If you have been using the home yourself, then you probably have a homeowners policy which is generally issued to an owner occupant of a home. If you are planning to rent the home for a short time, your homeowners insurance company may allow this on your current homeowners policy. You may want to check with your agent to see if this is allowed and what policy provisions may change with a tenant in your home. If you are planning to rent the home for a long period of time, a dwelling fire policy is probably the appropriate policy. This policy differs slightly from the homeowners policy. The largest difference is that there is usually no coverage provided for theft. There is also no set amount of contents coverage provided by the policy, you set a limit yourself. The perils the dwelling policy provides coverage for may also be less broad than the homeowners policy it is replacing.
In Massachusetts, if you have a personal automobile policy, anyone who is not a customary operator may drive your vehicle occasionally without being listed as an operator on your policy. Household members are required to be listed as operators because they are most likely to have regular use of the vehicle. If an unlisted household member is operating your vehicle and has an accident, the insurance company may withhold payment for some coverages, like collision, if additional premium would have been owed had they been listed, due to an inexperienced operator class or a higher rating step under the Safe Driver Insurance Plan. This same rule applies to anyone who has been given regularly furnished use of your automobile even if they are not a household member. When operators of your vehicle have an auto policy of their own, in MA, they can be "deferred" operators, which means there will not be an additional charge on your policy regardless of their driving class or history.
There are basically two ways in Massachusetts to cancel an auto policy. The first is to return the license plate to the MA Registry of Motor Vehicles. They will issue you two copies of a plate return receipt. You keep one copy for your records, in case the town continues to bill you for the exise tax, the second goes to your insurance agent, who will forward it to the insurance company to cancel the policy. If you stop making payments on your insurance policy, it will eventually cancel for non-payment, but this is not advisable. The insurance company will notify the MA Registry that the plates are no longer valid. If you apply for an auto policy in Massachusetts within a year from the date of the cancellation for non-payment, you may be required to pay the annual premium in full.
You can save money by increasing your policy deductible. Installing deadbolt locks, smoke alarms, and burglar and fire alarms that alert local police and fire stations may qualify you for additional discounts. Some insurers also offer discounts if you insure your home and automobile with the same company. You can also ask your agent to check current premiums with the other companies (s)he represents. Rates are not uniform, and change regularly.
Under the new SDIP, accidents and convictions of traffic violations are tracked by the Merit Rating Board and used by insurance companies to determine a surcharge or discount “factor” to be applied to the policy premium when a policy is initially written and at each policy renewal. In addition to adopting the new SDIP, the state adjusted the entry-level insurance rates for all drivers to rates that assume 0 at fault accidents or convictions of traffic violations (one non-criminal driving violation is assigned 0 points).
The new SDIP will feature a range of surcharges from 0 to 45 points. Experienced drivers (those with six or more years of driving experienced) will be charged 15% per point for accidents and moving violations. Inexperienced drivers will be charged 7.5% per point for accidents and moving violations. The reduced surcharges for inexperienced drivers recognizes that they already pay a higher rate based on the assumption that, as new drivers, they are more likely to have accidents or violations.
The point values assigned to at-fault accidents and conviction of moving violations are:
Major Moving Violation 5 points
Major Accident 4 points
A claim payment of more than $2,000, exclusive of any deductible, under Collision, Property Damage Liability or Bodily Injury
Minor Accident 3 points
A claims payment of more than $500, exclusive of any deductible, under Collision, Property Damage Liability or Bodily Injury
Minor Moving Violation* 2 points
*If the first incident on a driver’s record is a minor moving violation, no points will be assessed for that violation; however, it will not be counted as an incident-free year.
The new SDIP offers two excellent driver awards:
• A driver with no accidents or violations in the six years preceding the effective date of the policy will earn the “Excellent Driver Discount Plus” which provides a discount of 17% from the published rates for Part 1—Bodily Injury Liability, Part 2—Personal Injury Protection, Part 4—Damage to Someone Else’s Property and Part 7—Collision.
