The contest isn’t even close. Residents of the next lowest state, Vermont, pay about 7% more than Mainers. The nationwide average: about $1,450 – a whopping 38% higher.
With our snowy, icy winters, why would our car insurance be so cheap? It’s not all about weather. In fact, 7 of the lowest 10 states are in the snow belt.
Behind the Numbers Car insurance rates essentially pay for 3 things:
Repair Costs
Medical Bills
Legal Bills and Damages from Lawsuits
Maine’s costs for the first two are roughly in line with the rest of the country, but Mainers tend to be a bit less litigious than some other areas. That helps keep costs down.
Are Uncrowded Roads The Answer? Maine is less congested than much of the country, but that’s not the whole reason behind our lower car insurance costs. Otherwise, Ohio, North Carolina, Arizona, Tennnessee and Massachusetts (yes, Massachusetts) wouldn’t also be in the bottom 10.
You see, when someone has no insurance to pay their medical bills or repair their car, they’re more likely to try to “go against the other guy” after an accident, in an effort to avoid big bills. Even if you’re not at fault, if you’re “the other guy”, you can be sued, or the other party can try to make a claim against your insurance.
Even if a claim or suit is groundless, it costs your insurance company money to hire an attorney on your behalf or investigate the claim. That drives up insurance costs – for everybody.
So, maybe Maine really is…
Are you paying too much for car insurance? Get 4 competitive Maine auto insurance quotes in 10 minutes from Noyes Hall & Allen’s web site, or call us at 207-799-5541. We represent 10 of the state’s preferred auto insurers. One call gives you access to all of them!
For the second time in a month, The National Flood Insurance Program lapsed on March 28 due to lack of continued federal funding. The Senate left for Easter recess until April 12 without addressing HR4851, which would have offered an extension. This leaves anyone looking to buy Maine flood insurance – or in any other state – high and dry, in the height of flood season.
If You’re Buying a Home and Need Flood Insurance
Flood insurance servicing companies are collecting applications, but cannot accept them or bind coverage until the NFIP is re-authorized by the Senate. If your lender requires proof of flood insurance, this may delay your closing. Talk to your lender for more information. You literally can not buy flood coverage without an act of Congress.
If You Already Have Flood Insurance, and Need to Make a Claim
Claim payments will be continued as usual for all policies currently in effect.
If You Have Flood Insurance and Need to Increase Your Coverage
Coverage cannot be increased on existing policies until the NFIP is reauthorized. This may delay a loan closing if you are refinancing or taking out a home equity loan.
If Your Flood Policy is About to Renew
Renewal policies can not be issued during the lapse. Many companies sent renewal bills prior to March 28. If you received a bill and paid it, your coverage should be in force. If your premium was not paid before March 28, coverage cannot be bound until after the NFIP is reauthorized by Congress.
What You Can Do
The NFIP is the only primary flood insurance available for residential properties. Many insurers have a servicing contract to issue business on behalf of the NFIP, but it is a government program. Without reauthorization, the program is essentially shut down. Call or email your senator to let them know what this lack of funding means to you. While there’s no guarantee, the NFIP reauthorization will likely be retroactive to March 28 – once it’s finally passed. That’s usually what happens in these cases.
Even during normal operation, the National Flood Insurance Program operates differently than most insurance programs. There are waiting periods and underwriting rules and requirements that are unique to this program. It’s impossible to advise you about your individual situation with a blog post like this. Call a Maine homeowners insurance agent for advice about your own insurance.
UPDATE:
As of April 15, 2009, Congress passed, and the President signed into law, a bill reauthorizing the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) until May 31, 2010. The extension included retroactive funding to cover two gaps in the program (March 1 – 2 and March 29 – April 15, 2010). The program will expire again on May 31 unless it is further extended. Stand by!
For the second time in a month, The National Flood Insurance Program lapsed on March 28 due to lack of continued federal funding. The Senate left for Easter recess until April 12 without addressing HR4851, which would have offered an extension. This leaves anyone looking to buy Maine flood insurance – or in any other state – high and dry, in the height of flood season.
