello, hello. You are learning from Insurance Hour. With me, your host, Karl Susman. Thank you so much for being here. The phone lines are open, waiting for your insurance -related calls. Give us a buzz, 559 -656 -0317. You can also email your questions in to Questions@InsuranceHour.com. All right, remember, we want those questions. This entire show so far has been your questions. We need them. We want them. Remember, in the event you have a question, chances are you're not alone. I forgot which insurance company had these commercials running for a while that said they would show some bizarre claim incident and they would say, we've seen this before. We've been doing this for a while. Which insurance company was it? I like insurance company commercials, as you can imagine. Yes, that's the insurance nerd in me. At any rate, let's get back to your questions. All right, next question. Is there a person? Karl Susman. Sherman says, I had a quick question about insurance and power surges. This is a good one. After a big storm, we had a power surge that blew out a bunch of things in my house, including my pool pump. Those things are not cheap to replace and I'm wondering if my homeowner's insurance might cover it or if they'll just chalk it up to an act of God kind of thing. Any advice? I love the act of God thing. Arguably, everything that happens we could say is an act of God, right? But I understand what you're saying. Now, power surges are interesting and the proximate cause, it's called, has a lot to do with whether there's going to be coverage for it or not. So your policy is specifically going to have to determine that. You're going to have to check with your agent or broker to find out. In general, when we see power surges, the type of claim that we see has to do with food spoilage, right? So there's a power surge and it knocks out the power or it knocks out one of the appliances like your refrigerator and all of the food spoils. So we see that happening and there is typically coverage for that sort of thing. This is specifically damaged for your pool pump. Now, it's possible you might have coverage for this under your other structure coverage. Now, I know pool, other structure, equipment for the pool, doesn't make sense. Let me give you just a little two cents on this. Anything that's not attached to the house can be covered under other structure in most cases. Now, that could be a detached structure like a garage, a fence, actually as we had discussed earlier today, or in this case a pool. For example, if you wanted to get coverage for your pool, you would have to increase your other structure coverage to be sure you have enough coverage. Now, pool slash pool equipment will tend to be the same thing. So, if you have other structure coverage and you have the pool covered, then it's extremely possible you would be able to get coverage under your homeowners policy for this. Now, what's also important about this, and this is going to be a welcome comment to make after the last bunch of emails, when there's a storm and something happens that is beyond your control, that is typically considered what's called a cat loss, which is short for catastrophe or catastrophic loss, right? If there's a hurricane, if there's an earthquake, if there's a major wildfire, if things like this happen that are outside of your control, then insurance companies will mark that as a cat loss. And what that means to us as consumers is that's typically not something they're going to underwrite us on later. Now, what does that mean? That means they're not going to look at us with that claim and say, oh, they had a claim. We had to pay out money and underwrite based on that. They're going to look at that and say, it was a cat loss. It happens. Maybe you could consider that it was an act of God, not their fault. However you want to look at it. So, it's a good idea to find out when you're going to talk to your agent or broker about this type of a claim. Is this going to be a catastrophe event? Is this a cat loss? Now, all agents and brokers will know that jargon. So, you might ask them straight out, say, hey, was this last dorm considered a cat loss? And first, they'll be so impressed with your knowledge of insurance. They'll say, how did you know that phrase? then you can say, well, I pay attention to insurance hour. Maybe you should do. Just kidding. But at any rate, you do wanna talk to the agent or broker, find out if it's a cat loss because that might help you decide whether it makes sense to file the claim or not. Remember, there are deductibles for this type of thing, just like any other physical loss to your home. I think that's about all I have on that. Sorry to hear about that. Next one, I accidentally started a small fire in my kitchen after I left my toaster oven on and walked away for too long. The fire department came out and put it out, but the cabinets and part of the countertop are pretty burned up. I don't wanna be embarrassed filing a claim if they're going to reject it or this because it's my own fault. Do insurance policies usually cover accidental kitchen fires like this, or am I going to have to pay for their repairs myself? Okay, here's the situation. The short answer is kitchen fires are covered, okay? Now you said accident kitchen fire. Well, I would certainly hope that there's no intentional, fire caused in the kitchen. Intentional damage of any type is categorically excluded from insurance policies. You can't create a loss and