• A driver with no accidents or violations in the five years preceding the effective date of the policy will earn the “Excellent Driver Discount” which provides a discount of 7% from the published rates for Part 1—Bodily Injury Liability, Part 2—Personal Injury Protection, Part 4—Damage to Someone Else’s Property and Part 7—Collision. In addition, an experienced operator (six or more years) with exactly one incident in the past five years which is a noncriminal traffic violation and is more than three years old will be awarded the “Excellent Driver Discount.”
As an incentive to drive safely, the new SDIP will allow the “aging” of incidents. When a driver has three or fewer accidents or violations in the past five years, and the most recent accident or violation is more than three years old, the number of points for each accident or violation will be reduced by one. Accidents or violations may only be “aged” once.
This summary courtesy of the Massachusetts Association of Insurance Agents 1/31/06
5. I am renting a car on my upcoming
vacation. Will my
Massachusetts
automobile insurance policy provide the coverage I need?
Your MA auto policy will provide the same coverage for your rental private passenger auto as it does for your own vehicle. This does not mean that your policy provides adequate coverage for the rental, though. Your policy does not provide coverage if the rental vehicle is damaged and cannot be used. The rental company is losing income for the time the vehicle is not able to be rented. The rental company, as part of their contract, may require you to be responsible for this lost income. Your policy does not provide this coverage. Another provision of your policy is that it will repair or replace an automobile at actual cash value, not replacement cost. Actual cash value takes into account depreciation for the age of the vehicle, while replacement cost is the amount it would cost to purchase the vehicle today. The rental contract may require you to be responsible for replacing or fixing the vehicle at the full retail value. Some major credit cards offer rental car coverage when you pay for the rental with their card. You may find the coverage offered by the credit card company to be in compliance with the rental car contract. The rental company will offer their insurance to you for a nominal fee. This insurance should provide for the potential coverage issues at question. The best way to cover yourself is to purchase whatever insurance the rental company offers.
A homeowners policy does not provide coverage if the water has seeped in or leaked through the foundation or through the building itself. There would also be no coverage provided by the homeowners policy if a body of water such as a lake or ocean flooded and caused damage. Flood Insurance can be purchased through the National Flood Insurance Program, but even this coverage only takes effect when 2 acres surrounding your home are flooded.
You may have a grace period of 7 days to transfer the license plate
subject
to certain conditions. You must be at least 18 years old, the
previously
owned vehicle must be of the same type and have the same number of
wheels
as the new vehicle, and you need to have lost possession
of the old vehicle in order to be eligible for any grace period. The
license
plates must be attached to the newly acquired vehicle and the operator
must
carry an original copy of the bill of sale indicating the plate number
to
be transferred or a certificate of transfer issued by the dealer. See
also this FAQ from
the MA RMV.
If you have a tree that falls due to a windstorm and hits your home causing damage, your homeowners policy will pay a limited amount for the removal of the debris as well as for the repair of the structure, subject to your policy's wind deductible. If your tree hits your neighbor's home, fence or other property, causing damage, your neighbor's homeowners policy will most likely pay for the removal of the tree, as well as the damage to their property, subject to their policy deductible. You are not legally responsible for damage caused by an act of God, such as wind. Therefore, the liability section of the policy does not apply, because there is no liability. If the tree falls into your yard or the neighbor's yard but does not damage any covered structure, neither policy will pay for the removal of the tree debris. Most insurance companies offer a special endorsement that can be added for an additional premium that provides debris removal coverage even if the tree has not damaged a covered structure.
Homeowners policies are package policies including coverage for your dwelling, other structures, personal property, loss of use, and liability coverage. The coverage provided under other structures is usually 10% of the coverage that you have on your dwelling. There is no specific charge for this coverage and there is no savings to delete this coverage. This section does provide coverage for items such as lamp posts, mail boxes, tool sheds, swimming pools, etc. subject to the policy deductible. A few companies have a special endorsement which can increase the dwelling coverage 10% if there are no other structures.