The highs and lows of home insurance

We’ve talked about car insurance, so how about some home insurance chat?

A few months ago, I got a letter from my agent: Your insurance company is going out of business.

Boo.

But we’re moving you to another company.

Yay.

A few months later, I heard from my mortgage company: Your home insurance just doubled, so we have to adjust your escrow.

Boo.

So I called my agent, and they were able to move me to a new company–with even lower rates than before.

Yay.

But you’ll need to pass a home inspection, and that old water heater will need to be replaced.

Boo.

An update from the agent: Thanks to the new water heater, you're all set. 

Yay.

And then earlier this week: Hey, the new insurance company is going to cancel you because you’re missing a handle on one of the sink shut-off valves and there’s rust on some of the under-sink plumbing.

Boo.

A closer examination showed that was just some scale, not rust, while a new handle cost me $2.48. New photos sent.

Yay.

And then more from agent: They’re not happy with the scale on that one shut-off valve.

Boo.

A little CLR and a wire brush fixed that. Today’s call: You’re good to go and have a nice day.

Yay.

I'm totally surprised they didn't tell you a licensed plumber had to do the repair with a permit from the city....

Maybe that will be tomorrow.  

Home insurance in Florida totally sucks.  Companies are fleeing the state in droves.  Citizens (backed by State of Florida) is being forced to take up the slack.  Going to be a major mess if we get another blow this year.

You may want to look at agents. 

Wow. That was a roller coaster of emotion you just took us on. Exhilarating. 

That's crazy. Wow.

My brother lives two miles from me. They recently doubled his rate due to the wild fires in CA. Mine were unchanged. We live on the opposite side of town from the hills, a fire would need to destroy 3/4 of a town of 100,000 people, and cross a large irrigation canal to get to us. I don't know how those living in the hills can afford insurance. 

Wow.  That's more than a little out of control. 

That's wild. I've never had to go through that to change insurance companies. I changed companies a few years ago here in OK, they only wanted pictures of the roof to ensure it didn't have pre-existing wind/hail damage. 

In a recent thread I was astounded to learn that what I pay for a year of homeowners insurance is what some people pay every month.

In reply to grover :

I can't blame them as they took care of me–and quickly. With what we're saving, I'll shut up now. But, yes, lots of back and forth. 

Duke said:

In a recent thread I was astounded to learn that what I pay for a year of homeowners insurance is what some people pay every month.

Florida. 

And dont even ask about car insurance rates in south Florida. You'd have a heart attack. 

We had citizens due to every other insurance company refusing us due to our roof being possibly over 20 years old. This was all well and good until citizens *YAY!!!* found a different insurance company for us. Ok, im a first time home buyer and dont think anything of it.  
 

A few months later,  the bank got mad because my escrow had been drained. I wasn't informed that the new insurer had crap rates. I only found out due to the escrow not having $$. If i remember right it was about 2k$ to get it right.  That dickhead company had to buy us a roof thanks to the hurricanes. 
i dropped them and got much better insurance easily with the new roof. 

So happy AAA only did a drive by inspection on our house.

In reply to Boost_Crazy :

Sounds familiar. I live close enough into town that I don't get hit with the wildfire premium, but my house is a couple hundred feet away from the Hayward fault, so I pick up the extra $300/month for earthquake insurance. My dad OTOH has 8 acres in the country and a very valuable vintage motorcycle collection. His insurance company recently came up with a list of 10 deficiencies that was a thinly vieled way of saying "f--k you, we don't want your risk anymore". So his broker goes to another provider who says, "Okay, we'll cover you, but not your animals". Well it's the country and everyone has animals, so that's a big DQ too.... 

I do have one positive thing to say: Allstate has always taken great care of us. We always come out better than whole, even on a six-figure claim when an Oak tree crushed my garage.

Oh yeah, my mortgage company entered the chat. 

You owe us escrow to cover the increased insurance premium. When you get the refund from your old insurance company, send us this amount to cover the shortage and everything will be square.

Boo.

Oh, wait, you sent us too much money to cover the shortage, so we're sending you a check.

Yay.

Oh, we sent you too much. You still owe us a few bucks.

Boo.

At the end of the day, my mortgage payment will be lower than before, so I'll take that yay. (Also, everyone I talked to at my mortgage company was super, super nice.)

I have USAA.  They're probably not the cheapest but when my house got hit by a bad hail storm they were on it immediately and paid for everything ($60k) without a fuss.

In reply to David S. Wallens :

In reply to Appleseed :

Yeah. At the end of the day, I'm coming out with a lower payment. It just took a while to get there....

I never go with the recommended insurance company.  I did that with my first house and not only did I find it was ridiculously expensive by comparison, I found out that the agent gets kickbacks.  I'm all for commissions and getting paid for sales, but it kinda makes it more "this company pays me to say nice things," instead of "this company is actually good in my experience."  

I went with an independent agent.  He came out to personally inspect, and all he asked is that I trim some branches that were touching the roof.  I haven't heard a peep from him since.