then collect on it. It's a big no -no. It's actually considered fraud, so no -no. So you're saying this happened accidentally and there's damage to your kitchen because of the fire. The answer is yes. You would have coverage on that under your homeowner's insurance policy. I'm going to say that whereas I normally say almost always or pretty sure of that because this is a very common type of loss. Now, assuming you have fire coverage on your home and there's no particular exclusion for acts that you do personally, which I have only seen once before, this could be something you could file a claim on. Now, with a big asterisk on this, I want to say keep in mind, yes, it was an accident, but this is definitely something if you file the claim the insurance company is going to look at when it comes time for your policy to renew. If they're insuring you and they're insuring your next door neighbor and they're charging the same price and now the policies are coming up for renewal, you set your kitchen on fire accidentally and your neighbor did not, who do you think deserves to have a cheaper premium? Well, you might not like it, but the likelihood is your neighbor would because they haven't had that incident happen, right? They didn't accidentally leave the toaster on and create a fire. So find out how much damage you're looking at, check your deductible, and then make an informed decision. Also talk to your trusted advisor, your agent or broker, tell them what you told me and say, look, what do you think about this? Is this something that's going to affect my premium? And if it is potentially, how much? And decide, depending on where you are, if the insurance market is fairly wide open, you might not be looking at having a significant premium increase. It might certainly make sense for you to file the claim. It sounds like a lot of damage occurred. However, if you're in a state where insurance is difficult to come by, then you might really think twice or three times or even four times before filing the claim, because in the event you do have a premium increase. or even worse, a non -renewal for setting your kitchen on fire, I expose. It might be extremely difficult for you to get replacement coverage. And nobody wants to be in that situation where they don't have a policy or being non -renewed. There is no other alternative. So again, your agent or broker is a great person to talk to about this to find out what the ramifications are and what the possibilities are in the event you do file and there's a problem with the insurance policy premium later or being non -renewed later. Be careful with the toaster. Be careful with the toaster. You know, it's funny because I have gas stove at home and the, of course, electric toaster. And I've never thought about the toaster creating a fire because I feel like you push the button, it does its thing and it turns off. But I suppose if you turn on the actual broiler part, the actual oven in the toaster, it stays on as long as it's on. That's not just a matter of the gas stove and the open flame. On that note, Time for another quick break. You're learning from Insurance Hour. With me, your host, Karl Susman, we will be back in 60 seconds. Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, in just a few moments, the window to the magic podcast show will begin. My name is Patrick. My name is Calvin. I'm Mouseketeer Greg. My name is Paul, and I will be your guide through the wonderful world of Disney sound experiences. This show is a weekly trip into the world of the Disney theme parks and resorts. And this is the place where you get to use your ears to surround yourself with the magic. For your safety, please remain seated while listening to the window to the magic .com podcast. Maybe there's a name for this, something like Disnotic Obsession. Surround yourself with a magic. Please visit window to the magic .com for more information, or you can find us on Apple podcasts and in the iHeartMedia app. Hello, hello. You are learning from Insurance Hour. I am your host, Karl Susman. Thank you so much for being here today. Phone lines are still open 559 -656 -0317. Call or text that number with your insurance related questions or send us an email, Questions@InsuranceHour.com. Now, I want to let you know that there's been a lot of Q &A on this show. So if you've missed any of it and you're just tuning in, jump online, search for Insurance Hour and find this show and listen to the entire part, the entire show, because a lot of really good info in here. You'll find us on Apple podcasts, on Alexa, iHeartMedia. We actually have a video on YouTube as well if you're curious what I look like. Spoiler alert, nothing special. But make sure you go ahead and get... the show and in its entirety. These are great programs when they're Q &A like this to download and have on hand for when you're going on long drives or a flight and you're looking to just sort of kill some time and get some good information along the way. So feel free. Find us anywhere. Just search for insurance hour. All right. Back to your questions. A huge tree fell across my driveway during the last windstorm and now I can't get my car out. I didn't hit the house thankfully, or I'm sorry, it didn't hit the house thankfully, but it's still a huge hassle. I'm wondering if my insurance will cover the cost of removing the tree even though it didn't actually damage anything on the property or is it only covered if there's direct damage? Wow, that is a