how should an indoor garage affect my home owner's insurance premium?

[naeem5]

What they have done is raise the amount of coverage on the structure from 139,000 to 147,000 because the inspector noticed the attatched garage........and apparantly my 88 year old father had slipped it by them for 28 years. Then when the insurance is put in my name, and the inspector comes out, suddenly the garage is a NEW part of the house.
With the increase is coverage, the premium went up $20.
The $1.67 a month extra is ok, it's Allstate's sudden knowledge of a house with a garage that they had insured for 28 years.

[golfgal]

You have a lot of GOOD reasons for the rate increase, the main one is the increased value they are covering. It really has nothing to do with the garage or not but it has to do with the cost to rebuild your home in a total loss. Having the automatic increase is a GOOD thing. I know of some people that did NOT have that, had their house insured for the original amount they bought it for $55,000, had a total loss fire about 20 years later, got a check for $55,000, it cost close to $300,000 to rebuild. It was really sad-they had retired and ended up having to go back to work to pay for a mortgage.

You can't compare rates from one person to another because of credit. I know at the company we are insured with there is a 68% variance just because of credit.

As far as your property taxes, it isn't unusual for someone that recently bought a house to see a big jump in property taxes, especially on a home that had not been sold in a long time. The old tax bill was probably based on a value that was far under what the house was sold for. Around here the Homestead Credit is for your primary home and it lowers your taxes some. If you have a second home that is classified as "non-homestead" and you pay a higher rate. We have a second home and the taxes on that one about $200/year higher then they would be if they were homesteaded.

[naeem5]

I think the primary home is taxed at 4% and a 2nd home or investment-rental might be at the 6%.
I've never paid property taxes or home owner's insurance before. Well, $26 property tax on a mobile home but that doesn't count.
I know the property is taxed at $153,000 (structure 93 and land 60). My father had the structure insured for 139,000. they raised that to 147,000 for me, which is good in case of a total loss.
I decided to stay with Allstate but my quote inquiry at another company showed that their calculated replacement cost (so many dollars per square foot) was about $155,000. So that was the lowest they were willing to insure the house and in their opinion my father had it under insured.