Lost my Homeowners insurance today.

Jims5543 · 02-27-2006, 03:42 PM

Just got a letter. It seems since we made a claim in 2004 from the 2 Hurricanes that hit us directly our insurance company (Tower Hill) has dropped us.

Time to shop for a new policy.

When I bought this house 10 years ago insurance ran me 800 year it is now over 1400.

I need to carry but god forbid I make a claim.

motion · 02-27-2006, 03:44 PM

Yep, that's how it works. Gotta have it, but you can't make a claim. Try getting a policy with a $5000 ded to keep your premium low.

techweenie · techweenie's Garage

That happens a lot with insurance. After the "Northridge" quake, thousands of people were dropped, just for making a claim.

It's really important to elect a good state insurance commissioner who will beat up companies for that kind of behavior.

VINMAN · 02-27-2006, 03:59 PM

I had Prudential for 20 yrs on my car, 10 yrs on my house. I made a homeowners claim 2 yrs ago. They dropped me a month later when my renewal came up.
I called the state Dept of Insurance. "Oh yes, they can do that!"

motion · 02-27-2006, 04:16 PM

What a friggin scam. The insurance companies are obviously trying to create a general, widely-viewed impression that you will be dropped if you make a claim.

Oh Haha · 02-27-2006, 04:23 PM

Sorry to hear about that.
We have State Farm and really have been very happy with them.
Our car rates actually went down. Even with three claims on our truck in the past year. 2 deer hits and 1 ice incident.
We have not had any house claims, though.
Jeez, I hope I didn't jinx us now.

VINMAN · 02-27-2006, 04:24 PM

Thats why people are so hesitant to put in a claim. Most of the time , if it's a small amount youre better off eating it.

pbs911 · pbs911's Garage

Sure was nice of them to collect your premiums through the non-hurricane season. D1cks!

Only thing worse than insurance companies are the attorneys who defend them. . . .

Kee us posted on the search. I am moving to Florida in within hte next few weeks and will soon be in the market.

pbs911 · pbs911's Garage

Sure was nice of them to collect your premiums through the non-hurricane season. D1cks!

Only thing worse than insurance companies are the attorneys who defend them. . . .

Keep us posted on the search. I am moving to Florida in within the next few weeks and will soon be in the market.

speeder · speeder's Garage

The insurance industry is the worst racket on the face of the earth, they're enough to make the mafia blush. I have some ancestors who were big players in that business, it's just an incredibly unregulated scam. They never lose. Like Vegas.

I would say that people should do whatever they can to fuch an insurance company, but it's impossible. They'll just make your neighbor pay for it.

legion · 02-27-2006, 05:35 PM

The total lack of understanding of actuarial science among the general populace is astounding.

The facts are we had a 30-40 year reprieve in hurricanes, those areas most vulnerable got built up during this time, and now insurers have found themselves overexposed in the most vulnerable areas. Dropping people is not about filing claims, but about reducing exposure. (Insurance customers are managed much like an investment portfolio, and houses on the coasts are a lot like small-cap tech stocks. No one puts 100% of their portfolio in small-cap tech stocks, in fact, if the percentage grows too high, some shares have to be sold to reduce risk.) Insurers have to use some justification for dropping customers, and one of the few allowed by law is claim history. And the simple fact is, actuarial science has to be both reactive and proactive. It is always trying to predict the future. If an insurance company gets it wrong and collects too much in premiums, it gets slammed for "profiteering" or screwing customers. If it gets it wrong and collects too little in premiums, it has to raise rates to make up the difference lest it go out of business.

I'm sorry to hear you got dropped Jim. Hopefully you will find a better company.

Flatbutt1 · 02-27-2006, 05:39 PM

Did they pay your claims at least?

on-ramp · 06:10 PM

Insurance companies have only 1 obligation: to make their investors happy. the rest of us SUCKERS just pay the premiums and get hosed when we need to make a claim.

btw, insurance is not mandatory if you own your house (ie, it's all paid off without mortgage).
Insurance is not to protect you, it's to protect the bank from their investment. think about that one.

