Homeowners insurance thread

[2big bronco]

Who has made a large or total loss claim?

I'm curious who your insurance was through and how satisfied you were. Also how much coverage do you have.

With so many people I know having just lost homes I want to use this as a kick in the pants to get my shit in order and go over everything tripple checking that all my bassis are covered.

 

[USMC Gunny]

I did learn something this year about insurance. The catalina mountains were on fire this year, all of Tucson could see it everyday and night. So alot of people without wild fire insurance were calling my wife's office to get insurance. There is a wait when this happens. Something about conditions and that they would have to wait 30 or more days before the policy would go in effect. This is with Farmers insurance though.

We did switch from USAA this year as well. 1700 a year down to 875 a year with farmers and got more coverage.

 

[82toycrawler]

Up here in Paradise after the Camp Fire of everyone I talked to farmers seemed to be the best. From what many said they just cut checks for policy maximums once you had proof of total loss.

We have AAA, in the beginning they were a pain in the butt, they did get better as complaints were filed against them. For personal property we had to come up with values of groupings, like what was the stuff in your garage worth, furniture total, e.t.c.

Some insurance companies made people itemize every single item they owned in order to get paid.

Take a good look at your policy and what the amounts are, can you replace what you lost for those numbers??? Most people I know couldn't, most were under insured. I do know a few that were over insured and came out really well considering.

In our case we did OK (we were under insured). It ended up requiring all our structure and personal property funds to buy a house. Now slowly collecting tools and toys when i feel i have a little extra money.

The worst part is losing the things you can never replace.

That and having a project and thinking, i have the tool for that, only to remember you lost it in the fire.

 

[ThePanzerFuhrer]

I’m through west bend. A tornado came through and leveled a house and a pole barn and seriously fucked up a red iron shop. I was super happy they replaced everything and the only thing I paid for was more garage doors in the new pole shed.

This tornado happened about 1.5 months after I bought the place. Damn ink wasn’t even dry on the first months premium check.

 

[YotaAtieToo]

Up here in Paradise after the Camp Fire of everyone I talked to farmers seemed to be the best. From what many said they just cut checks for policy maximums once you had proof of total loss.

We have AAA, in the beginning they were a pain in the butt, they did get better as complaints were filed against them. For personal property we had to come up with values of groupings, like what was the stuff in your garage worth, furniture total, e.t.c.

Some insurance companies made people itemize every single item they owned in order to get paid.

Take a good look at your policy and what the amounts are, can you replace what you lost for those numbers??? Most people I know couldn't, most were under insured. I do know a few that were over insured and came out really well considering.

In our case we did OK (we were under insured). It ended up requiring all our structure and personal property funds to buy a house. Now slowly collecting tools and toys when i feel i have a little extra money.

The worst part is losing the things you can never replace.

That and having a project and thinking, i have the tool for that, only to remember you lost it in the fire.

I thought the same thing at first about farmers. I think they just wanted to close claims as quick as possible. I don't think those people got screwed by any means. But my in laws with state farm are really getting treated well. State farm is different as they don't really have an absolute max or certain things. My in laws have it set to where state farm is paying their mortgage on their "temporary" house and paying the extra milage that they have to drive to work. As long as they keep the rebuild process going, state farm will keep paying this.

As far as the big checks for the home rebuild and content replacement, I'm not 100% sure how they did this, but they seem to be happy with it.

Also, I'd suggest getting insurance on other items. Like a trailer, boat, green sticker crawler, tractor, ect. They did get hosed on a brand $5k buggy hauler trailer and a roughly $15k boat because they didn't have them listed specifically, and they weren't hooked to the truck. They got a flat $1500 for each.

I have a pos trailer I got from op for like $1000 insured for $2500 because that's what it would cost to replace.

Some people got paid for their "landscaping" even trees, ect. Which adds up when you have property, especially when you have to pay to have the burnt trees removed.

 

[alk1174]

When I bought my house it had a large retaining wall. 10' tall tapering to 2' and about 100' long. It appeared to be constructed correctly and showed no issues. After 5 years it started to bow on the end and show signs it was not tied in correctly. One day after a hard snow and subsequent thaw it blew out in the middle to reveal it had not been constructed anywhere close to correctly. Called the insurance company and they said it should be covered could not find a thing in the policy to say it shoudnt. The adjuster took one look at the wall and realized he was in over his head and called in a structural engineer. After the engineer gave his recommendation the insurance company denied the claim. Fought with them a bit but eventually gave up. I have since torn down the wall and stockpiled the materials to rebuild it. Fast forward 2 years and now the insurance company is planning to cancel our policy next month since the wall has not been replaced as that is what the engineer recommended be done. The policy is with Erie through a family member. We are currently on the hunt for a new company.

 

[gunracer1]

state farm pissed me off a few years back, i told them to just cancel it. 20 years and no claims and still went up every year. if it burns down i will build half of what i have now with a bigger porch.

