Mobile home insurance renewal – What you definitely need to know before your mobile home insurance is up for renewal.

The first question you are going to be asking yourself is, how much time do you have before your mobile home insurance gets renewed? 

The good news is that you have a window of at least one whole month. Most insurance providers will typically send you a renewal notice between 30 and 40 days before your policy term actually ends. 

This letter or email will typically inform you of your insurance renewal date and the details of your policy. Apart from these critical details insurance providers will normally ask you whether you would like to renew or reassess your coverage. 

In the event that you haven’t responded to this renewal/reassessment notification, it will be treated as an indication that you’ve read the letter and agreed to the terms and conditions mentioned in it. After this, your policy will automatically get renewed on the stated renewal date. 

What you’ve got to keep in mind here is that you have at least a month from the date you receive a renewal notice from your insurer to take a deeper look into what is insured in your mobile home insurance policy. 

Remember – if you’ve failed to inform your insurer about any changes to your home or possessions, you could be underinsured in the event of fire, theft, or even a natural disaster, etc. 

The next question you should have an answer ready for is – exactly what should you be telling your insurance provider before you can renew your mobile home insurance? 

Before you get to answering this question, take some time off and think about any significant changes you’ve made to your mobile home in the last 5 years. Have you made any upgrades to your home at all? it could be a remodeled kitchen or bathroom, or you’ve added a gazebo, patio, or shed to your yard. Or you’ve made some expensive purchases for your mobile home? 

If the answer is yes, this is something you’ve got to declare to your insurance provider, if you haven’t told them already. We’d suggest that you make a comprehensive list of changes, modifications or any other expensive possessions that you’ve added to your mobile home inventory and give them a call as soon as possible. 

You’ve got to find out if you have blanket coverage for all buildings on your property or scheduled coverage which allows you to pick and choose coverage amounts for each of the new structures. 

Most importantly, you want to look into how much your home has appreciated in value with all these changes and upgrades so that your coverage can be properly adjusted by your insurance provider. 

Keep in mind that Most standard insurance policies have limited coverage when it comes to valuables, such as $2,000 maximum in the case of theft, fire, etc.

Your insurance policy will typically include a detailed itemized list of all your insurable possessions. Keep receipts of any new jewelry pieces or electronics somewhere, and include them on your list of insurable items. (You are not insured in the case of loss.) 

Remember that most standard insurance policies have limited coverage on valuables, and if the amount is lesser than what you’ve spent buying them, you’ll want to see about increasing this limit to something more reasonable.

One of the most important questions, we’re sure you’d want to know the answer to is – Can you lower your monthly premium? 

Not surprisingly, the answer is yes! Most insurance providers will reward you for improving the safety of your home with features such as ring video doorbells, smart home devices, fire or other alarm systems, etc. If a decade goes by and you’ve slowly been improving on this aspect of your home, let your insurance company know! Not every update will increase your premiums.

So What Else Should you be aware of in that Insurance Renewal Notification Letter?

Part of why the answer is why it is actually important for you to read this renewal/reassessment notification letter from your insurance provider. 

A lot of people get their annual notification letter or email, and simply stick it in a drawer, or mark the email as “read” in their inbox without even reading it. Insurance companies today could actually drop you as a customer at any time. Yes, that’s right, they are not going to try and track you down just to tell you to read the notice that they’ve sent to you. 

While the reasons why they might drop you as a client are multiple, The good news is you have lots of time to find a new insurance company. Nevertheless, it is important to know what those reasons could be. 

Some of the main reasons that insurance companies are allowed to cite are – 

• You made too many claims in the past and they are no longer willing to insure you.
• the neighborhood conditions changed and your home is now at high risk for a crime to occur. 
• your area is suddenly more under threat of a natural disaster than ever before. 
• or; the insurance company is moving out of your area and can no longer insure your address.

Like we’ve said The good news is you have lots of time to find a new insurance company: Most states require that the insured has three months’ notice in the case of non-renewal.

Here is a tip for you – it really does pay to keep track of even the minutest details, it could mean a major difference in payouts!

We’d highly recommend that you have RCV( Replacement Cost Value) as part of your insurance plan. What this means is that if you purchased an appliance, let’s say five years ago for $1000, for instance, and you had a  break-in, you’ll need to replace that stolen TV. If your policy has ACV (Actual Cost Value) coverage you may only receive $100 in claims, which is what your insurance company has decided is its actual value. RCV coverage on the other hand would provide you with $1000 or more towards getting a brand new TV. 

Auto-renewal of insurance can be tricky and may not be the best way to go about letting your insurance get renewed. It could be a time-consuming process sometimes to take stock of all the changes you’ve made to your mobile home before it is time to finally get that insurance policy renewed, but if you look at this time spent as an investment, you will most often than not be rewarded by your insurance provider, you could end up paying way lesser monthly premiums and all of this while ensuring that you are never under-insured.