Things that can affect your Homeowner’s Insurance Policy: Roof Condition

I want to talk to you about buying a home and things that can affect your homeowner’s insurance policy that you need to look out for. On my previous video I talked about being in a flood zone because flood insurance is high as hell and if you want to save money on your insurance policy you may not want to move in a flood zone – plus floods are horrible things to recover from.

You also want to check and see what the age and condition of the roof is in the new home that you’re purchasing or planning on moving into, and this is the reason why: the age of your roof can affect whether an insurance company will insure you at all for a homeowners insurance policy.

Many A-rated companies do not like insuring homes that have roofs over say 15 to 20 years so your options will be limited to insurance companies that will accept homes that are not up to par. And some of those companies charge more or their coverages are not as great or not as extensive as an A-rated insurance company that would accept your home if your home was in better condition.

Other things you may want to consider is the fact that an old or damaged roof may be dangerous, and we have talked about that in other videos. One more thing, if I ask you, “How old is your roof, has it been repaired or replaced?” And you tell me it was, it’s only seven years old and the insurance company goes out and does an inspection and it turns out your roof needs to be repaired or replaced because it’s old as hell, they’re going to send you an “intent to cancel” and they’re either going to cancel your policy or give you maybe 30 to 60 days or maybe even 90, in some cases, to repair or replace a whole entire roof.

Currently, replacing a roof is very expensive and it’s difficult to find contractors. Not to mention, you don’t want to start all the way over and need to get a new homeowner’s insurance policy with a new company, do you?

So, what you need to find out is, how old your roof is. How can you find that out? You can ask the selling agent, or your real estate agent can ask the selling agent how old the roof is. And if the selling agent doesn’t know, they can pick up the phone and they can call the people who live in the house, whose house they’re selling, and they can ask them because 99% of the time, the people who live in the home know how old the roof is and whether it needs to be repaired or replaced.