If You’re Buying a Home and Need Flood Insurance
Flood insurance servicing companies are collecting applications, but cannot accept them or bind coverage until the NFIP is re-authorized by the Senate. If your lender requires proof of flood insurance, this may delay your closing. Talk to your lender for more information. You literally can not buy flood coverage without an act of Congress.
If You Already Have Flood Insurance, and Need to Make a Claim
Claim payments will be continued as usual for all policies currently in effect.
If You Have Flood Insurance and Need to Increase Your Coverage
Coverage cannot be increased on existing policies until the NFIP is reauthorized. This may delay a loan closing if you are refinancing or taking out a home equity loan.
If Your Flood Policy is About to Renew
Renewal policies can not be issued during the lapse. Many companies sent renewal bills prior to March 28. If you received a bill and paid it, your coverage should be in force. If your premium was not paid before March 28, coverage cannot be bound until after the NFIP is reauthorized by Congress.
What You Can Do
The NFIP is the only primary flood insurance available for residential properties. Many insurers have a servicing contract to issue business on behalf of the NFIP, but it is a government program. Without reauthorization, the program is essentially shut down. Call or email your senator to let them know what this lack of funding means to you. While there’s no guarantee, the NFIP reauthorization will likely be retroactive to March 28 – once it’s finally passed. That’s usually what happens in these cases.
Even during normal operation, the National Flood Insurance Program operates differently than most insurance programs. There are waiting periods and underwriting rules and requirements that are unique to this program. It’s impossible to advise you about your individual situation with a blog post like this. Call a Maine homeowners insurance agent for advice about your own insurance.
There are few nightmares for Maine homeowners more unpleasant than a sewer backup in the basement. We don’t need to go into details about sewer backups. Suffice it to say, we hope you’ve never seen one, and never will. Unfortunately, they’re all too common in heavy rains.
What Causes Sewer Backup?
Sewer lines become full of groundwater or storm water, and back up, usually through basement drains.
Line blockages in the street cause a backup.
Tree roots or some other obstruction on your property blocks the line from your home to the street.
How Can I Prevent a Sewer Backup?
The most common protection is to install a backflow valve. This is designed to allow sewage to flow out of your home (“the good way”), but not from the street into your home (“the bad way”). These are sometimes called check valves or flap valves. Gate valves are manually operated, and completely seal the pipe leading from your home to the street. A plumber can recommend the best solution for your home.
What if I Have a Sewer Backup?
Call your city’s sewer maintenance department.
They will check the line in the street near your house.
If the line is not found to be blocked, you should call your plumber.
We do not recommend trying to clean your own home after a sewer backup. Call a qualified remediation contractor. Search for “sewer or water cleanup contractor”.
Is the City Responsible for My Property Damage?
Probably not. The Maine Tort Claims Act holds your city responsible only if they were negligent in maintaining the lines. Most municipalities have strong maintenance programs for their systems. They’re not responsible for people dumping inappropriate items into the system, such as grease, non-flushable items, or debris. If you think that the damage was caused by your municipality’s negligence, contact their legal department.
Does My Homeowners Insurance Cover Sewer Backup?
“Off the shelf” Maine homeowners insurance policies do not cover property damage from backup of sewers or drains. Optional coverage is broadly available from your Maine insurance agent. For more information about sewer backup insurance, homeowners insurance or other storm insurance, contact Noyes Hall & Allen Insurance at 207-799-5541.
Our Maine insurance agency has been very busy taking claims and reporting them to insurance companies, and keeping our clients informed of the progress of their claims.
So far, the damage that’s been reported to us has been mostly concerned with homeowners insurance: trees falling on property and wind damage to buildings, followed by water backup into basements. Many Mainers lost power, which caused their sump pumps to fail, allowing water to back up into their homes.
What kind of damage did you have to your property?
