[cstreit]

So 2 years ago we had some bad storms. In two days the wind ripped off sections of my shingles creating a leak, and then 24 hours later flooded my basement with flooding and a sump pump failure. Result? Two claims. About $15k in total.

Several weeks ago we had a sewer failure that backed up 100 gallons of water into the basement destroying the ceiling and furniture. Another claim, about $8k.

Fast forward to today, my insurance agent calls me and says they will not renew unless we drop our water backup rider... ...which would be fantastically stupid for me to do considering we live on a flood plain.

I mentioned to him that we have resolved our exposure and been an ethical customer, taking care to resolve future issues as we learn them (multiple backup systems, etc..) to prevent this from happening again.

Of course I want to tell them to pound salt and leave them altogether. You can buy insurance, but if you USE it, well EFF YOU, we'll drop you. Okay... Well then I find out that the insurance companies have a central clearing house where they essentially publish all claims made and create what amounts to a blacklist, illegal in any other industry, but standard operating procedure in insurance I guess.

Need Suggestions on what to do. Is it even worth calling their customer service line to complain? If someone had simply explained the ACTUAL procedures to be (ie 3 claims in any 3 year span and you're dropped) I would have probably paid out of my pocket instead. ...but apparently THAT is illegal. They can't TELL you they will drop you, but perfectly legal to do so if you exceed an arbitrary threshold. It's not the cost of the claim, it's the NUMBER apparently.

What do? Find a new provider and hope they don't decline to offer coverage? If I had known, I would have just paid out of pocket. Really pissed off that I need insurance, but cannot really use it when needed....