 

[blakes]

American Family screwed me a few years ago on my home owners. I had them for like 14 years. PO installed some hot water solar panels in the roof that were leaking. Leaking so bad that one of my bedroom ceilings caved in during some heavy rains. I had 2 different companies come and say that should be covered in addition to the hail damage on the shingles. American Family basically told me to fuck off. I've since moved and building my own cabin in a wildfire area (that is under threat now). That reminds me, I should start shopping around both both car and home owners/wildfire cause American Family also screwed me on a couple of minor auto claims.

 

[GarScramb]

When I bought my house it had a large retaining wall. 10' tall tapering to 2' and about 100' long. It appeared to be constructed correctly and showed no issues. After 5 years it started to bow on the end and show signs it was not tied in correctly. One day after a hard snow and subsequent thaw it blew out in the middle to reveal it had not been constructed anywhere close to correctly. Called the insurance company and they said it should be covered could not find a thing in the policy to say it shoudnt. The adjuster took one look at the wall and realized he was in over his head and called in a structural engineer. After the engineer gave his recommendation the insurance company denied the claim. Fought with them a bit but eventually gave up. I have since torn down the wall and stockpiled the materials to rebuild it. Fast forward 2 years and now the insurance company is planning to cancel our policy next month since the wall has not been replaced as that is what the engineer recommended be done. The policy is with Erie through a family member. We are currently on the hunt for a new company.

Earth movement will never be covered. Not unless you have Earthquake coverage and a real earthquake happens.

 

[Thefishguy77]

A hunting buddy went through a house fire with Liberty Mutual. It took some negotiating and telling them to fuck the hell off I ain't cashing that. But he got everything replaced and rebuilt. From couches, to TV’s and entertainment shit, firearms & ammo, and even compensation for mounted animals. They even paid his mortgage on his new house instead of putting him up in a rental because he showed them it was cheaper to pay the mortgage vs. pay rent to accommodate his requirements for his family. His rebuilt house hits the market in a month and because the insurance companies recommended contractors fucked up several times and caused significant delays he is now preparing to go after them for lost value in the home. They are almost a year past rebuild estimates and the market in Seattle has dropped significantly from where it was. His lawyers are very confident he will get compensated for the deprecated loss in value because he was using all their recommendations. Examples of fuckups. The failed to add code required seismic bracing, they failed to permit some of the work, the failed to get approval from the building department for necessary changes called out by the building inspectors. All of these caused stop work orders.

 

[Sandy Johnson]

Earth movement will never be covered. Not unless you have Earthquake coverage and a real earthquake happens.

Yep. I get things in the mail from state farm every now and then asking me to sign up for earthquake coverage. I used to dismiss it outright because it was the wife and I in a 900 sq ft. house with a minibike track in the back yard instead of a patio and a broke down jeep sitting on the weeds in the side yard.

...now with the kids, I'm considering it, but not really excited for my rates to go up.

 

[DRTDEVL]

My in laws have it set to where state farm is paying their mortgage on their "temporary" house and paying the extra milage that they have to drive to work. As long as they keep the rebuild process going, state farm will keep paying this.

A good friend of mine from the Army had State Farm when his townhouse burned down on Mother's Day, 2001. I took him and his family in while they rebuilt. After a couple months went by, I got a check in the mail from State Farm for $1800 or so. They asked him where they were staying, he gave my info, and they cut me a check every 3 months to cover the "rent" while his family was there.

Its a shame my Ex- blew it all.

 

[welndmn]

The one thing I learned last year was my insurace was set to only rebuilt to the cost of the code with the home was built.
We all know you can't build a home to 1940's (or whatever) code, any changes from 1940 code to current code would be on me. I had to change it to the home would get rebuilt to current code, it only takes money...

 

[YotaAtieToo]

The one thing I learned last year was my insurace was set to only rebuilt to the cost of the code with the home was built.
We all know you can't build a home to 1940's (or whatever) code, any changes from 1940 code to current code would be on me. I had to change it to the home would get rebuilt to current code, it only takes money...

Ya, that's a separate policy also, why that is not a given is beyond me.

 

[alk1174]

Earth movement will never be covered. Not unless you have Earthquake coverage and a real earthquake happens.

The not covering it part isn't what bothers me cause I really never thought they would but figured I would give it a shot anyway. It's that they now want to cancel my policy because I didn't put it back. Giving me no real notice or other options.

 

[NOTHINGWILLCHANGELANCE]

I did learn something this year about insurance. The catalina mountains were on fire this year, all of Tucson could see it everyday and night. So alot of people without wild fire insurance were calling my wife's office to get insurance. There is a wait when this happens. Something about conditions and that they would have to wait 30 or more days before the policy would go in effect. This is with Farmers insurance though.

We did switch from USAA this year as well. 1700 a year down to 875 a year with farmers and got more coverage.

home office puts a lock on binding new insurance for areas impacted or soon to be impacted.

 

[YotaAtieToo]

$875/year!

