A.P. Reid's Insurance Products:
Personal Property Insurance - Information Bulletins
At A.P. Reid, we consider consumer education to be one of our top priorities. An informed insurance buyer will made educated decisions about their insurance - ensuring that you avoid trouble down the road in the event of a claim. A.P. Reid customers benefit from the important information contained in our series of hundreds of Customer Information Bulletins. Below you will find a selection of these bulletins related to Personal Property Insurance. Check back often as this selection will be updated from time to time.
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When Away on Winter Vacation
The entire staff of A.P.Reid Insurance Stores wish you and your family a terrific winter holiday and hope that our "tips" to you will ensure you return to your home sagely and find your home dry, warm and free from damage.
How fortunate you are that you are traveling south for a winter holiday, and that you are able to escape our Atlantic Canadian winters. Those of us who remain behind wish you a safe and happy trip and we want to provide you with these few tips to ensure that you return to a warm and secure home. Whether you home is owned by you or rented by you, your personal building and contents insurance policy contains a very important warranty.
Your Policy says that you MUST maintain the heat in your home during your absence. If you do not wish to maintain the heat in your home, you are obligated to drain all water from all pipes AND shut off the water supply at the source to the building. Any failure to do one of the options will "void" your freezing and breakage coverage. You could come home to water damage and no insurance coverage for that water damage. Check your oil supply before you leave. Make sure there is enough oil in your tank to heat the building for your entire holiday.
You must arrange for a home visitor to enter your premises every single day of your absence during the normal heating season. Your visitor must check electricity and water, temperature and pipes, run water to be sure nothing is freezing. Your visitor needs to know who to contact in the event your furnace or oil supply requires service. This is a condition of "freezing coverage" continuing during your absence. Those of you who have suffered the damage and inconvenience of frozen and burst pipes can well attest to the cost of repairing and cleaning up such damage.
Your home visitor needs to know all of the emergency numbers, including a cleanup company they can contact. They need to know who we are too, so we can authorize emergency repairs under your policy if you've me the conditions to maintain freezing coverage. They also need to know how to shut off the water at the main supply.
Helpful Hints:
• Keep driveway shoveled. Ask a neighbor to park in your yard.
• Make sure mail is being removed from your mail box.
• If you are loaning your vehicle to someone, tell us so we can add them as a listed driver to your auto insurance.
• Ask a trusted neighbor to carry garbage to "your curb" once in a while to give your house a lived in look.
• Remove all valuables from you home and take to a safety deposit box during your absence.
• Get a few automatic timer lights, for the inside and outside.
• Leave a "normal" message on your answering machine, not an "extended absence" message.
Come home to a safe and secure home; call us if you need us.
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