Insurance Questions You Would Ask a Friend, But Not Your Insurance Agent
A lot of my friends are also insurance customers. Occasionally, as we’re sitting around having a beer I’ll hear a question that goes something like this:
“So seriously though, what would happen if..(fill in ridiculous question here)? Asking for a friend.”
Some of the questions are hilarious hyoptheticals. Some of them make me question who I’m hanging out with.
Anyway, I thought it might be helpful for those of you who aren’t close friends with your agent. We don’t judge!
Will my auto insurance pay if I’m over the legal blood alcohol limit?
Generally speaking, yes! I have read that an insurance carrier can deny a claim if they can prove drunk driving was an intentional act. More or less, they would have to prove you knew you were going to get into an accident. I can also say that we’ve never seen a DUI incident excluded from coverage in our agency. Regardless of your impairment level your liability insurance will generally pay.
Obviously we don’t recommend putting that to the test. If you need a reason not to drive drunk, there are plenty of others. This shouldn’t be the reason you don’t.
What about pot?
Same answer and the booze question above. The insurance company would have a very high hurdle to jump to deny your claim.
What happens if I damage my house doing construction and I didn’t hire a contractor?
Drill? Check. Hammer? Check. Skillset? I have YouTube.
Assuming you have decent homeowners coverage (I’m setting the bar very low here), then there won’t be any specific exclusion prohibiting you from doing work on your home. So sudden and accidental claims should be covered. However, faulty workmanship claims will not.
Covered
Let’s say you are replacing your tub and shower. That’s a difficulty 6 on a scale of 1 to don’t even try. You finish the install, clean up and turn the water on. Water is flowing out the shower head and down the drain. After standing and admiring a job well done, you head downstairs to find serious water damage. Woops. You forgot to connect your P trap. In this case, you’re most likely going to have coverage for the water damage. The bill for the plumber to come correct your work is on you.
Not Covered
Okay, same scenario. Same shower. But now instead of coming downstairs to find water damage, everything looks great. You start using your shower and move onto the next project. Months later, you see mold growing on your wall. You poke the wall and your finger goes right through. Uh oh. Turns out you had a slow leak. Unfortunately, a slow leak is not sudden and therefore not covered. (By the way you may be able to purchase coverage for this scenario!)
My boyfriend borrows my car every once in a while and doesn’t have a license. Is he covered?
Yes, as long as you are allowing someone to drive your vehicle, then they’re covered. License or not.
However, swallow your pride on this one and ask your agent. When you bought your coverage, you may have excluded them since they weren’t licensed. If that’s the case, then there won’t be any coverage. Don’t take the chance, call your agent.
Do red cars cost more to insure?
Nope. We don’t know what color your car is and we don’t care.