What is a Wind Hail Deductible for Shreveport, Louisiana?
Shreveport, Louisiana is no stranger to severe weather conditions such as high winds and hailstorms.
These natural hazards can cause significant damage to homes and businesses, resulting in costly repairs or replacements.
In an effort to mitigate the financial burden of such events, many insurance companies in Shreveport offer a wind hail deductible for those not living in the coastal areas.
But what exactly does this mean for policyholders?
In this post, we will explore what a wind hail deductible is and how it works.
What homeowners insurance in Shreveport covers
First, an understanding of what homeowners insurance covers helps to inform better about the wind hail deductible.
Homeowners insurance typically covers a wide range of damages caused by natural disasters.
Some of these disasters include fire, lightning, windstorms, hail, and water damage.
This means that if your home gets damaged due to one of these events, you can file an insurance claim to receive compensation for repairs and replacements.
In the case of Shreveport homeowners insurance, insurance companies usually offer coverage for hail and wind damage in their standard policy.
What is a Wind Hail Deductible?
A Wind Hail Deductible is an amount that is taken off the total cost of repairs or replacements when a homeowner makes an insurance claim due to damages caused by windstorms and hailstorms.
Consider it an insurance policy provision that requires the policyholder to pay a specific amount out of pocket before their insurance coverage kicks in for damages caused by wind or hail.
This means that if your property sustains damage from a wind or hail event, you will have to pay the deductible before your insurance company will cover the remaining costs of repairs or replacements.
The amount of the deductible can vary depending on your policy and insurer, but it typically requires a percentage of your overall coverage limit rather than a fixed dollar amount.
For example, if you have a wind hail deductible of 2% on a property with a coverage limit of $200,000, you would have the responsibility for paying $4,000 out of pocket before your insurance coverage would begin.
If the total cost of repairs was $10,000, your insurance company would cover the remaining $6,000.
It’s important to note that wind hail deductibles differ from standard deductibles that apply to other types of damage such as fire or theft.
This means that if your property sustains damage from multiple causes, you may have to pay both deductibles before your insurance coverage kicks in.
What Damage Do I Have?
This is the question you must answer first. While a major storm may produce hail and it sounds like your home receives a good pelting, sometimes, you get by without the storm actually causing significant damage.
Sometimes, the damage proves less than your deductible, which would allow you to pay for repairs out of pocket.
You don’t want to file an unnecessary insurance claim.
Fortunately, it’s easy to determine if hail has caused roof damage, or destruction to fence, siding, windows, or fallen trees.
The first step is to inspect the exterior of your home. Look for dents, holes, and other signs of damage.
If you see any, it’s important to contact a professional for further inspection and repairs.
Another way to check for hail damage to your roof is to look in the attic or crawl space. If you find granular pieces of asphalt, it’s a sign that hail has damaged the roof, which tends to require the costliest repairs or replacement.
How Do I File a Damage Claim?
So, you have determined you have significant enough damage to file a claim. So, how do you do it?
Filing a claim is a relatively straightforward process. To file your claim, you must first contact your insurance company and provide information about the damage, including photographs of the damage and estimates for the cost of repairs.
Your insurance company will then conduct their own inspection to verify the extent of the damage. Next, you will need to submit an official claim form and any other required documents. Once your claim is approved, you can begin the process of making repairs.
One thing you want to keep in mind, however, the amount of your deductible will still apply. This means that you must cover the cost of the deductible before your insurance company can pay out any compensation.
Tips for Lowering Shreveport Home Insurance Costs
Knowing a deductible requires out-of-pocket costs, how do you recoup some of that fee?
There are several tips that can help you reduce your Shreveport home insurance costs. One way to lower your premiums is to raise your deductible.
A higher deductible means a lower premium, so if you’re comfortable with the amount of the deductible, it may be beneficial for you to increase it.
Additionally, bundling your home and auto insurance policies may also lead to savings in the form of discounted premiums.
You can also reduce your costs by making improvements to your home, such as installing a security system or replacing an outdated roof.
These improvements can help lower your premiums by reducing the risk of damage and liability.
Finally, obtaining a policy by working with an independent insurance agency (like Watley Insurance Group) helps to give you access to different companies, allowing you to compare their coverage options and pricing before making a decision.
Make Sure You Have the Proper Coverage
It’s also important to make sure that you have adequate coverage for hail and wind damage.
Standard homeowners’ insurance may not cover all types of damage caused by severe weather conditions, depending on where you live, so it may prove necessary to purchase additional coverage or a separate policy specifically for wind and hail damage, especially if you live on the coast.
In Shreveport, Louisiana and the Ark-La-Tex area, wind hail coverage and deductibles are common due to the prevalence of severe weather conditions such as hurricanes and tornadoes.
It’s important to review your insurance policy and understand the terms of your hail and wind damage deductible so that you have coverage for any potential damage to your property.
In conclusion, a wind hail deductible is a provision in an insurance policy that requires the policyholder to pay a specific amount out of pocket before their insurance coverage kicks in for damages caused by wind or hail.
It’s important to review your policy to understand what your wind hail deductible is, know how to file a claim, and keep in mind the ways to lower your insurance costs.
Here at Watley Insurance Group, we would enjoy answering any questions you have regarding your home insurance coverage, wind and hail deductible, and whether or not your insurance currently makes sense for you when the storms come.
As an independent insurance agency primarily serving Shreveport, Bossier City, Benton, Barksdale Air Force Base, Haughton, Keithville, and Blanchard, we have access to provide homeowners insurance policy solutions from many insurance companies to our Ark-La-Tex friends and neighbors.
With the spring storms coming soon, best to have confidence in the policy intended to protect you. Contact us. Let’s talk.