great question. A lot of storm related questions. It might be because we're having some climate change issues happening. You know, we're seeing this countrywide. We're seeing more storms. We're seeing more severe storms and our premiums are reflecting it. Let's face it. We are seeing premiums increasing on property insurance. across the board. This is not something new. It's frustrating and it's scary really. Some states are having an even harder time keeping up with this and what do we do? What do you do when it costs a thousand dollars for something and then the next year it costs fifteen hundred, the next year it costs two thousand. Well the insurance carriers have to keep up with those increased costs and of course they're going to have to pass that down in the only way they can in premium. So it's always a good thing to check around if you have the ability to shop an insurance policy then do so. Some states it's easier than others to try and get different options and to pick and choose between different insurance carriers. Some states have such a shortage of property insurance policies you literally are lucky to get a policy. Really it's that bad. But to your question, now if a tree falls down, this is like if a tree falls down and nobody hears it, did it make any noise right? No. If the tree falls down and does not cause damage you certainly can still file a claim to have your insurance company come and assist you in removing it and be glad that it didn't create any damage. Now having said that I don't know necessarily that that's going to be what you want to do because again this is something that the insurance company could definitely look at when your policy is going to renew because you've had physical damage happen right? Now you may not have damage to your vehicle but a tree like that falls down. I'm sure there's damage to the concrete or something. Either way if they're going to have to spend money to have somebody come out there with a crane or with a bunch of electric saws and cut it apart and remove it that's going to cost a lot of money. And in that event that is something that the insurance carrier can look at with one caveat. I mentioned earlier something called a cat loss. If you're not familiar with that term real wind it's something I went over earlier today or go get the show and listen to it from the beginning. If it's considered a cat loss this storm then you're not going to have to be concerned about your rate being impacted by filing the claim. I can't say that I can personally. personally opine on what it would cost to remove a fallen tree, I suppose it has a lot to do with the size of the tree, where your home is located, how difficult is it to get a crane out there if they need it, and all those sorts of things. So talk to your agent or broker, get their two cents, and find out, first thing, is this a cat loss? Because that's going to have an impact on whether you decide to file the claim or not. All right, next question, I rented a car for the week and wouldn't you know it, a tree branch fell on it while it was parked overnight, left a big dent on the hood and the roof. I did not buy the rental insurance company insurance because I figured my own policy would be enough. Should I go through my own insurance for this or should I contact the rental company first? Am I in for a fight since I didn't buy their coverage? Rental car coverage is one of those things. They sure do try and sell it to you, right? I mean, they really, really want to sell you that coverage. Now, you will have coverage that you have, the same coverage you have on your insurance policy for your auto insurance. should typically extend to a rental car, right? That means that if you have comprehensive, collision, liability, uninsured motorist, medical, whatever it might be on your insurance policy, then most of those policies will extend the coverage to a rental car that you have. So you should be able to file those claims with your insurance company, your direct insurance company. I would not get all been out of shape with the rental car company. They just want to get the thing fixed and they want to move on. Now, depending on the level of damage that when you come back and show them, they might just say, it's fine. I've heard stories of that. I've had customers call in the past and say, you know, they went over a pothole and they think there's damage under the car. What should they do? And I say, well, go back to the rental car place and talk to them. And they went back and they said, now there's some scratches underneath. It's fine. And just moving right along. Now this you're saying damage the roof and the hood. So it's probably not going to be as simple as that in your situation. So I would not worry about dealing with the rental car company that you're not going to have the same person there that you rented it from. If you're concerned about the, I told you so. You should have bought our insurance, whatever. Like I said, more than likely your personal insurance policy is going to extend to that rental car. And assuming you have the right coverages on your personal auto, then you should be able to have those extended to your rental car as well. Sorry about that. That really stinks. Next question. I had a strange accident at home last week. A heavy rain. I'm sorry. My eyes fail me. A heavy light fixture in the dining room fell from the ceiling and smashed into my glass dining room table. The light fixture itself is ruined