Home is the biggest financial investment for most homeowners. It’s an immovable asset and often taken with a bank loan against the mortgage. The insurance market is highly regulated in every market. The key parameters on which the premium depends are mostly fixed where State and Federal Government’s appointed agencies work to systematize the market. Having insurance for the asset keeps you protected from unwanted accidents and damage to the house. However, the question arises, can we negotiate the price of homeowner’s insurance?
What is homeowner’s insurance and how does it work?
Natural or man-made calamities don’t come with prior information. Any disaster is undesired but that can damage a house or property to any extent. If you have insurance for the property, you can place a homeowners insurance claim for the necessary financial backup you need to repair or rebuild the house. That means, you having homeowner’s insurance means your house is protected against the financial loss caused due to storms, lightning, hail, flood, vandalism, fire, theft, or smoke. There may be dozens of other issues as well that may cause damage to your property to any extent. A standard home insurance policy also includes insurance for high-value possessions in the house like furniture and expensive electrical gazettes. Moreover, it can also cover medical and legal expenses for the family members that occur from the above-mentioned damages to the home.
Key aspects where you can negotiate
What you can do to lower the premium amount depends on how is the insurance company offering you the homeowner’s insurance? There may be some discounts or special rates that you haven’t received or you may ask for changes in the deductible. In an extreme case, you can consider other companies offering the same policy having different premiums. Like the premium amount you are going to pay, you can negotiate on homeowner’s insurance claims as well.
Homeowner’s insurance price negotiation
Insurance of any kind including homeowner’s insurance is price sensitive. You have to keep in mind that it’s not a flea market where you can go on settling the value of a product or involve in a mental war with the vendor for negotiating the price. In fact, you may not have the knowledge of how the insurance premium is fixed depending on several factors related to your property and family. Since, the market is regulated and closely invigilated, price negotiation needs expert intervention. Of course, you have the scope to claim a different amount than what the insurance company is asking to settle but here again in absence of expert intervention you may feel helpless. Whereas taking expert assistance can change the whole scenario. They know how to talk with the company, what are the legal bindings and compliance issues, what the insurance company can reconsider or negotiate and whatnot, and how to point out systematically why the company can charge less or you can claim a higher amount than what the company asking or settling.
