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Hurricane Shutters and South Carolina Home Insurance Discounts

September 24, 2013 Andrew Muller

Many homeowners of Mount Pleasant, Isle of Palms, Sullivan’s Island and Charleston often ask about hurricane shutters and how they can help protect their home as well as help save on home insurance premiums. This article will explain just that.

Guest Writer: Tim Smith, President of Windward Shutters, LLC located in Mount Pleasant, SC

Hurricane Shutters Explained

Hurricane shutters are installed to protect the building envelope. The main cause of hurricane damage behind storm surge is the penetration of the windows and doors from flying debris. Wind alone can cause damage but it’s mainly caused by the debris breaking windows and doors that allow the wind to enter the home causing lift on the roof and outward pressure on the walls.

By protecting the glazed openings and in-swing doors you are helping prevent the loss of the roof. Many building codes have changed and some form of hurricane protection for your windows is now a requirement. Although plywood and OSB (oriented strand board) are allowed for a Certificate of Occupancy they do not meet testing requirements and will fail much quicker than a rated system.

Many homeowners in Mount Pleasant, Isle of Palms, and Charleston have plywood but lack the ability to secure it on the home in the event of a hurricane threat. A much more convenient and stronger solution is to have rated shutters installed on all windows and doors. If you have an attached garage you need to make sure your garage door is hurricane rated or you have hurricane protection for your garage door. This is one of the most vulnerable openings in the home. Wind can either blow it in off the tracks or it can be pulled away from the tracks by the extreme pressures in a hurricane.

Due to several years without a true hurricane scare, many people have grown complacent about the damage and destruction that will again come to our area. It is not a matter of if, but when another powerful hurricane will strike. Now is the time to prepare your home and make a plan. It only takes one hurricane to make a terrible season if that hurricane damages or destroys your home.

Insurance Discounts Explained

Another great benefit for having hurricane shutters is discounts (or credits) on your home insurance policy. With the passing of the Omnibus Coastal Property Insurance Reform Act of 2007, insurance companies are now required to offer discounts to homes protected with hurricane protection materials. In some cases this can be 20-30% off your insurance premiums…every year. Even if you have hurricane protection material on your home, such as hurricane shutters, this doesn’t mean that you have been given the discount/credit from your insurance company. Many insurance agents do not know what to look/ask for and it goes unnoticed; leave you to pay more for your homeowner’s insurance policy. In order to know that you are receiving the discount/credit, you will need to have a wind mitigation licensed contractor complete a wind mitigation certificate form for you to submit to your insurance advisor. Windward Shutters is licensed to perform these mitigation certificates.

Grant Money from the State of South Carolina (including all of the surrounding Charleston, Mount Pleasant, and Barrier Islands)

Lastly, also written into the Omnibus Act is that if a primary-home structure is insured for less than $300,000 then you can qualify for a matching grant up to $10,000 to protect your home from hurricane damage. If your income is below a certain level you can qualify for a full grant of $5,000 to protect your home from hurricane damage as well. Click here to learn more at the SC Safe Home website.

In closing, make the smart move and call or email Windward Shutters today for a free estimate and give yourself the peace of mind that you and your home are ready when a hurricane makes landfall in the Lowcountry. Windward Shutters is the oldest shutter company in South Carolina and is repeatedly chosen by leading architects, builders, and municipal leaders.

Windward Shutters can be reached at 843.881.6262 or via email protect@windwardshutters.com. Don’t wait until it’s too late.

Mappus Insurance Agency, Inc can be reached at 843.763.4200 to help you understand your insurance premium discounts. Or, you can simply complete the form below…

Flood Insurance Changes: 6 Things South Carolina Real Estate Agents Need to Know

September 17, 2013 Andrew Muller

In an attempt to salvage the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) and their roughly $30B deficit, Congress passed Biggert Waters Flood Insurance Reform Act in July of 2012. While the Act is currently in place and changes have already taken place, most of the Act’s changes that will affect many homeowners and business owners will become effective October 1^st, 2013. As a real estate agent, your clients will be affected in some way or another; both buyers and sellers. Below is a brief and [hopefully] easy to understand breakdown of the changes to the program and how your real estate clients might be affected.

