What Does Homeowners Insurance Cover?
Homeowners insurance is one of the most common insurance types. It helps homeowners offset costs relating to a wide variety of damages and liabilities involving their household and property. These coverages are typically limited to repairs to your home and freestanding structures, repair or replacement of personal belongings, temporary relocation costs, and liabilities associated with injury or damage you cause to another person.
Homeowner's insurance isn’t legally required by the government in most cases, but if you have a home mortgage of any kind, your bank or lender will likely insist that you have appropriate insurance protections in place. But even if you don’t have a mortgage lender you need to be held accountable to, getting a homeowners policy is still a good idea.
To better understand the many benefits associated with homeowners insurance, let’s take a look at some of the top coverage options this policy type provides. Then, we’ll examine a few areas of coverage that homeowners policies may not be able to protect you.
What Homeowners Insurance Covers
Homeowners insurance, as you may have realized, comes with many key benefits that can seriously benefit you if you face damages or liabilities relating to your policy’s covered protections. Let’s look at just a few of the coverage options most homeowner's policies come with.
Home Structure
If your home’s structure is damaged, most homeowners' policies will cover any damages that are not specifically excluded. This means that if your walls, floors, windows, roof, or attached structures like porches are harmed in a covered incident, you will be granted enough money to repair the damage up to and including the complete rebuilding of your home.
Other Structures
Unattached structures like garages, sheds, fences and playhouses are covered under this policy type as well. Typically, the amount permitted is up to 10% of the total cost of your dwelling.
Personal Belongings
If your personal property and belongings are damaged or stolen, a homeowners policy can reimburse you anywhere from 50 to 70% of the cost of your home’s coverage. These belongings can include furniture, clothing, electronics, appliances, and much more.
Loss of Use
Otherwise known as “Additional Living Expenses,” loss of use coverage works to offset the costs of hotel stays, restaurants, transportation, and more if you are forced to relocate after a disaster makes your home uninhabitable.
Liability Protection
Your homeowner's policy can extend to protect you against more than just damage to your property. In fact, it can also act as liability coverage if someone sues you for harming them or their personal property. Additionally, this coverage isn’t limited to the homeowner. Anyone who lives in the home–including pets–may also be covered. This means that if your pet bites a neighbor, you may have protections included to help with any lawsuit-related costs.
Medical Payments
Similarly to liability coverage, medical payments coverage can provide you with financial protection if you cause an injury to someone else–even if it’s outside of your home. This can come in handy if you face a lawsuit relating to the injury, but no lawsuit is required before payouts can be made.
What Homeowners Doesn’t Cover
No matter how thorough your homeowner's insurance policy is, there will always be liabilities or damages that it simply cannot cover. There are supplemental plans you can purchase to make up for that extra protection, but it’s important to be aware of what coverages you may be missing before you begin looking for additional coverage. Here are just a few of the main damages and liabilities that are not covered in a typical homeowners policy:
Flooding
If you live anywhere near Ocean City or Toms River, there is a higher-than-average risk that you will experience flooding. Still, despite this, the average homeowner's policy will not provide you with any flood coverage. The same is true for any water damage caused by drains or sewer backups in your area.
Essentially, this means that if your home is damaged by water, you may have to bear the brunt of any costs entirely on your own if you don’t have a supplemental flood insurance policy.
Earthquakes, Landslides, and Sinkholes
Earthquakes, landslides, sinkholes, mudflows, mudslides, and any number of similar natural disasters are not covered under a homeowners policy. These disasters, known in insurance as “earth movements,” require separate supplemental policy types that are available through the majority of homeowners insurance carriers.
Infestations
If you’re facing an infestation of almost any kind–birds, vermin, fungus, mold, or whatever else–-keep in mind that the average homeowner's insurance will not help you tackle the problem in any way.
Wear, Tear, and Intentional Damage
Over time, most properties decay in one way or another. This decay is not covered under your homeowner's policy, though supplemental policy types are available. Additionally, any damage to your home that occurs as a result of neglect or intentionally inflicted harm will not be covered.
