Category: Home Insurance

The holiday season brings joy, warmth, and a touch of magic to our homes. At Ottawa Insurance Agency in Zeeland, MI, we want to ensure your festivities are safe as well as festive. Here are some tips to prevent fire hazards while decorating your home.

Choose Safe Decorations

When selecting decorations, opt for those made from non-flammable materials. Look for labels that say "fire-resistant" or "flame-retardant." Avoid decorations that have the potential to ignite easily, such as paper and dried flowers, especially when used near open flames or heat sources.

Mind Your Lighting

Holiday lights add sparkle to any setting but can pose a risk. Before use, check all lights for frayed wires and broken bulbs. Consider using LED lights, which emit less heat and are more energy-efficient. Always turn off and unplug lights before leaving the house or going to bed.

Be Cautious with Candles

Candles bring a cozy ambiance, yet they are a common cause of home fires. Use battery-operated candles as a safer alternative. If you prefer real candles, keep them away from flammable materials and never leave them unattended. Place them on stable surfaces where they won’t be easily knocked over.

Maintain Your Tree

If you’re decking the halls with a real tree, keep it well-watered to reduce the risk of it drying out and becoming a fire hazard. Position your tree away from heat sources like fireplaces and radiators. For artificial trees, make sure they are labeled as fire-retardant.

You Can’t Prevent Every Fire Hazard

Despite your best efforts, you can’t prevent every fire hazard in your home. This is why home insurance is important. Let us help you protect what matters most. Contact Ottawa Insurance Agency in Zeeland, MI, today.

Safety in the home is a major concern. You need to be safe from the outside and make your home safer inside. According to the National Safety Council, more than 50 percent of accidents happen at home. At Ottawa Insurance Agency in Zeeland, MI, we are independent insurance agents who help ensure that our clients have a home that is as safe from risk as possible. 

Outdoor Safety

If you have a swimming pool, you need a self-locking gate on the fence that protects children from your pool. If you have an above-ground pool, a removable ladder or folds up when the pool is not in use is essential. Accidental drowning is the third most common unintentional cause of death in the world. 

Keep your bushes and trees trimmed and in good health. High bushes close to your home pose a safety issue, and trees with dead limbs can damage your home, vehicle, or family when they fall. 

Indoor Safety

Inside your home, ensuring that your smoke and CO2 detectors are operational and have fresh backup batteries can save your life. Maintaining your furnace and cleaning the chimney and furnace yearly protects you and your family from a fire. 

Controlling the clutter in your home makes it safer for getting around. Trips and falls are major causes of injury in the home, and, especially for young children and the elderly, clutter in hallways and on stairs can be a serious hazard. 

Keep all medication and poisonous chemicals under lock and key and out of the reach of children and pets. Curiosity is a bad thing when it comes to these things. 

If you live in Zeeland, MI, or the surrounding area, call our office at Ottawa Insurance Agency for all your home insurance needs. 

Home Insurance and Home Warranty: Understanding the Difference

At Ottawa Insurance Agency serving Zeeland, MI, we prioritize the protection of homeowners’ investments. There’s a common myth circulating that home insurance and home warranties are the same products, but this is not true. Despite both services playing pivotal roles in maintaining home assets, they serve distinct purposes and cover different aspects of home ownership.

Defining Home Insurance

Home insurance, also known as homeowners’ insurance, safeguards the value of your property against loss and damage from various incidents, including fire, storms, theft, and vandalism. Your mortgage lender necessitates home insurance to protect their stake in the property. However, retaining coverage even after settling a mortgage offers an added layer of financial protection.

What Does a Home Warranty Cover?

A home warranty operates like a service contract. It’s designed to cover the repair and replacement costs of major home systems and appliances degrading over time due to wear and tear. Warranties can be particularly beneficial for items that frequently break down, such as HVAC systems, plumbing, electrical systems, and kitchen appliances. It’s noteworthy that a home warranty doesn’t cover the physical structure of a home but rather some of its contents and utility systems.

At Ottawa Insurance Agency serving Zeeland, MI, we recommend homeowners maintain both home insurance and a home warranty. This ensures comprehensive coverage for both the property itself and its major appliances. For more information, get in touch with us today.

Admittedly, even the best home insurance policy our agents at Ottawa Insurance Agency can put together can’t control the weather and thus can’t prevent storm damage from happening. But what our insurance policies can do is help homeowners get back on their feet fast, ensuring storm damage is promptly taken care of and not sitting and leading to more costly repairs further down the line.

Not sure? Consider the following ways a strong home insurance policy can protect one of your greatest assets, your home:

How Home Insurance Protects Against Storm Damage

When a storm hits your Zeeland, MI home, the first thing is to get safe. Then, after it has passed, you want to do what you can to assess the level of damage. Take pictures and start documenting. Then, call your insurer who will help ensure you get the finances you need to repair or even rebuild your home.

A good home insurance policy will help get you back on your feet by offering the following coverage:

• Dwelling Coverage that insures the physical structure of your home, including flooring, walls, and roofing.
• Personal Property Coverage that insures sensitive, valuable, and expensive personal belongings, including electronics and clothing.
• Additional Living Expenses Coverage that offers reimbursements on money you might need to spend while your home is being repaired or rebuilt, including lodging and partial food costs. 
• Debris Removal Coverage that offers reimbursements on money you might need to spend to remove storm debris — which does get expensive.

Learn More About Home Insurance Options at Ottawa Insurance Agency

Ready to see all of the options on a home insurance policy covering your Zeeland, MI home? Give one of our friendly insurance agents at Ottawa Insurance Agency a call today and let’s get started!