Of local interest
Homeowner's Insurance how not to get burned
The smell of smoke permeates
your car. You turn the corner and
find yourself face-to-face with the
charred remains of the house you've
called home for IS years. It's the
nightmare no one wants to think
about, much less plan for. But
according to the North CArolina As
sociation of CPA's, having enough
homeowner's insurance and keeping
good records of your poaessioas can
help to ease the burden of such a tra
gedy.
Homeowner's insurance provides
protection for your most treasured
assets? your home and personal be
longings. Homeowner's policies in
clude two general areas of coverage:
property insurance, which protects
against loss of physical damage to
your property, and liability insur
ance, which covers you when you are
liable for another person's injury or
for loss or damage to another per
son's property.
Most insurers require that a home
be covered for at least 80 percent of
its replacement cost. Replacement
cost means the amount it would cost
to have the house rebuilt in the cur
rent marketplace.
If your house should burn to the
ground, resulting in a total loss, you
will be reimbursed only up to the face
amount of your policy. So, if you're
insured for $100,000 and it costs
$130,000 to rebuild your home, you
will have to pay for the difference.
While 80 of percent of replacement
cost is considered to be the minimum
for standard coverage, you may want
to consider insuring your home for
full value.
As a general rule, the contents of
your house and your personal posses
sions are insured for no more than 50
percent of the coverage on your
home. In case of loss or damage of
personal possessions, actual-cash
value policies reimburse you for the
current replacement cost, minus de
preciation. For example, suppose a
fire destroys the beautiful traditional
sofa you bought for $1,200 four years
ago. Even if you're convinced it was
in perfect condition before the fire,
its actual cash value is now consider
ably less than what you paid for it.
And you certainly could not go out
and replace it for the depreciated
amount you would receive. As a rem
edy, many inusrance companies are
now offering replacement cost cover
age for your personal possessions
With replacement cost insurance,,
you are paid an amount that will g?n
erally allows you to replace the lost
of damaged property, within certain
limits.
Now close your eyes for a moment
and try to imagine listing every sin
gle item in your home? every piece
of clothing, every kitchen utensil, ev
ery gardening tool in your garage. If
this sounds like a momentous task,
imagine doing it in the aftermath of a
devastating fire or burglary.
As a safeguard, everyone should
prepare a household list on which you
record everything you own? from
coffee mugs to furs. In the event of
loss or damage, a household inven
tory can be invaluable in substantiat
ing that loss. Using a notebook, list
all your possessions, room by room,
including a brief description, date of
purchase and purchase price. You'll
want to supplement this list with a
visual account of your home's inte
rior and your possessions It's also a
good idea to retain receipts for all
your major purchases
A video camera can provide an ex
cellent record. You can videotape ev
erything you own, again going from
room to room. Pay particular atten
tion to valuable items such as jew
elry, silver and electronics. (If you
don't have access to a video camera,
you can rent one at a nominal coat.)
If you cannot videotape your per
sonal property, use a camera to take
photographs of the interior and your
possessions. Be sure to keep your
household list and photographs or vi
deo tape in a safe deposit box. They
will be of no value if they go up in
smoke with the rest of your posses
sions.
Jewerly, silver, furs and other ex
pensive items are only covered to a
limited extent by standard homeown
er's policies. To cover a special item,
you will need a floater (so named be
cause the first one insured goods
shipped by water). A floater policy
protects against accidental I06S or
theft, whether in your home or away.
The insurance company will need to
know the value of each item covered
and will want a copy of the sales rec
eipt or an appraisal of each, as well.
All standard homeowner's policies
include liability coverage. This cov
erage protects you if you're held lia
ble for property damage, such as
when a tree on your property falls on
a neighbor's fence, or in the event
your child's playmate trips over your
garden hose and breaks his ankle.
Liability insurance should cover all
family members and pets.
Fisheries department outlines regulations
Fishermen have been confused
with new king and Spanish mackerel
federal regualtions (amendment 2)
in the North Carolina area that be
came effective June 30.
Denis Spitsbergen, consultant,
N.C. Division of Marine Fisheries,
listed the following update. All laws
apply only to federal waters (3-200
miles offshore).
1. Allows annual changes in maxi
mum sustainable yield (MSY) and
total allowable catch for king and
Spanish mackerel.
2. Separates Spanish mackerel into
Gulf of Mexico and Atlantic migra
tory groups and establishes catch al
locations for each group.
3 a. Allows establishemnt of a rec
reational allocation and bag limit for
Spanish mackerel and a reduction of
the bag limit for Spanish mackerel
and a reduction of the bag limit to
zero if the recreational allocation is
reached. King mackerel are man
aged by a bag limit only with no clo
sure.
b. Allows establishment of a com
mercial allocation for Spanish mack
erel and a closure of the fishery if the
allocation is reached.
c. Requires permits for commercial
vessels fishing for Spanish mackerel.
