How to Help Homeowners Prepare for Hurricane Season

How to Help Homeowners Prepare for Hurricane Season
The arrival of summer has many of us thinking about days of leisure and vacations to the beach. However, insurance carriers have something else on their minds this time of year: the arrival of hurricane season.
The Atlantic hurricane season begins June 1st and runs all the way through November 30th. Last year we experienced one of the most brutal hurricane seasons on record, with 17 storms, 10 hurricanes, and 6 major systems in 2017. Considering last year’s track record, you would think we would get a break from major storms and hurricanes this year; however, forecasters are already predicting that 2018 will be an above-average hurricane year.

How Insurance Carriers Can Help Homeowners Prepare for Hurricane Season
In reality, it only takes one storm to wreak havoc on a community and create mass devastation. From an insurance carrier’s perspective, it’s in your best interest to take the time now to educate insureds how to protect their properties to minimize damage and loss during hurricane season. Offering a property inspection before hurricane season arrives is one of the best ways that insurance carriers can help insureds protect their homes from disastrous storms.

Offering a spring property inspection will provide insurance carriers with an opportunity to walk the property to assess risk and have an in-person meeting with the insured to point out areas that need improvement. These face-to-face interactions provide insurance carriers with the ideal setting to educate homeowners about the risks associated with hurricane season and point out areas that need improvement, thus providing substantial value. These days mobile apps and technology seem to be taking over how the insurance industry operates, so using a property inspection as an opportunity to gain valuable face time with insureds will give you a competitive edge.

Here are some areas that a pre-hurricane season property inspection should take into consideration:

  • Roof as this is the most vulnerable component of a home.
  • Gutters as they tend to accumulate a lot of debris during the spring season, thus prohibiting proper drainage.
  • Windows and doors as they should be properly sealed to prevent wind and water from entering the home.
  • Trees near the home as branches (or the tree itself) could cause structural damage as a result of high winds.
  • Outdoor equipment such as HVAC units and outdoor furniture that could cause damage to the home if not adequately secured.

Our team at Insurance Risk Services has nearly four decades of experience in providing accurate underwriting support to property and casualty insurance carriers in the form of residential and commercial property inspections. We use the latest technology to complete thorough underwriting reports to help insurance carriers best determine which risks are worth taking.

Contact us at Insurance Risk Services to learn how we can help you deliver value to your clients and protect your bottom line with a pre-hurricane season property inspection.

We’re delighted to announce that Insurance Risk Services will rebrand to Davies in the near future.

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