The Nuts and Bolts

1. Full Risk Rates for NEW and LAPSED Pre-Firm Flood Policies

What this means is that when a buyer purchases a home, that is a pre-firm home, then they will not be able to acquire the subsidized rates from the seller. This use to be a major benefit. This may cause a significant impact in the buying capacity as well as the market price of a home because the flood insurance premium could go from $1,000 annually to $6,000 annually, as an example.

What are Pre-firm homes? Pre-firm homes are homes built prior to the flood insurance program going into effect for a specific community. Post-firm homes are homes built after the flood insurance program going into effect, so if your home was built in 1990 then you are post-firm. The dates below are when each community entered into the flood insurance program:

Charleston County- 4/27/71
Berkeley County- 9/30/1983
Dorchester County- 1/6/1982

How do you know what the full risk rate is and how will you know what your premium will go to? Read further…

2. New elevation certificate requirement on All policies

The only way you can find out what the full risk rate will be is by having an elevation certificate completed. Starting 10/1/13, ALL NEW flood applications in an A or V zone will be required to have an elevations certificate regardless of the year built. Elevation Certificates did not used to be required on Pre-Firm buildings, now they will be.

Elevation Certificates typically cost anywhere from $300-$700. However, Mappus Insurance Agency has negotiated a preferred flat rate of $325 with Atlantic Surveying, Inc. Please visit our Flood Insurance page on our website, www.mappusinsurance.comto print off your coupon.

3. Rate increases across the board for all policies

Current policies will see increases on average of 10% annually. This includes both pre and post firm homes. Most post-firm homes will see very minimal change. For current pre-firm policyholders, you will continue to receive the gradual increase till you reach the full rate. Again, the only way you can find out your full rate is by getting an elevation certificate completed.

4. The 30 day waiting period is changing

Effective 10/1/13, the NFIP will ONLY waive the 30-day waiting period for new loan transactions. No longer will they waive it “just because” the mortgage company requires it (i.e. the bank suddenly realizes you need flood insurance after the mortgage has already begun).

Many mortgage companies are now requiring the actual flood policy dec page to close a loan but this is not possible because they also now require you to escrow your flood premium.

5. Remember that policy assignment is no longer a benefit

Currently, if you sell your property, you can “assign” your flood policy to the new owner and the new owner gets to keep your current rates and won’t need an Elevation Certificate. Effective 10/1/13, the new owner will be subject to the full rate premium and the new elevation certificate rules will apply.

Tip: Have the seller go ahead and get an elevation certificate completed so all parties understand the severity of the change in rate. In some cases it can be thousands of dollars annually in policy premiums.

6. Grandfathering will be going away in the near future

This will be HUGE -when put into effect- but Grandfathered renewals will continue to get their reduced grandfathered rates for the time being – but they will be eliminated eventually -TBD…2015… Grandfathering is given to post-firm homeowners that met the flood requirements at the time their home was built but since that time the requirements or the flood mapping changed.

To bring things back around, these are the major NFIP changes to be aware of but they are certainly not all of the changes. Please visit FEMA’s website which breakdowns many facets of the current and upcoming changes to the NFIP program by clicking here. As always, you and your real estate clients can visit the Flood Smart website to learn more about flood insurance in general; what is covered, how to get covered as well as how to prepare for floods and be safe in flooded areas.

Additionally, you and your real estate clients should work with a knowledgeable insurance advisor that not only understands flood insurance but one that understands these upcoming changes. Don’t get surprised by a last minute flood insurance issue that can ruin a real estate deal and your reputation.

If you take anything away from this article, it is highly recommended to go ahead and have all sellers get an elevation certificate completed to see what their true flood rate exposure is. This will help buyers understand what their potential flood risk and cost might be moving forward. Doing this can eliminate many headaches, lost sales and potential lawsuits.

If you have any questions related to this article, flood insurance or homeowners insurance, please contact Mappus Insurance Agency at 843.763.4200 or visit our website at www.mappusinsurance.com

To receive a flat $325 Elevation Certificate, please visit our flood insurance page and print off the coupon from Atlantic Surveying, Inc.

