Insurance Agent & Broker Portland Oregon

An Oregonian article reported that city officials said that new sprinkler equipment and high water use at the  house in Portland's  Southwest hills probably contributed to a landslide that sent it crashing into homes below it. 

I am not a claims adjuster but the loss brings questions to light in regards to how the home insurance policy will respond to damages that are caused to property of others.

The part of a home insurance contract that provides coverage for bodily injury and property damage is personal liability. Personal liability is going to provide protection against a suit brought against any insured because of bodily injury or property damage caused by an occurence. The Oregonian article stated that Farmers Insurance, the insurer for both the home owners house that slid and one of the houses that was knocked off the foundation had denied the initial claim that was filed for repair of both houses.

Today's Oregonian reported a woman embezzeling $10,000 from a deli where she worked. As a business owner you want to trust that your employees are honest, although as in this case there are employees who will steal. The first question that business owner will as is "does my business insurance cover this?"

Most business insurance policies will include Crime Insurance, which is also known as Fidelity Insurance. This type of business insurance coverage will provide you protection against a dishonest act by an employee in which your business might suffer a loss of money, securities, or property other than money and securities resulting from a crime.

Typical Crime insurance claims allege employee dishonesty, embezzlement, forgery or alteration, robbery, safe burglary, counterfeiting and other criminal acts. Claims usually fall into two types of categories:

These days you can get whip lash from turning your head at all the articles and reports about foreclosures on the national level. Today's Oregonian published an article titled The Stripped Away Dream which reports county records show  more than 2,800 homeowners defaulted on their mortgages in Clark, Clackamas, Multnomah & Washington counties in the third quarter of 2008. These individuals who are and have defaulted on their mortgages will unfortunately most likely foreclose on their properties which will then leave these home empty. Once the home is foreclosed the bank takes over the responsibility of the home. That means that the bank is responsible for obtaining an insurance policy for the vacant home.

If you are an investor or landlord and your home sits vacant you will want to make certain that your vacant home gets occupied as quickly as possible. The reason being is that each insurance contract might be worded differently but under the policy section titled 'Building Property Lossses We Do Not Cover' language is present protecting the insurance company from paying out claims on vacant homes.

Most companies I represent have wording similar to the following, "coverage is not provided for vandalism & malicious mischief or breakage of glass and safety glazing materials if the dwelling has been vacant for more than 30 consecutive days immediately before the loss."

Yesterday The Oregonian reported a story  West Hills Home Smashed in Landslide. I would say it is a very bad day when your home not just slides off of its foundation but also slides down an enbankment causing other homes to slide off of their foundations. This is the case of the home that is was located at 6438 Southwest Burlingame Place, a Portland Maps search for this address clearly acknowledges the hazard of the home being on a steep slope with the potential of it's location being involved in a landslide.

My hope would be that the home owner at the address not just knew of the risk living at that particular location but did the right thing and had the right insurance coverage in place to protect themselves. This is not always the case as many people prefer to gamble about risk than to protect themselves and their property.

If this home owner were to file a claim against their home insurance policy they will have a difficult time in finding insurance coverage for their loss as each policy defines it differently but a home insurance policy is going to exclude a loss to property due to 'Earth Movement'.  One of the companies I work with provides this as the definition: