Does Anybody Go Without Homeowners/Property Insurance?

[Looking4new]

I had Wawanesa Insurance for years. They sent a risk assessment advisor around one day. He looked the place over, took some pictures and left, not saying a word to us after identifying himself. Long story shorter, Insurance company sent me a letter;
They didn't like two fuels in the basement (oil tank and firewood), the house is log, therefore made out of wood.

They didn't like the burn barrel 75' from the house and wanted me to get rid of it. I asked them what I was supposed to do with the garbage (meat bones and trimming scraps), they told me to store it on the property until a vehicle comes available. I asked them about bear damage, they told me they do not cover bear damage.
My response; There are lots of bears wander through this place and they do help themselves to my trash, hence the burn barrel.
Their answer; too bad, no barrel or we cancel.
I told them their demands were too unreasonable and to shove their insurance where the sun don't shine. I was without Insurance for about 5 years when I happened upon State Farm. SF asked about the house, construction, what the roof was and wanted pictures.
I then got the Jeep on with them, too. The Jeep insurance is another story, which was a nightmare until SF.

 

[oosik]

Perhaps one of the reasons I've had such good experiences with State Farm is that they have been the only insurance company I've ever had. When I graduated from college in '65 my dad bought me a new VW bug and I insured with State Farm - been with them ever since. Since 1965 State Farm has covered my houses, autos & camp trailers.

 

[BrokeFarmerJohn]

Perhaps one of the reasons I've had such good experiences with State Farm is that they have been the only insurance company I've ever had. When I graduated from college in '65 my dad bought me a new VW bug and I insured with State Farm - been with them ever since. Since 1965 State Farm has covered my houses, autos & camp trailers.

I had State Farm growing up, they were gonna cancel my stuff on my dad's policy because of the couple speeding tickets I had, I was around 21 or 22 years old. Which made me start shopping, I shopped every company under the sun it seemed, 2 said they wouldn't cover me, 3 gave me crazy high quoits but at the time Allstate was the only one willing to work with me and there quoits were 3/4 everyone else.

At the time I had 2 trucks, 1 car and a motorcycle, motorcycle was threw progressive.

All other companies saw me as a high risk and went back 5 years, they pulled up every speeding ticket and seat belt ticket (non moving violation) and held all that against me.

Allstate not only said they would insure me but the lady said she was gonna try to get me the lower 25 year and older rates since at the time I was also shopping for a house. They accepted and quoted me the lower rates and I moved everything to them, I opened a home owners policy for a 10% discount if I opened the policy before buying a house, it didn't cost me anything, it was just an idle part of the account until I bought a house.

About 4 months later I bought a house and have had them ever since.

I get discounts threw work from Geico, Travelers and 2 others which I can't remember at the moment but anyway even with my discounts they can't touch my price threw Allstate to this day.

For an example State Farm quoited me $1400 a year for home owners insurance, most were around $1100, Allstate is at $720 a year give or take $50, I forget exactly what it is.

I also have way better coverage threw Allstate, I bumped my policy way up from when I had State Farm.

Those who have State Farm really need to shop around and hold them accountable, they were by FAR crazy high on everything for me.

 

[ultrarunner]

After 12 years with FB (2 houses, 3~4 autos), never late on premium payment except once when the due date was moved up due to "paperwork", they hung me out to dry by giving a 30 day cancellation if the roof on one house wasn't replaced in JANUARY in MICHIGAN. Shoot, I couldn't find a reputable roofer willing to install and warranty a roof in JANUARY in MICHIGAN. Didn't matter.

Took everything to Auto Owners, added a boat, and have much higher replacement amounts on both houses for $150 more a year.

To the OP, I couldn't sleep without liability coverage. Don't heed the suggestions to hide info, you're rolling the dice and may get unpleasantly surprised by not having coverage when you need it. You may as well pocket the premiums and buy sleeping pills with the savings

I replaced a roof late in the year because my roofer is very busy... right after it started raining and rain it did with me being pleased to have it done.

The city comes out and gave me a 30 day notice to paint... my roofer replaced some eave and trim that was left in primer... I explained no one paints in November here... in addition I had to use only a city approved/certified lead safe contractor... what a mess.

No rhyme or reason when it comes to demands...

A local lawyer owns a lot of income property and each is it's own LLC to limit liability....

 

[rekees4300]

Call Amica, Consumer Reports rates them #1 for Homeowners insurance.

Amica Mutual Insurance Company

I thereby formally withdraw my recommendation to call Amica. :thumbdown: It's ironic but a few days after I made the above post Amica sent a letter cancelling my policy because my house is more than 5 miles from a fire station! I was their customer for less than 2 months, paid the premiums, and no claims! There was no mention of their 5 mile limit when I initially contacted them in February, I even plainly told their CSR the house is 8 miles from the nearest fire station. How Consumer Reports can rate them as #1 in customer satisfaction is a mystery? Anyway I'm now a USAA customer. Told USAA what happened with Amica and they said the 8 miles isn't a problem.

 

[japody]

When we built the house on the farm, I called the local rep for the big name insurer we had been with for over 30 years. We wanted insurance for the new house, farm equipment, livestock and hay. Those were all no problems. However, there is an old farmhouse on the property which is vacant and not habitable. We did not want that insured. They said that we would have to tear the farmhouse down before they would insure the property. We told them to suck wind. We were able to find insurance through a local independent agent who recommended a mutual insurance carrier. They have been super easy and didn't blink when we submitted a claim for hail damage to the roof. And their premium was in line with expectations.

 

[dmccarty]

We had Nationwide insurance when I was a young adult and I will tell the tale of how the stole my money until the day I die.

Once upon a time, we were living in a very bad neighborhood because it was all we could afford. The thing that was odd was that the two of us were making the average for a family of four yet we are using coupons to buy food. :confused3: One family in our apartment complex was from Latin American and they NEVER used the AC and we were in South FLA in the city. HOT does not describe the temperatures. Me and another guy would borrow each other's tools to keep our cars running. The guy with money was the Jamaican drug dealer living next store with the very loud stereo system. :shocked:

I finally occurred to me one day that the difference between us and them is that we had INSURANCE. Both health care, auto, life, etc.

We moved to another city and into a better neighborhood but I was sent on a work assignment to another city for a short time. My car was stolen over there by a kid who just turned 18 but who was a career car thief. VERY LONG story, is that Nationwide lied, lied and lied to me over and over. It cost me thousands of dollars to fix the car which should have been totaled. My used Nationwide because my parents did so and my mother gave lots of business to the agent because of the work she did. When I started running into problems with my claim we talked to him and he said file a compliant with Nationwide so I did.

I was told by the dishonest scum handling my claim THAT COMPLAINING TO THE COMPLIANT LINE HURT MY CASE! :confused3:

It was not just my case though. At the same time this was happening to me, a customer who had been screwed by Nationwide walked into the office he did business and killed a bunch of people.

Nationwide was not on my side, they were far up our back side.

We have had a couple of claims over the years at different insurance companies and all of these claims were handled as one would expect. In a couple of cases, they were handled more than fairly. This was with Allstate and NCFB.

Later,
Dan

 

[dmccarty]

Regarding getting your policy canceled....

Years ago a coworker had his house policy canceled. I think it was State Farm but I might be wrong. The company was doing this to many people apparently because of the hurricane claims. The coworker was trying to find a new company and I suggested he call the NC Insurance Commission. He did not think this would work but he did so anyway and his policy was reinstated. There was no reason to cancel his policy that we could figure but for some reason they canceled. He was not in an area that would flood but for some reason they tried to cancel. Go figure.

Later,
Dan

 

[Steppenwolfe]

I doubt your neighbor has insurance coverage away from his property.

Homeowner's insurance is normally limited to the property's boundaries, that is the boundaries of your neighbor's property.

If Homeowner's insurance was not property limited some would do risky commercial work then file claims on non-commercial Homeowner's policies for big $$$. Commercial insurance is much more expensive than Homeowner's insurance because risks are unknown to both operator and insurance provider.

Good advice. :thumbsup:

 

[ultrarunner]

I thereby formally withdraw my recommendation to call Amica. :thumbdown: It's ironic but a few days after I made the above post Amica sent a letter cancelling my policy because my house is more than 5 miles from a fire station! I was their customer for less than 2 months, paid the premiums, and no claims! There was no mention of their 5 mile limit when I initially contacted them in February, I even plainly told their CSR the house is 8 miles from the nearest fire station. How Consumer Reports can rate them as #1 in customer satisfaction is a mystery? Anyway I'm now a USAA customer. Told USAA what happened with Amica and they said the 8 miles isn't a problem.

Yep... distance to fire hydrant and/or fire station is the basis to drop many in California... kind of ironic in that one of the biggest fires every with some 3,000 homes occurred in the city of Oakland/Berkeley

Every so often we seem to go through a purge with providers leaving California... so far the AAA Insurance through the Auto Club has not left...