3 Major Considerations When Your Teen Starts Driving

September 16, 2013 Andrew Muller

Charleston parents, listen up! When you are raising a teen who has finally received their driver’s license, you’ve got some important decisions to make about car insurance. If your teen is going to drive, then he or she needs to be covered by an insurance policy—but should it be your policy or one of their own? There is no statute requiring it be done one way or another, instead you get to choose which situation best suits your situation. Below are three things to consider when your teen gets their drivers license.

1) Coverage on Your Policy

It is sometimes less expensive to add a teen driver to the parent’s policy rather than initiating an individual policy for the new driver. And if your teen will primarily be driving your car, rather than their own, this might be an ideal choice. Talk to your insurance agent and get the rates for adding your new teen driver so you have somewhere to start.

2) Buying the Teen Their Own Policy

If your teen has their own car and drives frequently, then it might be a better idea to separate their risk from your own by having them get their own policy. The cost of the policy may be more expensive, but factors such as grades or completion of a formalized driving education program could work to lessen the cost. Talk to your insurance agent again about this possibility and ask for the rates (and coverages) so you can compare. Keep in mind that just because your child has their own policy does not mean you are not responsible for damages that exceed the policy limits. If there is an insurable incident and the damage to the other person’s vehicle is greater than the limits on the policy someone is still responsible for the damage. This usually falls on the teen’s parent since they have a better chance of being able to afford the cost of repairs. So make sure that your umbrella insurance policy will sit on top of your teen driver’s auto insurance policy.

3) Other Factors in Cost

In addition to looking for discounts for good grades and driving lessons, parents should look for other discounts when insuring their teen, either on a joint policy or individual one. Other discounts can be found with daytime running lamps, cell phone apps, antitheft devices and more. Insurance carriers are getting very creative these days and are coming up with new ideas and ways to try to help reduce your premiums through discounts.

It is important that cost not be the only consideration when choosing benefits, deductibles and limits. While low benefits, low limts and high deductibles will decrease your insurance premiums, they greatly increase your financial risk should an accident occur; and with an inexperienced teen at the wheel, the chances of an accident occurring increase substantially. Just look at these teen driving stats cited in an article titled “Safe Driving Tips for Teens”, written by Melissa Crumish on the DMV.org website.

Teen drivers crash four times more often than any other age group.
More than 4,000 teens die in car crashes every year in the United States.
More than 450,000 teens are injured in car crashes annually.
Driver distraction contributes to 16% of all fatal crashes for drivers younger than 20.
Drivers under 20 have the highest proportion of distraction-related fatal crashes.
Car crashes are the number one killer of teens in the United States.
On average, 11 teens die daily from car crashes.

Still need some assistance? Give our office a call and we can help. 843.763.4200

Flood Insurance Re-Mapping Headaches Are Coming…

September 12, 2013 Andrew Muller

As many homeowners of Charleston, Mount Pleasant, and the Lowcountry either know or don’t know, FEMA is updating flood zones for our area. These new flood zones are supposed to come into affect sometime in 2015 if the timeline stays true. If using other states as a sample whose flood zones have already been updated then we should be very concerned with what is to come when our new flood zones become effective.

flood mapping illustration

Many homeowners across the country are being wrongly placed into higher hazard flood zones where they were not before. This is forcing them to purchase high premium flood insurance policies with no other recourse. However, many of these homeowners are finding that old data is being used to map the new flood zones which is causing many errors and placing many properties that should not be in a high risk flood zone into one.

In this article titled “Using Outdated Data, FEMA Is Wrongly Placing Homeowners In Flood Zones”, written by Theodoric Meyer with ProPublica, it highlights specific examples of homeowners from across the country that have been placed in high hazard flood zones in error. I highly encourage you to read this as the same issues could be coming our way in Charleston, Mount Pleasant and other parts of the Lowcountry.

Please stay informed of all the new changes to the flood insurance program so you are not hit with any “surprises”. Should you have any flood insurance question, please call our office at 843.763.4200 or email Andrew at Andrew@mappusinsurance.com You can also visit our flood insurance page to read more about this topic.

*Photo courtesy of ProPublic

How Much Will Your Next Claim Cost?