and my table is scratched and shipped. I didn't think something like this could even happen. And so I'm not sure what to do. Would homeowners insurance cover something happening like that? Wow. That's wild. Now, I didn't hear in here at any particular point that there was a reason that this... happen other than maybe you just didn't screw the fixture in properly or who the heck knows what happened. This is not something that we'd normally see covered under a homeowners insurance policy. Homeless insurance has to have some type of a trigger, right, one of the covered perils, water damage, fire, theft, things like that. Having a chandelier randomly fall, probably not something that's going to be covered. Now if there's a reason that it happened that's covered, maybe there was an earthquake and you have an earthquake insurance policy, something like that, then possibly. But just from what I'm hearing, it does not sound like this is going to be the type of thing that you would be able to have coverage for. Sidenote, some policies, if you have extensive coverage for your personal property, will cover things like this, but it's rare to see policies written like that anymore. They're pretty expensive, but you can check with your agent or broker just to be sure and find out. But again, be careful on this one. There will be a deductible no matter what. and you want to find out if it's something that if you file, there could be a potential increase in premium later. Time for our final break. Insurance Hour and your host, Karl Susman, here, 60 seconds, and we will be right back. Thanks. Thanks. Are you feeling lost in the search for the right insurance? Making call after call, only to find no one willing to go that extra mile for you? At Susman Insurance Agency, we understand that frustration, and we're here to change your experience. Where others see obstacles, we see opportunities. While many might shy away from jumping through hoops, at Susman Insurance Agency, we are prepared to leap. Looking under every rock, exploring every avenue, that's not just what we do, it's who we are. Our dedicated team doesn't just offer policies, we provide solutions, solutions born from persistence, expertise, and a genuine commitment to finding you the best coverage possible. We don't just meet expectations, we surpass them. If you're tired of hearing no or it's not possible, it's time to turn to a team that believes in yes and let's make it happen. Don't settle for less. Reach out to Susman Insurance Agency at 877 -411 -5200. Visit us online at Susmaninsurance .com or email sales at Susmaninsurance .com. Let's uncover the insurance solutions you deserve. Susman Insurance Agency, going the extra mile every time. Hello, hello. Hello, you are learning from Insurance Hour. I am your host, Karl Susman. Thank you so much for being here as we have our final segment. Phone lines are still open, 559 -656 -0317. Call or text that number or send us your question to Questions@InsuranceHour.com. I have to tell you quickly, during the break, I received an email, someone, I guess, watching the show saying that they understand my feelings about skateboarders. So if you don't know what I'm talking about, go back and listen to the beginning of the show. There was a question about a skateboarder and I gave a little personal anecdote in there. So anyway. Either way, you should go back and get the whole the entire show if you missed any of it because we have been going through question And answer question and answer question to answer lots of stuff here, and we will continue doing so. Let's get to the next one. I recently bought my dog over to a friend's house for a visit and he ended up scratching up their hardwood floor and worse Had an accident on their brand new carpet I feel terrible and I want to offer to cover the damages But i'm wondering if my homeowner's policy will even look at something like this Is there any chance that covered damage my dog did to someone else's house or is that a long shot? Poor puppy. Of course, I feel bad for the dog. I am a devote dog person just so you know I'm i'm the one when you're walking down the street with your dog has to look down and say oh puppy puppy puppy Yes, that's me. I I will own it. So here's how it works Now your dog damaging someone else's property is the same thing as if say your child damaged someone else's property And most homeowners insurance policies will provide coverage for that now Again, I don't know what we're looking at cost -wise, but it's something that you would want to investigate before you decide whether you're going to file a claim. I'm starting to feel like I've said that at least four or five times today. These are tough claim situations. They really are. The short answer is yes, you should be able to have coverage for something like this. The long answer is find out what the cost looks like and see if it's something that you want to actually pay out of pocket or file the claim for. It really just depends on your personal risk tolerance, how much you're willing to write a check for, in essence, and what your deductible might be on your policy. Good time to talk to your agent or broker. Next one. I have a bit of a wildfire problem. Yeah, don't we all? A squirrel managed to get into my attic and started tearing up insulation and managed to get through to the wiring for its nest. I didn't realize it until I started noticing flickering lights and strange noises. I feel like this is a bit of a gray