We’ve been very busy today with calls from clients who suffered damage in yesterday’s wild storm – and there’s more weather on the way this weekend. Most calls have concerned fallen tree limbs, which can be some of the trickiest claims to advise insureds about. Here’s why.
The cost to repair damage to your neighbor’s property caused by your tree.
You can see how this might get complicated pretty quickly. But there’s more.
How Common Insurance Policies Respond to Tree Damage
Most property policies pay for YOUR damage if the tree or limb damages your building or structure. They also pay to remove the offending tree or limb from the damaged property (“chop and drop” coverage).
Most property policies do NOT pay to remove a tree or limb that doesn’t damage anything else. There are exceptions to this rule, depending on which company you’re insured with, and which optional coverages you bought.
Liability coverage pays for your “legal liability” for damage to someone else’s property. You have to be considered “negligent” for coverage to apply. Just because it was your tree that fell on your neighbor’s fence, that doesn’t mean you did anything wrong. Liability could depend on the condition of the tree before the storm, among other factors.
Put all of these factors together, and you can understand why there’s no quick answer to “am I (or my neighbor) covered when a tree falls in my yard”. Your best bet is to call your agent, and get their opinion of your unique situation.
What to Do if a Fallen Tree Damages Your Property
While every situation’s different, these should apply to most.
Take photos of the damage or the fallen tree or limb.
Take immediate steps to protect your property from additional damage.
Make arrangements to have the tree removed. No need to wait for an adjuster to see it.
Remember, there’s a difference between the law and being a good neighbor.
If you’re not legally responsible, and your liability doesn’t cover their damage, their homeowners policy will probably cover it. But, they’ll have to pay their property deductible. In the interest of maintaining good relations, you and your neighbor may want to talk about cost sharing.
When you buy Maine auto insurance, you choose liability coverage to insulate your assets from damages you might owe to others after a car accident. Your policy also includes uninsured motorist coverage, usually at the same limits.
Here are 4 auto liability insurance mistakes our Maine insurance agency works hard to save you from – and how to avoid them.
1) Meeting State Minimum Limits.
Buying Maine State Minimum liability insurance limits is like getting a “D” on your report card. You pass, but just barely. Maine’s minimum requirements ($50,000 per person / $100,000 per accident for Bodily Injury, $25,000 for Property Damage) are comparatively strict – higher than every state except Wisconsin. That’s good, right?
Think about what that might need to pay for.
Bodily Injury coverage pays people you might injure for their
Hospital & Doctor Bills
Lost Time from Work
Physical and Occupational Therapy
Pain & Suffering
Attorney’s Fees
Those expenses can easily top $50,000 for a moderately serious accident. What happens if you have a REALLY serious crash?
Maine’s minimum property damage limit is $25,000. Still think that’s enough?
Property Damage Liability coverage pays for damage you cause to:
Other vehicles
Property in their cars (computers, golf clubs, etc.)
Buildings
Utility poles, guardrails, etc..
2) Forgetting that Insurance pays to defend you.
insurance does more than pay for damage and injuries you cause. It also pays for legal expenses – unless your liability coverage runs out. As long as you have insurance limits left, your insurer finds, hires and pays an attorney to defend you. The beauty of this is that your legal fees do not reduce the amount of coverage available to pay injured parties.
Still think $50,000/$100,000/$25,000 is enough?
If you watch TV in Maine, you’ve seen lots of ads urging injured Mainers to call a lawyer so they can “get what they deserve”. If you get in an accident without insurance – or, if you cause more damage than you bought insurance for – you’ll have to hire your own lawyer to defend yourself. With your own money. And, if you’re found liable, you’ll have to pay the damages on top of that. With your own money.
3) Keeping the Same Limits Year After Year
Insurance is the only thing between your assets and a liability judgement. The higher your net worth, the higher your liability limits should be. When you bought your first car, your net worth might have equaled the contents of your pocket. But gradually, you got ahead of the bills, made a little more money, maybe bought a house – and your net worth grew over time.
