Brand New Homeowner's Policy Cancelled

[Paula]

About five years ago, we switched homeowners/auto insurance to ABC company. They had great prices, so we signed up. We had no claims.

Fast forward to late last year, my husband did some research on a new carrier, calling about 10 companies, including XYZ company. ABC co. had gone up, no notice, and when I called to see if they'd give me a new quote, the agent said she'd call back with numbers but never did, and I didn't chase it. Couldn't get any better prices, so we stayed with ABC. Then XYZ calls back last month and said their prices have gone down, can they quote us again? Well, sure. Homeowners/auto came back about $60/mo cheaper, and they even threw in a small life insurance policy.

Sign with XYZ co - lots of paperwork/phone calls back and forth, funds autopayed from bank account, etc. This took place late April/early May over the course of two weeks. Then last Friday, after everything is said and done, we get a homeowner's cancellation letter from XYZ saying there are holes in our eaves and a tree touching our roof, so they will cancel in June if we don't fix it. I call wanting an explanation , they send pictures. We have a 1" hole in one eave, and a few branches, none of which are more than 1/2" wide, touching our roof. The actual trunk of this tree is 15' away from the house. No other insurance companies have had a problem in the 22 years we've lived here. Our home was built in 1995, and is in great shape. When I answered XYZ's email with those pictures, I said I'd think about whether we want to stay or go with the cancellation, and asked the agent if she had any idea why they'd wait until all that paperwork/phone calling/signing, etc was done to cancel? Haven't heard back from her since Friday.

Our house is 2-story with steep pitched roof, and husband could fix both problems, but he has a bad back, and I'm not sure I want him to attempt this. He's not crazy about the idea, either, TBH. No idea how much it would cost to hire someone.

Then yesterday (Monday) I get another letter saying we owe $74.48 on our cancelled account. I haven't called yet about this since I got home so late, but I have no idea what to make of it.

My ideas about going forward on this:

1. Fix the eave and the branches, and stay with our new company XYZ. But I'm wondering why they would conduct business like this? Who writes policies involving weeks of back and forth, and then cancels over tiny things no one else ever worried about? If XYZ is difficult about this, what else will they be difficult about? What if it's my car and I can't get to work? It makes me very concerned. Also, the life insurance policy is $40 a month - It's only $10,000, and I don't really want it.

2. There's a new ABC agent close to me; different office than the one that never called back. I could go sit down with them and see if they can match XYZ's price. When we insured with them they used my pictures of the house.

Thoughts, comments, concerns? What would you do? TIA!

 

[djs]

For clarity, nobody has worried about these issues because you haven't had a new policy. Any new policy is likely to do at least a drive by inspection and see these issues and require they get fixed.

Branches on the roof: Simple fix now. Do it. If not, they will result in a much bigger repair bill pretty quickly. It needs to be done.

Hole in the Eave??? Not sure what caused this, but it sounds like an easy fix as well. Just do it.

Cancel the life policy, especially if you have coverage elsewhere. The policy might be $40 a month, but be aware it probably provides a discount to the other policies, so the true cost is somewhat less. Make sure you have life insurance coverage somewhere though.

Insurance rates are fixed, there is no price matching type of thing. The rate should be the rate from any agent you use, though some will trim coverages or whatever to figure out a better rate / worse coverage type of thing. An agent cannot provide additional discounts unless you qualify for them (i.e., home/auto, no claims, etc)

5 years ago, ABC may have used your pictures, but its likely they still had an inspector drive by the house and make sure the condition of the house is as it was represented. It happens a lot in the background and people don't know it happened most of the time. On the humor side, as an agent, I have received copies of these inspections where they inspected the wrong house, including when they inspected my own home. In one case, they missed by 400 miles and wanted to cancel the policy. That took some explaining to the client (they inspected a different one of his homes, wasn't a totally wrong thing).

Overall, a carrier that protects what they insure will tend to have better rate stability. They tend to have fewer claims for random stuff. More claims make rates go up.

Dan

 

[InsCommentary]

What djs said. Fix the problems and get rid of the life policy. $40 a month for $10K? Branches touching the roof and holes are how squirrels and birds get into the house and the damage isn't usually covered by your policy. If there's a hole, it may have already been created by an industrious squirrel to gain entry.