Do You Need Homeowners Insurance?
Homeowner's insurance can be an invaluable resource. It provides homeowners with many fundamental damage and liability protections in a convenient bundle that may be difficult to obtain otherwise.
If you’re interested in investing in a homeowner’s insurance policy, contact our helpful agents today!
New Jersey Workers’ Compensation Explained
Worker’s compensation provides a useful safety net for business owners. It provides benefits to employees for work-related accidents, injuries or illnesses. The product may also be referred to as workers’ comp or workman’s comp.
In the State of New Jersey, workers’ compensation dates back to 1911 and is a mandatory requirement for all employers. As such, you need workers’ comp to remain legally compliant.
In this article, we’ll discuss some of employers' most commonly asked questions.
What Type Of Injury Is Covered Through NJ Workers’ Compensation Policies?
Workers’ compensation in New Jersey will provide financial support if an injury or accident happens on the job. For example, if an employee gets hurt and visits the emergency room because a piece of metal falls on them while working in a warehouse. This would be covered by your workers' compensation policy.
It can also provide financial support for those who suffer from an illness due to the work environment. For instance, it’s widely known that asbestos is linked with the development of mesothelioma.
Furthermore, workers’ compensation for New Jersey employees may also provide financial support for those suffering from Repetitive Stress Injury (RSI). RSI is quickly becoming the most common type of injury sustained by workers across America. Repetitive stress injuries are caused by repeating the same action multiple times. For instance, typing for long periods can lead to pain in the wrists.
How Does Workers’ Compensation Support The Employee In New Jersey?
NJ workers’ compensation can benefit employees in numerous ways. For instance, it can be used to provide medical treatment and ensure that an injured worker improves over time. Under New Jersey law, the insurer or employer can select the right healthcare provider to provide treatment for an injured team member.
Workers’ comp can also be used to support lost wages or the cost of ongoing medical care if an individual cannot return to work for an extended period. This can include surgery and physical therapy depending on the requirements of the individual.
Benefits depend on the injury/illness. Below are the workers’ compensation disability classifications:
- Temporary Total Disability - a worker’s ability to earn is totally lost, but only temporarily.
- Temporary Partial Disability - a worker’s ability to earn is partially lost, but only temporarily.
- Permanent Total Disability - a worker’s ability to earn is permanently and totally lost with no chance of returning to work.
- Permanent Partial Disability - a worker’s ability to earn has been partially lost. The benefits are temporary and depend on the injury or illness and the body part.
Do You Require Workers’ Compensation In New Jersey?
As stated before, if you are running a business in the State of New Jersey workers’ comp is a legal requirement. It is a mandate that every employer operating a business carries this type of insurance.
This is true regardless of the type of business you are running. You will still need to arrange workers’ comp for anyone operating within your business, including part-time, full-time or seasonal.
If you fail to provide this level of coverage, then you could be required to pay a fine or face criminal charges. Penalties differ depending on the decisions made by the court.
Are There Any Exceptions That You Should Be Aware Of As A Business Owner?
There are exceptions to New Jersey workers’ compensation laws. This includes:
- Unpaid volunteers
- Unpaid interns
- Independent contractors*
- Sole proprietors
*If you have contractors/1099 employees you are still responsible for paying for workers’ comp coverage for them unless they have their own policy.
If you have workers who are not paid or have no workers, you likely do not require workers’ compensation. However, it’s still best to check with a legal or insurance advisor to guarantee you are in compliance.
How Are Premiums Calculated?
To understand the worker’s compensation premiums, you need to understand how they are calculated. Insurance companies explore a range of factors when deciding the workers’ compensation rates. The best way to work this out is to follow the formula:
Employee Classification Rate X Employer Payroll (Per $100) X Experience Mod Rate (Mod) = Your Workers' Comp Premium
Employee Classification Rates depend on your industry, which you can find at NJCRIB.