If you cause more damage than you have insurance, guess where the court will look for restitution? Your home equity, your savings, investments, and so on. So make sure your liability coverage at least matches your net worth. Think about buying an umbrella policy to supplement your auto & home liability coverage. They’re cheap, and can be the difference between an unfortunate accident and financial disaster.
4) Ignoring the Danger of the Uninsured – or Underinsured.
Your car insurance policy also protects you against uninsured or underinsured drivers. If someone hits you – their fault – and they have no insurance, your policy acts as if they had the same limits you do, and pays for your bodily injury. Same thing if they had low limits, and you bought higher ones.
See where this is going now?
But wait. Maine car insurance is mandatory. The State requires it to register your car. So everyone’s insured, right? Not really.
An estimated 4% of Maine drivers are uninsured – and that’s the 2nd best rate in the country. The Insurance Research Council estimated that nearly 14% of U.S. drivers had no car insurance at all. And that doesn’t count the people who buy minimal limits.
So Mainers are relatively honest folks. But what about everyone else? What’s that nickname on Maine’s license plates again? Oh yeah…
Most of our out-of-state visitors are from the northeast, right? Click on the map below to enlarge it, and you’ll see that of the 10 states within an easy day’s drive of Maine, 2 do not require drivers to buy insurance AT ALL. Six more require per person Bodily Injury limits of $20,000 or less.
Think you might want to increase your car insurance? Talk to a good Maine car insurance agent – like us for example.
Most schools couldn’t run without parents and grandparents who act as classroom helpers, dance chaperones, PTO officers, fund-raisers and field trip drivers. Volunteering is a great way to be involved in your children’s education, and to meet their classmates and their families. It can also expose you to liability. Does your insurance cover these activities?
Classroom Activities
flickr photo by cambodia4kidsorg
While you’re volunteering in the classroom, the school’s insurance policy protects them against liability if someone gets hurt, provided you’re engaged in a school activity.
If you are sued individually, your homeowners or renter’s policy should pay to defend you against claims for bodily injury or property damage. Not every homeowners policy covers “Personal Injury” – such accusations as slander, libel, defamation of character or invasion of privacy. Make sure your policy has this coverage!
Outside the Classroom
Things are a little trickier here. Let’s say you’re a chaperone on a field trip to the county fair, and one of your students wanders away from the group and is hurt.
Flickr photo gingerbydesign
The school’s insurance policy will protect them against liability on a school-sanctioned event. Most policies will also protect volunteers, but you never know how much coverage the school district bought, or even if the premium has been paid to keep the policy in place.
Your homeowners liability coverage should again protect you if you’re sued for bodily injury or property damage (or personal injury if you took our advice above and bought that coverage). How much coverage do you need? We generally recommend a $500,000 liability limit, the most you can buy on most homeowners policies. You should also consider an umbrella liability policy to provide even broader asset protection.
What if you’re an officer in the PTO, or a fund-raiser? Some school policies will protect the PTO. Others do not. Before you join any non-profit board, you should find out whether your activities are covered. If not, your homeowners policy should protect you in the same way described above.
Two Big Holes
Your homeowners policy does not provide “errors and omissions” coverage (incorrect administration of the board) or “fiduciary” coverage (theft of money or property). All the more reason to make sure that the organization offers protection to you as a volunteer before you agree to serve.
Transporting Children
flickr photo by woodleywonderworks
Most schools require proof of insurance before they’ll allow you to drive children to a school-sanctioned event. Their requirements may not be sufficient to protect you, though. It’s important to check on 3 coverages in your auto policy:
Liability – Too many people have liability coverage with “split limits” instead of “combined single limits”. A common split limit is $100,000 per person/$300,000 per occurrence for Bodily Injury, and $100,000 for Property Damage. Most people think that means they have $300,000 of liability coverage if they’re at fault in an accident. Not really – unless 3 people are hurt, each with up to $100,000 of injuries. What they really have is $100,000 per person. By comparison, a $500,000 “combined single limit” policy has up to $500,000 to pay for Bodily Injury or Property Damage, no matter how it’s needed.
