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Homeowners Insurance Quotes & Your Fireplace

Risky Fireplaces Yield Higher Homeowners Insurance Quotes

By Meha Ahmad, InsuranceAgents.com Staff Writer

When you’re sitting beside a warm, crackling and inviting fire on a chilly night, you may not be thinking about your homeowners insurance. However, dismissing the financial risk of an uninsured fireplace in your home can be disastrous for your home and your savings. To find affordable policies with flexible coverage for your fireplace, you can shop online using our simple quote forms now for multiple homeowners insurance quotes.

High Risk Causes High Homeowners Insurance Quotes

Home fires are one of the most common insurance claims homeowners make today, causing fireplaces to be seen as a very risky source. The more of a “high risk” client you are, the more costly homeowners insurance quotes you will find.

However, most fires are preventable, meaning there’s a chance to prevent high homeowners insurance quotes, as well. By reducing the fire risk to your property, you can find cheap homeowners insurance quotes. Just remember the following:

  1. Keep your fireplace clean. Fireplaces and chimneys need to be cleaned regularly, and inspected for cracks, obstructions, and vulnerabilities. Low homeowners insurance quotes are offered to people who get regular chimney/fireplace inspections.
  2. Fireplaces are not incinerators. Avoid burning trash and paper in your fireplace.
  3. Get a screen. Invest in a strong and recommended fireplace screen to prevent flying sparks and rolling lit logs from getting out of the fireplace, catching your home on fire. A strong screen alone will help you find lower homeowners insurance quotes.
  4. Guard the chimney. Birds are notorious for building nests inside or around chimneys. Protect your chimney with a guard to keep animals outside of your chimney. Guards can also yield lower homeowners insurance costs. Also, they prevent sparks from reaching your roof and catching it on fire.
  5. Fire extinguishers. Keeping a fire extinguisher near your fireplace may also yield cheaper homeowners insurance quotes.
Insuring Your Fireplace

A typical homeowners insurance quote and policy will not include the cost of insuring your fireplace. To ensure that your fireplace is included on your home insurance policy, do the following:

  1. Add the endorsement. When searching for homeowners insurance quotes, you will be asked if your home has a fireplace: this is called an endorsement. An endorsement is a modification in coverage that is added to your policy. If you do not add the fireplace to your coverage, it will be considered an omission, and thus will not be included in your home policy.
  2. Check with your home insurance agent. Ask your homeowners insurance agent about how to properly insure your fireplace. Do you need additional liability insurance? Are there certain guidelines you need to adhere to before installing your fireplace or frame? Does it need to be professionally installed to be included in the policy? Can they offer you low-cost homeowners insurance quotes and coverage for your fireplace? Your agent will be able to answer these questions.
  3. Obtain homeowners insurance quotes. Adding a fireplace to your policy may result in a higher homeowners insurance quote, since a fireplace poses certain serious risks to the home and inhabitants. Obtain multiple homeowners insurance quotes online using our free quote comparison service.