Jims5543 · 02-27-2006, 06:29 PM

My claims were minimal and honest. I lost my 3 year old fencing (all of it and a LOT of it) the estimate to replace was $7K I was prorated due to age at $2500. My soffet was blown out in one area I did not want to claim it adjuster insisted and put down $500. A window on the North and South sides of my house leaked water. They have NEVER leaked beofre or after the storms. My sons room had carpet, we recieved compensation for the drying of it. Minimal cost. Our wood floor in our bedroom was ruined we were prorated for a 3' x 3' square to be replaced. Unfortunatly the entire room will have ot be ripped out as the flooring was discontinued and we do not have enough spare wood to fix it.

My entire claim was approx. $3500. I have been w/ Tower hill for 10 years. I have paid out over $12,000 in premiums with never a claim until 2004. In 2005 when Wilma hit us I never filed a claim. I just repaired some pool solar panels destroyed in wilma, cost was $1400.

I do not take advantage and I am honest to a fault. When I lost my entire office in 2004 my losses were over $10,000 I only claimed $1800 because my landlord said he would repair all my damage and never did. Safeco dropped me in 2005 months after my claim.

Again learning from the 1st two storms I had ZERO damage to my business from Wilma.

on-ramp - I own my home outright. But, I am no fool. There will be a Cat 5 storm here soon. I want my investment insured. I am so positive that this house will one day be leveled that I purchased a home in the North Carolina Mountains near Procon. We named the house Cat. 5 for obvious reasons.

Not insuring this home would be insanity. In all honesty my policy was 10 years old and based on my initial purchase price of 100K. My house was recently appraised at $350K.

Like Motion suggested. I will prbably insure for 250K and set the deductable at 10K or more. I am more interested in insuring against a total loss not small damage.

Its still a load of crap if you ask me.

tdatk · 02-27-2006, 06:32 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Oh Haha
Sorry to hear about that.
We have State Farm and really have been very happy with them.
Our car rates actually went down. Even with three claims on our truck in the past year. 2 deer hits and 1 ice incident.
We have not had any house claims, though.
Jeez, I hope I didn't jinx us now.

I was too, until we got hit by 2 storms, 2 weeks apart, One of them a tornado w/hail the size of baseballs. 2 claims as they were 2 weeks apart and we were dropped after 22 years with State Farm. This was in Ohio not the high risk areas. SF is culling us as "high risk" freeloaders off their ship as everyone should know, 22 years without a claim and then 2 in a week must be a high risk. BTW , they were totally unsympathetic and and rude with their tatics. I'm pretty sure all states will have state insurance to keep you insured....just be prepaired to pay a higher premium......you see a trend here?

Tim

turbo6bar · 02-27-2006, 06:33 PM

I would search for a high deductible policy. These days, any significant loss is going to push $2000 easy. I'd run $2500 deductible, but you should check the rates. The premium difference b/t $2500 and $5000 may be insignificant.

on-ramp · 02-27-2006, 06:36 PM

now you wonder why banks and insurance companies have the tallest buildings in every major city.

craigster59 · craigster59's Garage

I was with 20th Century Insurance until after the Northridge Earthquake. Didn't even file a claim and they dropped me within 2 months. "They don't have 3 full time Firefighters in Fillmore " was the excuse. Wish they had told me that when they were cashing all those premium checks I was sending them. Got stuck trying to find insurance with chimney damage on the house. Pr*cks.

snowman · 08:49 PM

Try having 2 claims withing a 3 year peoriod. rates trippled, but only with a select group of companies that offer shoddy coverage. Better than the loss, but you still pay for it , in full.

Anything less than 50K, just eat it, your better off.

campbellcj · 02-27-2006, 09:05 PM

Knock on wood, I've had good luck with State Farm as well. Ours just came up for renewal and was hiked a bit but not outrageously enough to squawk or shop around. Our next door neighbors were dropped by (IIRC) Farmers last year purportedly due to fire hazard...yet State Farm doesn't have our adjacent property even classified as a fire zone for whatever reason...even though both of us back up to the same foothill open space (Hey I'm not gonna argue.) The whole industry seems a bit slimy and arbitrary to me - a couple years ago I fought a nasty battle re. a relatively trivial auto accident with a lying and likely DUI white trash POS and that episode was an eye-opener for me. Fortunately after countless letters and phone calls it was ruled 'no fault' and didn't ding my surprisingly spotless record.