4. Prohibits the transfer at sea fo
king or Spanish mackerel taken un
der a bag limit.
5. Restricts the mesh size of Span
ish mackerel gill nets to 3Vi inches
(stretched measure).
6. Prohibits the use of purse seines,
except for incidental catbces, in the
fishery for both groups of Spanish
mackerel and for tha Gulf of Mexico
migratory group of king mackerel.
7. Requires permits for charter
vessels fishing on the recreational al
location for king mackerel, Spanish
mackerel, and cobia.
Spitsbergen offered further clarifi
cation. He said since the permit for
charter vessels is t. new rule, charter
vessels presently fishing for king,
Spanish mackerel, and cobia have
until August 24, 1987, to obtain a per
mit. Under amendment 2, permits
can be applied for and obtained any
time during the April 1 through
, March 31 fishing season. To qualify
1 for a permit to fish under the com
mercial allocations, the owner or op
erator must be able to show that 10
percent of his or her earned income
the previous calendar year came
Bookmobile
schedule
The Perquimans County Bookmo
? bile schedule for Friday, July 17th is
' as follows:
Cherrix Day Care, 9:45; Wynne
Fork Court, 10:1S-10:45; Holiday Is
land Club House, 11:00-12:30; Snug
Harbor, 1:00-2:00; George's Store,
2:15-2:45; Kirby Drive, 3:00; Gladys
Warren, 3:15 and Gertrude Boyce
Drive, 3:30.
Try Classifieds!
We Can Make It
Work For You I
i 11
Swindell monument
(Eompano
I Monuments
Markers
Mausoleums
Avoilobl* in oronit*
(of various colors) or morble
\ We Are Direct Factory
Representatives
Call Larry Swindell
509 Dobbs St 434-7311
from commercial fishing, i.e., the
sale of the catch.
Permits are issued at no cost and
are available at the National Marine
Fisheries Services, Southeast Re
gion, 9450 Roger Boulevard, St. Pe
tersburg, FL 33702, telephone (813)
893-3722.
For the present fishing season
(April 1, 1967) thru March 31, 1988)
the allocations and bag limits are as
follows :
King Mackerel? Atlantic Group;
Recreational Allocation, 6.09 million
pounds with a 3 fish bag limit per per
son per trip.
Commercial Allociation? 3.59 mil
lion pounds; Spanish Mackerel? At
lantic Group; Recreational Alloca
tion? 740 thousand pounds with a 10
fish bag limit per person per trip for
all states except Forida which has a 4
fish hag limit; Commercial Alloca
tion? 2.36 million pounds.
The standard limit for homeown
er's liability coverage is usually
(100,000. But in today's world of esca
lating damage awards in personal in
jury suits, this may not be enough
coverage for many homeowner*
To minimize their exposure to risk,
many people are buying excess lia
bility coverage which is often called
an umbrella policy. An umbrella pol
icy supplements your automobile and
homeowner's insurance, and pays
claims over and above the limits of
your policies. Since excess liability
insurance picks up where your other
policies. Since excess liability insur
ance picks up where your other poli
cies leave off, insurers require you to
first have a prescribed amount of
homeowner's and automobile insur
ance. Umbrella policies are sold n
amounts of $1 million and up. In addi
tion to providing excess liability cov
erage, umbrella policy is low, the
case for getting such coverage is
compelling. One judgement against
you can wipe out all of your assets
and ev?>n lay claaim to future earn
ing.
Review your homeowner's policy
frequently. Today, many policies au
tomatically adjust for inflation ad
just for inflation, tut you'll want to
review your coverage periodically to
be sure you are adequently insured.
CPAs caution that there is a per
sonal casualty losses where an insur
ance policy provides reimbursement
for loss. If you sustain a loss that is
covered by your policy and, for some
reason, you decide not to file a claim,
you may not deduct the amount of
casualty loss your insurance policy
would have reimbursed you.
NOTICE OF PUBLIC HEARING
ON A MOBILE HOME ORDINANCE
Notice is hereby given that the Perquimans
County Board of Commissioners will hold o Pub
lic Hearing on the proposed Mobile Home Park
Ordinance on July 20, 1987, at 7:30 p.m. at the
Perquimans County Court House, Hertford, N.C.
A copy of the proposed ordinance is available at
the Office of the Register of Deeds of Perqui
mans County.
Perquimans County Board of
Commissioners
by: Paul Gregory
Perquimans County Manager
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