Uninsured Motorist – Although Maine mandates that drivers have liability insurance, many still don’t. And, the State minimum limits are a scrawny $50,000 per person/$100,000 per accident. If someone who’s un- or under-insured hits you, your UM coverage protects you and people riding with you up to the limit you choose. Choose wisely!
Medical Payments – You don’t have to be in an accident for someone to be hurt in or around your car. It doesn’t even have to be your fault. A kid could slam someone’s finger in a door, or close a hatchback on someone’s head. Kids have even been known to engage in horseplay in the car – hard to imagine, isn’t it? Anyway, the kid’s family’s medical insurance should pay for those injuries, right? Yes – unless they’re one of the 45 million uninsured Americans. Then, they might sue you for their injuries. So, make sure you choose appropriate medical payments limits if you’re transporting other peoples’ kids – whether for school or not!
As a Maine insurance agency, our clients often ask whether they should have their bank or mortgage company pay their homeowners insurance, or whether they should pay it themselves.
Often, lenders give you no choice; they insist on escrowing property taxes and insurance – especially if you’re a first-time homebuyer, or your credit rating is close to their eligibility threshold. The “golden rule” applies: the one with the gold makes the rules. If you want to borrow from them, you’ll escrow.
But if you’re an established homeowner, have a very good credit score, or are an especially desirable credit risk, you can ask to pay your own insurance or taxes.
How Escrow Works Lenders collect some money at closing to seed your escrow account – commonly, 3-4 months of taxes and insurance. That way, they always have YOUR money to pay the bills when they arrive, instead of theirs. Part of your monthly mortgage payment goes to your escrow account. You pay 1/12 of your property taxes and homeowners insurance premium each month. By Maine Law, your lender must pay you interest on the balance in your escrow account.
Escrowing Your Insurance is a Good Idea if:
You’re not good at budgeting money for big payments.
You’re not good at paying bills on time.
You want to spread your payments over 12 months, without billing charges.
You don’t mind the bank holding onto hundreds to thousands of your dollars.
You don’t make lots of changes to your homeowners policy.
Problems with Escrow Escrow works pretty well, as long as things don’t change. The most common problems occur when:
Your bank sells your mortgage, and no one tells your insurance company.
Your bank changes its address, and your policy is not updated.
Your bank loses/never gets/doesn’t pay your insurance premium, and your policy cancels.
To be fair, the first two would be problems even if you didn’t escrow. The bank wouldn’t get their copy of your policy, and soon you’d get a nasty note, saying that they need a copy of your insurance policy. But at least your policy would still be in force. That’s not the case if #3 happens.
The Bottom Line If you’re financially disciplined and business-savvy – or just a control freak (you know who you are), you probably want to pay your own insurance premiums – unless your bank forces you to escrow. After all, once you pay off your mortgage – and you will someday – you’ll pay the premiums and taxes yourself anyway. Why not get used to it now?
If you have questions about escrowing or buying home insurance in southern Maine, call Noyes Hall & Allen Insurance at 207-799-5541.
Falmouth High basketball fan Adam and the Cape Elizabeth Boys’ Basketball Boosters split a $600.00 jackpot after Adam sank 3 consecutive shots in less than 30 seconds at halftime of Tuesday’s Falmouth / Cape contest Tuesday night. Noyes Hall & Allen Insurance has sponsored the contest for several seasons.
Bob O’Brien and Dave McKenna of Noyes Hall & Allen present a check to Adam, who won the Cape Booster Shoot jackpot.
At halftime of every Cape Elizabeth Boys’ home game, the Boosters draw a 50-50 ticket. The winner gets 30 seconds to make a free throw, 3-point shot, and half-court shot. If they make all three shots, they split the jackpot with the Boosters. The jackpot starts at $200 and increases by $100 every game in which it is not won.
There have been a few winners over the years, but none has accomplished it in 3 shots before. Adam did it with “nothing but net”!
Noyes Hall & Allen is proud to sponsor the Cape Booster Shoot as a way to help local sports and extend its community involvement.
