Any Body Here In the INSURANCE business?

Looking for Insurance brokers or agents. My 78 year old mother with MS is losing her home owners insurance on Jan 3 2012 due to 3 claims for the Act of GOD (hail) in 3 years. Any help would be Great.

Ace

Curt is a claims adjuster,he might be able to give you some info. Good luck w/Moms house

Are you sure its for "Act of God" incidents? Have you talked with any regulators? or State officials? to make sure it legal?

double post

Ace, unfortunately a lot of carriers are going to 3 claims in 3 years makes for high risk and non renewal. If she has been with the company for a long time, she should go to the agent and have him/her fight for re-reinstatement. She may have to shop around a little if they can't help. Weather events are not normally disastrous on HO claims, but if you add anything to it or have been late paying, they will look at it as a negative risk value.

With all of the bogus lawsuits that Insurers are facing, cost cutting has to come somewhere. I am in Houston all week doing depositions for Hurricane Ike. Big Law firms charge big fees, and the companies have to protect themselves. Makes it bad for everyone. If we want better, cheaper insurance, tort reform is a necessity. Also, when the little guy looses, he should have to pay court cost and defense. It sounds tragic, but it needs to happen.

Hope she can get things worked out.

I operate and own a agency in Tennessee. Where is her house located? What were the specific claims, wind, hail, fire????

Moodyblues wrote:I operate and own a agency in Tennessee. Where is her house located? What were the specific claims, wind, hail, fire????

She's located in Lakewood, Colorado. all 3 claims were Hail related. She has AARP/Hartford and has had them for at least 15-20 years. There so much more to this but I got a letter back in October from some underwriter saying I had to show intent or complete the repairs by the 28th. I called their 1-800 Eat Sh*t number and talked to a rep of some sort and was never given a straight answer. I explained to them that at this very moment I have a singed contract and the are working out the details and supplement cost as we talk. I gave them the name and numbers of the claims rep and the company doing the work. Last I stated My contract say's I have 180 days from the time of the loss to have the damage completed. At that point the reps stated that the underwriters can do what they want. And said that I have only 90 days from the time the check was sent out. I asked for them to show mw that in writing. They never did.

Ace

Ace, did they total the roof on the 1st or 2nd claim and was not replaced before the 3rd claim was filed? If so, that could be the problem, as the Hartford would have been asked to pay for the same roof twice, and not done in a timely manner prior to the 3rd event.

the roof was replaced in April of 2009 and just last month November 2011. which are the 1st and 3rd claims. the 2nd claim was for minor hail that was less than 1k to fix but I had some problems with them on that because they would only pay out just under $400 and the rest came out of My pocket and I even faxed them copies to the claims office asking for reimbursement and never heard back. There was also siding and gutter work on the 1-3 claims and minor siding on the 2nd claim

Ace

Be nice to them, put all of your documentation together and see if you can work things out. Also, talk to the State Insurance commissioner and see what the State rules are for catastrophe.

In Texas, they can not count a cat claim as a normal loss.

While you're putting that together, go out to the biggies, State Farm, Allstate, American Family and Farmers to see what they will do for her. Offer them all of your business - cars, health, home, whatever else you are paying insurance for.

MY insurance guy called and said He can do it if I quick deed the house in my name (this is something we have been talking about) and that way he can list it with mine ( homeowners) and show it a as a rental. all she would be responsible for would be taxes and Insurance. We did the same thing a few years back with my mother in-law.

Ace

Well, at least he is willing to work with you to keep it insured. Just sucks that you have to do it that way.

powerstrokeace wrote:

Moodyblues wrote:I operate and own a agency in Tennessee. Where is her house located? What were the specific claims, wind, hail, fire????

She's located in Lakewood, Colorado. all 3 claims were Hail related. She has AARP/Hartford and has had them for at least 15-20 years. There so much more to this but I got a letter back in October from some underwriter saying I had to show intent or complete the repairs by the 28th. I called their 1-800 Eat Sh*t number and talked to a rep of some sort and was never given a straight answer. I explained to them that at this very moment I have a singed contract and the are working out the details and supplement cost as we talk. I gave them the name and numbers of the claims rep and the company doing the work. Last I stated My contract say's I have 180 days from the time of the loss to have the damage completed. At that point the reps stated that the underwriters can do what they want. And said that I have only 90 days from the time the check was sent out. I asked for them to show mw that in writing. They never did.

Ace

Even though the claims were hail damage, the company has paid out probably more than she has paid in premiums. Insurance companies work on loss ratios. It has been a tough three years for the property carriers and I agree with Curt, 3 claims in 3 years will have you in trouble with about any company.

NOTE TO EVERYONE IN THE SOUTH - insurance property premiums are really going up over the next couple of years, so get ready. We have already seen companies like Farm Bureau in TN starting to "weed out customers" gotta pay for that insurance commercial they run in Tennessee. Farm Bureau of Tennessee over the last three years has a loss ratio of over 100, which results in millions of dollars. State Farm is not far behind. These two carriers insure the majority of property in TN and they will drive the rate hikes.

Glad your agent could give you a hand.