With the arrival of warm, balmy weather, yard sales begin to pop up everywhere. While a yard sale may transform your spring cleaning chores into a profitable day of getting rid of unwanted items, it can also create a setting for a legal nightmare. For example, you’re legally liable if someone at the yard sale slips, trips, or falls and injures themselves. Such scenarios are exactly why you must know what your homeowner’s insurance covers before you take on the responsibility of inviting yard sale-goers onto your property.
Quite a bit of attention is being paid lately to floods and the devastation they leave behind. In the wake of Katrina, more and more questions have been raised about what kind of preventative measures would have lessened the catastrophic effects of such an event. How well equipped are individual homeowners to handle financial consequences on their own, as opposed to relying solely on agencies like FEMA to provide them with economic assistance? Are Americans taking advantage of the nation’s flood insurance program?
With the sudden presence of traffic violation cameras (red light, speeding, aggressive driving) in states across the country, many Americans feel that their privacy is violated. Others believe that this is a government ploy for fundraising, or to replace the local police department. Many people are curious as to the effect a red light camera violation will have on their insurance premium.
Imagine waking up on a frigid winter morning, throwing on your bathrobe and stumbling down the stairs to make a pot of coffee—only to find your kitchen is filled with water. Each winter, about a quarter of a million families find themselves in scenarios like this all because of water pipes that freeze and burst.
If you’re currently renting a house or apartment, you should strongly consider an investment in renter’s insurance. No one likes to think about the possibility of a fire or a burglary, but these are real possibilities.
As soon as they start learning to drive, whether they are starting with a learner’s permit or going straight to the license, you should inform your insurance company to have them added to your policy. This is usually much more cost-effective than placing them on their own policy, especially if you are a safe driver with a clean record. They will also be eligible for more coverage under your policy.
Here’s a sobering statistic you might not be aware of: nationwide, when a person is injured in a car accident, the odds are about one in seven that the driver that caused the crash is uninsured. According to a recent Insurance Research Council (IRC) study, the estimated percentage of uninsured drivers rose from 12.7% in 1999 to 14.6% in 2004. The IRC studied data provided by eleven insurance carriers, which represents approximately 58% of the private passenger auto insurance market in the United States.
Following a damaging fire, thunderstorm, hurricane, tornado, ice storm, or other disaster, one of your first concerns will be the structural damage your home has suffered and how to repair and restore it back to its original condition. In most cases, your homeowner’s insurance policy will pay for the labor and materials to repair your home and for you to temporarily live somewhere else while your home is uninhabitable.
Many working parents have had their various issues and complaints with daycare and childcare centers. As an alternative to these forms of childcare, more and more parents are choosing to hire their own nanny or share one with another parent. However, many parents aren’t fully aware of the many financial risks involved with bringing a nanny into their home.
According to Newsweek, one in four automobiles sold in the United States is a sports utility vehicle. Every SUV purchase nets an average of $15,000, according to Forbes magazine, in profit for the vehicle’s maker. Because of this high demand and lucrative sales potential, the makers of SUVs have been accused of ignoring safety when it comes to the design and production of their products. The biggest safety complaint about the SUV is its high rollover record.