Thanks for taking a moment to review our High Point, NC renters insurance guide. Why do we create these guides for cities and states nationwide? Currently, only forty-four percent of Americans have renters insurance, and that’s mostly due to the fact that many people don’t know a great deal about the coverage. One of our core values is education, because we believe that people would be covered if they knew how important it is and how little it costs.
One of the reasons we’ve created state and city renters insurance guides across North Carolina, including this High Point renters insurance guide, is that North Carolina Renters Insurance is downright different from renters insurance anywhere else in the country. North Carolina has a unique regulatory system that means that both pricing and coverage are quite different from anywhere else. North Carolina Renters Insurance also can involve risks from tropical storms, which are something that often new residents of NC haven’t had to deal with before. Tropical storms bring the risk of wind damage and flooding, both of which should be addressed separately as part of being properly covered. Granted, High Point, NC renters insurance doesn’t often have to deal with those two issues in particular, but they’re certainly things that should be considered because not every storm loses all of its power as soon as it hits land.
High Point renters insurance isn’t as complicated as some types of insurance, but it pays to work with experts who are intimately familiar with all the moving parts of your coverage and can help you understand what’s covered, what coverage you can endorse onto your policy, and what’s entirely separate from your High Point, NC renters insurance. The North Carolina Renters Insurance experts at Effective Coverage are able to clarify coverage and help you get a policy quickly and efficiently. It takes just a few minutes and costs far less than you think.
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High Point, NC Renters Insurance
Does High Point, NC Renters Insurance Cover Hurricanes?
That’s a rather broad question. What most people actually mean when they ask that question is whether High Point renters insurance covers damage from wind as a result of a hurricane. Since North Carolina tightly controls what territories wind coverage is available in, must be made available in, or is not available at all in, the answer is yes. High Point, NC renters insurance generally includes coverage for damage from windstorms and hurricanes.
For example, if the rain blew a rock through your window, and the rain was blown in as a result and caused damage to your personal property, you could have coverage for that eventuality. The wind is the actual cause of the loss, the rain coming in after the damage occurred is secondary. When trying to determine if there’s coverage, you generally want to look at the proximate cause of the loss to find coverage.
Hurricanes can also knock out power for several days. Did you know that your High Point renters insurance generally has a clause in it allowing for coverage for damage to refrigerated property? If the storm knocks out the power for a week and everything in your freezer spoils, you could have coverage for that loss. This is a separate coverage with specific limits and terms, so it’s always good to read your policy document carefully, but refrigerated property coverage on renters insurance in High Point is fairly standard. This is, in part, because the policy forms used are dictated by the state, so you can expect fairly similar coverage with only minor changes between companies.
Is Flooding Covered By Renters Insurance In High Point, NC?
A great man once couched an important answer in the words, “that depends on what your definition of ‘is’ is.” Interestingly enough, the same qualifications apply when looking for coverage on your High Point renters insurance for water damage. There are three main ways that water damage can occur. The first, of course, is the obvious broken or frozen pipe scenario. As long as the home isn’t vacant and a good faith effort was made to maintain heat in the dwelling, High Point, NC renters insurance will generally respond to water damage to your personal property which results from a frozen or otherwise burst water pipe. That’s not a flood, even though your home may be flooded as a result of it. Flood has a very specific definition in the insurance realm, as we’ll see in a moment, and the above is not within that definition.
What about if your toilet overflows and causes damage to personal property? Is that a flood? Again, that’s outside the definition of flood. Note well, however, that coverage for water backup of sewers and drains is excluded from the standard policy form. How do you get coverage for water backup? There’s an endorsement to get that coverage. On average, it costs about two to four dollars a month to carve back coverage for water backup on North Carolina Renters Insurance, and you’d be well advised to do so. Even the most detail-oriented people who are meticulously careful can suffer a loss from a toilet, sink, or drain overflowing – never forget that apartment living means your utilities are branched off of those of several other people. Somewhere, they meet.
If your neighbor’s child flushes a rubber duck down the toilet, and it sticks in the wrong place in the pipe, every toilet in your apartment building could overflow because the sewer line from each apartment comes together at a central point somewhere before joining the sewer line at the street. In that scenario, there would be two potential ways for you to be made whole. The first would be the water backup endorsement on your High Point, NC renters insurance. That’s an easy, cut and dried claim to make, and generally, it’s pretty obvious to the adjuster what happened so it’s a straightforward claim to get paid as well. You could also file a liability claim against your neighbor’s policy, considering that there is a direct, causal relationship between your neighbor’s negligence allowing the unsupervised child access to the bathroom and the proximate cause of the loss.
However, just like any other kind of insurance, it’s almost always easier, faster, and more efficient to file a claim under your own policy and let your insurance company deal with recovering against the negligent party’s liability insurance or directly from them. That’s called subrogation, which is derived from the ancient Greek word for “not my problem.” Actually, it means that when your insurance pays a claim to you, you assign your right of recovery to them in return, and they have the right to take whatever action may be necessary to recover the money they paid out and your deductible if applicable from the responsible party. At that point, you’ve been made whole and can move on with your life, so subrogation actually does mean “not your problem,” after a fashion. But again, water backup of sewers and drains is not a flood.