Experience Modification Rating is a calculation used by insurance companies to price the cost of your workers' compensation premiums. It’s calculated using claim history and injury costs to predict future costs.
What Is The Minimum And Maximum Payroll For Workers’ Compensation?
The State of New Jersey has a minimum and maximum payroll for workers’ compensation coverage. The minimum is $34,320 per year and the maximum is $137,280 per year.
Where Can You Arrange New Jersey Workers’ Compensation?
To get workers’ comp insurance, you can contact individual insurance companies or work with one of our insurance advisors to get a quote. We work with dozens of carriers and have decades of experience working with businesses in NJ. With our experience, we can save you time and money when shopping for a workers’ comp policy.
Staying Healthy In Every Season
When the seasons change and temperatures shift, you may be more likely to encounter certain viruses, including the flu and the common cold. And if you have seasonal allergies, pollen and mold from plants can aggravate your immune system.
The good news is there are steps you can take to stay well, so you can welcome the new season instead of sniffling through it.
TAKE TIME FOR YOURSELF.
The start of a new season can bring about schedule changes that might leave you overwhelmed — and more susceptible to sickness. Shuffling kids to spring sports practice or attending lots of seasonal events can leave you with less time to relax, exercise or eat right. The added stress can also slash your body’s production of infection-fighting white blood cells, putting you at greater risk for catching something.
That’s why it’s worth finding ways to unwind every day, like meditating or reading quietly before bed. Even a few minutes can make you feel more relaxed.
ADD MORE MOVEMENT TO YOUR DAY.
Being active helps flush illness-causing bacteria out of the airways and strengthens infection-fighting white blood cells. Plus, it can help keep stress in check.
The American Heart Association recommends 150 minutes of moderate exercise or 75 minutes of brisk exercise per week, along with resistance training twice a week. It can be difficult to fit regular exercise into an already busy day, so look for ways to be active in shorter bursts — plan a power walk after lunch, or have an impromptu dance party with your kids after dinner.
Also, if you usually work out outdoors, think about hitting the gym or taking indoor classes during seasonal shifts. Higher pollen levels or mold from leaves on the ground can trigger an allergic response and cause congestion.
FIGHT YOUR EXPOSURE TO GERMS.
Even if you wash your hands regularly, there’s no guarantee others are doing the same. Wipe down surfaces at home and at work with a disinfectant, paying special attention to germ-prone areas like doorknobs, phones, keyboards and remotes.
And if a bug is going around, see if you can take advantage of any work-from-home or flexible work policies to avoid being in contact with others who may be sick around the office or on public transportation.
FILL UP ON PROTECTIVE FOODS.
Eating more of these power picks can help you feel your best.
- Brightly colored fruits and vegetables. They serve up vitamins C, A, and folate, which all help fortify your immune system. Try to buy local produce when possible, since foods picked and consumed when they are fresh tend to pack more nutrients.
- Fatty fish and eggs. Both are rich in vitamin D, which activates the immune system when germs invade.
- Nuts and seeds. Snack on them for a healthy dose of vitamin E, an antioxidant that also works to keep infections at bay.
- Plain yogurt. The good bacteria in foods like yogurt can boost your gut health.
MAKE A SERIOUS EFFORT TO SLEEP BETTER.
Aim for 7 to 8 hours of sleep per night. Even falling short for a few days lowers your defenses against germs and makes you more susceptible to getting sick. If you have trouble sticking to a bedtime, set an alarm on your phone to remind you it’s time to start winding down for the evening.
Try to keep a consistent sleep routine even if the seasonal shift changes your schedule. When things get hectic, streamline other tasks so you can still get to bed on time. Prep healthy meals on the weekend or hire a cleaning service, so you don’t have to tackle cooking or chores on weeknights.
Looking for ways to improve your sleep habits? Find helpful tips for better sleep here.
With a little more focus on self-care, you can stay a step ahead of illness-causing germs and be healthy year-round.
Thank you MetLife for the great information in this article!