area, so do you know if homeowners insurance is the right and might cover animal damage like this? Okay, I have to stop. I want to laugh because the way you wrote this is very funny because I'm thinking about a poltergeist versus a squirrel in the attic. Strange noises and flickering lights, I don't know. The first thing I would think of is there's some animal chewing on the electrical wires in my attic. I'm not quite sure why you prefaced it by saying that this was a wildfire problem. There could be a fire from it, for sure. But let me answer your question. Now, if you've got damage inside of your home from a little critter, that is something to potentially file on your homeowners insurance policy. Now, be careful because depending on what happened, was there something specific? Insurance policies look for something that's sudden and accidental. Now, if you've got rodents up there and they've been living there for a while and chewing on this, chewing on that, reproducing and doing all sorts of things, it might be difficult to state that that was sudden and accidental. It might be. something that happened over a longer period of time, in which case you probably would not be looking to have coverage come into play. My main concern listening to this story is fire. If they're chewing on the wires enough to make your lights flicker on and off, you want to get that taken care of right away. Like do not pass go, do not collect $100 or $200. You need to just get this handled right away. Of course, I'm also wondering if they're chewing on it and the lights are flickering. You might have some fried rodent up there by now because if they're getting into it enough to affect the actual conductivity of the wires, probably fraud them too. But again, my main concern would be fire up there because if you've got sparks from animals chewing on the wires, you definitely want to take care of that right away. All right, next one. The winter has been rough on my roof and gutters and now have ice dams and leaking from the snow buildup. I try to stay on top of things, but this year has been extreme. Would something like roof damage from snow and ice be covered under my homeowners policy? Or is it my responsibility because it's weather -related? Okay, this could be state -specific. Some states, I should say, have policies that are specific for damage such as this, some don't. To answer your second question, weather -related incidents are not necessarily your responsibility. Obviously, you wanna do everything you can to be prepared and maintain your property so that in the event there is a weather-related incident, you have as much protection as you can. But simply because it's weather -related, that does not mean you do not have coverage. If any time there was a weather event that caused damage, the insurance carriers did not cover it, they would basically not be paying for a lot of damage, because that is one of the highest percentage claims that are out there are damage caused by weather events. We actually talked about that in some detail during today's show. Because of climate change and because of the different weather events and patterns we're seeing, we are seeing significantly more events and more powerful events and more expensive events. So it is not going to be not your responsibility because it was caused by that. Now, I'm trying to understand specifically what it is that happened. You're saying ice dams and leaking. And I will admit to ignorance, I'm not sure what that means by ice dams and leaking. Is it water that's leaking in the house? Is it just pools of water that's dripping outside? I'm not quite sure where the damage is or is coming from. And that's probably just because I'm a West Coast kid and ice and snow -related claims are sort of nut by forte to not grow up with them. So I apologize, I can't give you better information on that other than to know that simply because something happened due to weather, that does not mean that boom, you won't have coverage for it. So hopefully that will help. This is the type of thing that you would want to talk to your insurance agent or broker. about and find out and also find out if there's something you could do in the future to prevent it. Remember the best type of claim is not to have one so if you can do things to make your home less likely to have damage and therefore have a claim that's better for you, better for the insurance company, better for your premium, better for your wallet, better for everything. So hopefully you don't have too extensive damage going on and and you can move on from there. And with that I am going to move on as will you as we are out of time. Thank you so much for being here. Once again you've been learning from Insurance Hour with me, your host, Karl Susman. See you next time. I do want to thank all of you for taking the time to listen today. I know insurance is not necessarily the most sexy concept. It's not the most exciting thing in the world. It is important that you understand what it is you're getting, what you should be looking for, red flags, you name it. You just need to know more than you're used to. Things are more complicated than they used to be. If you have any questions, please reach out to me directly. You can email your questions to Questions@InsuranceHour.com or call and leave a voicemail at 559 -656 -0317. Educating and entertaining Californians one insurance policy at a time. This is Insurance Hour. The show is dedicated to Shamrock Papa.