Enough about things that aren’t floods, you say? Get to the point and tell me if High Point, NC renters insurance covers a flood, you say? We’re glad you asked! This is where your definition of “is” comes into play. A flood is specifically defined in insurance jargon as “water or water-borne material moving along, through, or under the ground.” A flood by that definition is also specifically excluded. If you rent a townhouse with a basement and heavy rains from a hurricane cause water to seep in through the basement walls or window frames, that’s considered a flood and is not covered. If you live on the first floor and water comes in through your door frame, having moved along the ground, that’s considered a flood and is not covered.
Why is flood excluded from renters insurance in High Point, NC? Because flood is excluded from substantially all renters and homeowners policies across the country. It’s been that way for some time. Separate flood insurance is available and is generally inexpensive for renters as it only covers the contents or personal property, not the structure. The reason that flood insurance is a separate policy and excluded from renters insurance policies is simple: flooding is the kind of loss that can destroy literally an entire city. Even for insurance carriers with tens of billions of dollars in claim reserves and the right reinsurance, that’s still more exposure than is prudent for a company to take on. Speaking of reinsurance, no reinsurance company would want to cover the risk of an entire city being wiped from the map by a single event. Generally, no insurer wants to take on a risk that they can’t get reinsurance for. So no, floods are not covered by renters insurance in High Point, or anywhere else in the country, but you can get separate coverage for them and there are plenty of types of damage from water that can be covered by your renters insurance.
Renting In High Point, NC
High Point, NC is located in the Piedmont Triad region of North Carolina. Currently the ninth-largest city in NC, it’s also the only city in the entire state that has parts in four separate counties. Parts of High Point lie in Davidson, Forsyth, Guilford, and Randolph Counties. This makes certain municipal tax and permitting issues a bit confusing sometimes, because you have to determine whether something is handled by the city or by the county, and if the latter, which county. Permits are not frequently a concern of renters, but it can impact what licenses you may or may not need for a home-based business, as well as the school your children attend.
Known as the “Home Furnishings Capital of the World,” High Point lies about 60 miles north of Charlotte, in roughly the middle of North Carolina. As a memorial to the home furnishings industry that had such a strong impact on High Point, the “World’s Largest Chest of Drawers” is located in High Point. It’s actually a four-story building that is home to the local Jaycees. No visit to High Point is complete without stopping to see this giant wonder. As buildings constructed to double as the “World’s Largest” of something go, this massive dresser is on par with the World’s Largest Basket in Newark, Ohio. Both are worth seeing, and both induce wonder.
The City of High Point is not called the “Home Furnishings Capital of the World” for nothing, of course. High Point boasts over seventy stores selling home and office furnishings. Furniture has been produced here since the 17th Century by the British who settled in North Carolina. The city was the initial center of development of the furniture industry. With the inexpensive workforce that came after the Civil War when both soldiers and former slaves were in need of work, the furniture industry really started to bloom in the late 19th Century and many investors were interested in High Point because of its location, cheap labor, and cheap and efficient method of transportation. High Point was ideal for the Southern market because of its location at the junction of the railroad and a main road. Even today, High Point has retained this part of its heritage. Much of the manufacturing may have gone elsewhere, but retail sales of furniture have replaced many of the manufacturing jobs. High Point is proud of the way they managed to replace those manufacturing jobs with positions that allowed workers to continue using much of their skills and knowledge base.
High Point also has several historical attractions like Museum of Old Domestic Life, a place that shows the viewer the area’s past with exhibits and displays. People can forget all their troubles and worries in Lake Park, the perfect place for picnics, birthdays, long walks and for rest. You can take a ride on a historic carousel with a train that goes through the park and after that Lake Park provides opportunities for fishing and boating, as well as canoeing and one of the largest outdoor swimming pools in the state.
Living in High Point, NC is not expensive. Jobs are readily available in many fields. North Carolina is strong in the banking sector, and Bank of America is one of the major employers here. Other large employers include High Point Regional Health System and Guilford County Schools. With everything this city offers, including both good, solid jobs for those who need them and opportunities for leisure time in both nature and in the city, High Point also provides inexpensive real estate and rentals to those who wish to settle here. The estimated median home value was about $135,000 and the median gross rent was about $700 in 2012. These numbers are on par for this part of the state, but they create a far lower cost of living than could be found many other places in the country.
High Point is also known for jazz groups, and is the home of famous 20th-century saxophonist John Coltrane, who is honored at the John Coltrane Commemorative Marker on Underhill Street. An amazing place to have around when you’re not in the best mood or if you’d like to have some special time with your significant other is the All-A-Flutter Butterfly Farm, full of colors and beauty. The sheer quantity of colorful and exciting little butterflies will turn even the worst mood, and is a great setting for a romantic date, as well.
Once you’re settled in this lovely city, don’t forget to protect your new home and your family with High Point, NC renters insurance from Effective Coverage. It’s far and away the least expensive means of protection, averaging just fifteen dollars a month! One phone call to Effective Coverage gets you covered today, and you can even get proof transmitted directly to your leasing office if necessary.