Thursday, 23 March 2017

Preferred risk flood insurance and home insurance

The National Flood Insurance Program, which assumes the role of default insurer when a private insurer refuses to cover against damage that has resulted from flooding, has been run by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, under the general remit of the Department of Homeland Security. Since the private insurers are for profit and have found it difficult to maintain the usual percentage return, the government has been forced to step in for two reasons. Far more houses than prudent have been built in flood prone areas, and despite the protests of the climate change deniers, we’ve been getting a lot more flooding than usual over the last decade.




FEMA is therefore going to extend eligibility under the Preferred Risk Policy. Anyone holding this policy can continue paying the lower premium rates until the evaluation under the Biggert-Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act of 2012 has been completed. In practical terms, this means at least two more years of lower home insurance premiums with the full-risk ratings deferred. This is very important because the flooding map was redrawn in 2008 and both home owners and renters had been at risk of significantly higher premiums if they lived in the newly declared high risk areas.

So everything now comes down to your claims history. If you have made two or more claims or one claim has been for more than $1,000, you are not eligible for the preferred risk cover. The benefit may not sound great but your premium increases cannot exceed 13%. This keeps your insurance rate significantly below the full-risk home insurance premium.



To give you a better grasp of the benefits, you might live in an area with aging flood defenses or where there have been changes to the lay of the land. In theory, this should mean you pay the full-risk rate. But if you can take advantage of the Grandfather Rule, you may get cover for home and contents for as little as $129 in the first year. You will know this represents a big saving on the usual home insurance rates so check what has happened to your local map and whether the Rule will save you money.

Monday, 27 February 2017

Make Closing Up Easier, With The Help Of Professional Locksmiths

Filed under colorado locksmiths, commercial locksmith, locksmiths1 by Quinn
Closing stinks. When I was in college, I used to be a bartender at an Irish pub.

All in all, it was a pretty good gig. I learned a lot about the brewing process, the different styles and genres of beer, and about the methods of making and preparing various cocktails. I liked the job. And so I probably would have continued the job if I had been stuck with closing so often.

At a bar, closing means staying until the sun comes up. Okay. That is a bit of an exaggeration. (Actually, I knew a guy who had to close but he got locked out, so he actually did stay until sunrise. But we will get to that later.) But I did get home very late.

As a student, it became unmanageable. And the only thing worse than closing is closing and getting locked out in the process. You cannot just simply leave everything running, like the lights and the burners in the kitchen.

So we would have to call our boss instead of a Colorado locksmith. Why my boss insisted upon driving over in the middle of the night and unlocking the doors herself, I’ll never know.



To me, it would have been so much easier to keep a commercial locksmith on call for things like that. And it is not even really “on call”. If you find a good locksmith, they will run 24/7 anyway. It is the way to go for your employees who need to close. Make closing easier!