September 7, 2013 Andrew Muller

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How often do you hear on the news about an injured car accident victim who received a million dollars in damages because the driver of another car accidentally crossed the double yellow or ran a red light? Or the child who drowned in the neighbors pool? We all feel bad for the victim, but have you ever wondered who pays that million or multi-million dollar settlement? It’s the other driver or the pool owner. And what if that other driver—who had no malicious intent but who simply looked away for just a second—were you? And what about the small business owner who must close up shop after someone slips and falls in her store and she can’t afford to stay open while paying the awarded injury claim? That “cheap” insurance policy you purchased online doesn’t seem so good anymore, does it?

Put yourself in that unfortunate driver and pool owner’s shoes. You’ve been ordered to pay a million dollars in damages. Your car or home insurance policy covers $300,000, then the courts go after your personal and business assets. Soon, you’re ruined—all because of a careless mistake or simply because you went with the “cheaper” policy. Fortunately, this doesn’t have to happen if you protect your liability with a Personal Umbrella insurance policy. Let me reiterate that umbrella policies are not just for the rich.

For a small additional premium each year, maybe $150-350 (certainly less than $1 a day), you can purchase another million dollars or more of insurance coverage as a buffer between you, the courts, and financial ruin. Personal Umbrella insurance policies offer protection against a wide range of insurable events, like:

Injury on your property
Awards for accusations of slander
Additional protection while in your vehicle

Unfortunately, even if you are sued and a large judgment does not result, you may be liable for legal fees and court costs that eat into your assets. A personal umbrella insurance policy can prevent that from happening as legal fees are covered as well.

Before getting a personal umbrella insurance policy, be sure to check your limits and deductibles on your current policies. Your insurer will likely declare you responsible for bridging any gaps between policy limits and umbrella policy amounts so make sure you have sufficient insurance and resources. (Just discuss this with your insurance agent and arrange the proper coverage’s).

Accidents, moments of negligence, or even frivolous lawsuits happen every day. As a former claims adjuster, I have seen my fair share of interesting claims and large settlements. The scary part -that keeps many people up at night- is that you never know when, what, where, how large the next claim could possibly be. If you have assets that you have worked hard to build and protect, don’t lose them due to one mistake or an out-of-the-blue lawsuit. Purchase a personal umbrella insurance policy and add a buffer between your assets and financial ruin. Click Here to start the quoting/consulting process (Don’t worry, it’s free). Once we receive your inquiry, we will contact you to discuss your specific situation to see what the right amount of coverage is best for you and your family.

Hurricane Shutters and South Carolina Home Insurance Discounts

Many homeowners of Mount Pleasant, Isle of Palms, Sullivan’s Island and Charleston often ask about hurricane shutters and how they can help protect their home as well as help save on home insurance premiums. This article will explain just that.

Guest Writer: Tim Smith, President of Windward Shutters, LLC located in Mount Pleasant, SC

Flood Insurance Changes: 6 Things South Carolina Real Estate Agents Need to Know

2. New elevation certificate requirement on All policies

3. Rate increases across the board for all policies

4. The 30 day waiting period is changing

5. Remember that policy assignment is no longer a benefit

6. Grandfathering will be going away in the near future

3 Major Considerations When Your Teen Starts Driving

Flood Insurance Re-Mapping Headaches Are Coming…

How Much Will Your Next Claim Cost?

Mappus Insurance protects Charleston, Mount Pleasant, and the entire state of South Carolina

Contact Information

Many homeowners of Mount Pleasant, Isle of Palms, Sullivan’s Island and Charleston often ask about hurricane shutters and how they can help protect their home as well as help save on home insurance premiums. This article will explain just that.

Guest Writer: Tim Smith, President of Windward Shutters, LLC located in Mount Pleasant, SC

2. New elevation certificate requirement on All policies

3. Rate increases across the board for all policies

4. The 30 day waiting period is changing

5. Remember that policy assignment is no longer a benefit

6. Grandfathering will be going away in the near future

Mappus Insurance protects Charleston, Mount Pleasant, and the entire state of South Carolina

Contact Information

Connect With Mappus Insurance!