by KYW's Salil Gutt
Summer brings severe storms and, sometimes, hurricanes. Now would be a good time to check if your home is sufficiently insured and if you are overpaying for this coverage.
A trade organization estimates some 58% of U.S. homes are underinsured. Blame the soaring cost of building materials and homeowners not reporting home improvements. Also updated flood-zone maps may cause some to be oblivious their homes are in flood zones.
Katrina demonstrated insurers will not pay for damages caused by flooding. Your first step is to get an estimate of replacement cost for your home. If you cannot get a contractor to do that then Accucoverage.com will give you that information for a modest fee. It is very important you insure your home upto the value of replacement cost.
Current policies do not cover something called "demand surge". Namely prices going out of sight when everyone is shopping for materials and labor at the time of a calamity. Some insurers do provide "extended replacement cost" for an additional premium which will cover an additional 20% over policy limits for rebuilding costs.
You can do some comparison shopping at insurance.com to see if you are getting fairly priced insurance coverage.
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