It happens. A rough storm knocked a tree limb into your home, your house catches on fire, or a burglar breaks into your house stealing some of your valuables. This is why it is good to have a homeowner’s insurance policy. However, when should you file a claim? When is the damage something that is worth the time to file?

                To start, filing claims after every small incident is not the best idea. If the damage to your home is very small, and doesn’t cost much, filing a claim can be detrimental.  Claims history on a property for many insurance companies is often calculated into the rate. Many homeowner’s insurance companies will raise your premium with repeated pointless or needless claims. There is little reason to make a claim on something that costs little to nothing. All pointless claims do are waste time for you as well as the homeowner’s insurance agency.

                Not only can filing a large number of claims raise your premiums, there have also been cases of homeowner’s insurance companies canceling policies. Most homeowners do not usually need to file more than one or two claims in a period of several years. If a person has a multitude of claims within a short time period, it causes the insurance company to rethink covering the client. Not only can your policy get canceled this way, it becomes more difficult to get homeowner’s insurance elsewhere as well. Many companies will look at your claims history when working with you on your insurance policy. A history full of claims, especially within the same general time raises the chance of not being given insurance at that company.

                However, this caution does not mean never file a claim. The point of a homeowner’s insurance policy is to protect you in case of a problem. If you have a legitimate claim, call it in! Most of the time if you do not call in an issue, your insurance company will not know about it to help you. Sometimes your homeowner’s insurance policy will cover things you didn’t think they would cover. If you have some serious damages that you need help with, call in! Even if you are not one hundred percent sure if your homeowner’s insurance policy will cover it, with things that are legitimate issues, it’s better to try to file a claim than do nothing and find out later you could have been covered for a massive  amount of the cost.

                Since filing a lot of claims can be costly, it is better to spend a small amount of money in prevention tactics to help keep your home and valuables safe. Taking good care of the home, and keeping it in good condition not only decrease the chances of having a problem, it also increases your chance of getting good homeowner’s insurance. Unfortunately, even with the best and most effective prevention tactics, bad things can happen, such as a tornado or hurricane. When a terrible accident occurs and causes horrendous damage, file a claim! That’s what your homeowner’s insurance is for.