Everyone I know around me is$5-6k since the fires

 

[xr-nut]

I am with American Family. Had a $200k claim in july 2014. My shop burned down. I had been to insurance "school" to be a licensed agent, that job didn't work out, but I learned a lot about insuring myself. In a homeowners policy there is coverage for "detached buildings", a shop or shed. It is usually a percentage of your house insured value or could be a stated amount. On my policy I had it increased to an amount that would cover the entire loss of the building. I had a writeable cd at my agents office with pictures of all of my tools and serial #'s of high dollar items(like pew pews). On pew pews, typical HO insurance only covers a few thousand dollars, consider adding an "inland marine" rider. You can state a value of coverage to umbrella all your boom sticks. Same goes for the wifes jewelry collection, small preset limit, add more on an inland marine rider. The contents of the shop are a percentage of the homes value, covered under "personal contents". My tools equaled the building loss at rougly 100k each. During the claim American Family had me replace a tool, email them the receipt and they paid me back for it. Kind of a pita, but at least I was covered. After the fire they sent out two adjusters and advised me to stay out of the burned shop until the fire marshall cleared his investigation and until they came back. It took a week before they came back. We walked the burned shell together with my pictures from the cd and id'd damn near everything in the shop.

Most of us on here are tool guys and likely have more money tied up out in our shops than in our homes contents. Make sure that shit is covered and documented. Another note, motorcycles-atvs-sxs-buggies-vehicles-4wheelers-etc, that can have a separate policy, are NOT covered in a shop fire. Make sure those are covered if you want/need them to be. I lost my dads 68 camaro and all my motorcycles.

edit to add: post fire premium doubled, and I am told it will take 7 years to re-set. we are at year 6 now.

 

[RPS1030]

edit to add: post fire premium doubled, and I am told it will take 7 years to re-set. we are at year 6 now.

Yeah, went thru a theft claim with Liberty Mutual. Rates went way way up the following year to the extent that THEY were going to be made whole within a few years.

 

[Projectjunkie]

I had a large theft claim with state farm. Tools became a problem, they took issue with my extensive tool list, telling me that those aren't normal homeowner tools. I asked them if they got my list of golf clubs, big screen, dvds, fancy clothes etc. They didn't, because I didn't have that shit, i told them to look up my auto policies and note my classic cars and to eat my ass. They asked if they'd been used for commercial use, if my ex wife (during my divorce) would tell them I'd used them commercially. I told them she could say whatever she wanted, nobody could produce a business license, business card, or advertising, and they could eat my ass.

When you make a claim, the first phone call is recorded, as is every call, they'll try to trip you up on any single item, then threaten you so you drop the claim. I taped every call as well.

They also try to depreciate tools. I took a hard line that quality tools don't depreciate, that if anything it would take modern top shelf industrial grade to rival older American made hand tools.

Take lots of video of your tools, increase your limits for your guns. Keep shit off site as possible. I've been on strike since October, half of my tools are at the shop, under 2 security cameras, not in my way at home trying to use the other half of my tools

my car trailers are insured at replacement value, cheap monthly

my more expensive quad has full coverage, pretty cheap actually

 

[WLDWUN]

$875/year!

Everyone I know around me is$5-6k since the fires

We have Farmers
thankfully we have never had a big claim (5K waterpipe damage over 20 year period)

everyone in our area has been cancelled over the last few years. we were one of the lucky ones that was not....
our insurance is about 4K right now (use to be 1400 a few years back)
until we were cancelled this March, but because of Covid they re instated it :rolleyes:
fully expect to be cancelled again next March at which time it will be closer to 6K per year.

no body will insure properties in the foothills in our area other than the Fair Plan, its a joke, anything but fair
you then need two policies, one for standard insurance and then another for fire and wind

 

[YotaAtieToo]

We have Farmers
thankfully we have never had a big claim (5K waterpipe damage over 20 year period)

everyone in our area has been cancelled over the last few years. we were one of the lucky ones that was not....
our insurance is about 4K right now (use to be 1400 a few years back)
until we were cancelled this March, but because of Covid they re instated it :rolleyes:
fully expect to be cancelled again next March at which time it will be closer to 6K per year.

no body will insure properties in the foothills in our area other than the Fair Plan, its a joke, anything but fair
you then need two policies, one for standard insurance and then another for fire and wind

Have you ever heard of anyone getting a discount for having defensible space around there home vs someone surrounded by manzanita or stacked in with other homes?

You'd think a guy with a 100' clearing, a large tank of water, fire hose, and a tractor should pay less than the trailer with 8" of pine needles on the roof and bushes growing out from under the porch.
​​​​​​

 

[xr-nut]

Tools became a problem, they took issue with my extensive tool list, telling me that those aren't normal homeowner tools. nobody could produce a business license, business card, or advertising, and they could eat my ass.

I kind of forgot about this part, mine tried that with me too. When each of my boys were born I bought them roll around tool boxes. Lower, middle and upper cabinets. Then every year for xmas and birthdays I bought them tools. Decent tools that they could use for a lifetime. so by the time of they fire they both had full tool boxes worth quite a lot of money. Then I had my bog ol snappy boxes. They about shit themselves. But I had everything listed, on the disc at my agents office and they couldnt deny the tools were there. Then it was to deny me because I was a commercial shop. I thought they might get it done too because I did have a dealers license and a retail lot at a different location.(had only had that license for maybe a year and had my tools all of my life)

We walked through the fire remains(me and the two adjusters) with my list they got from my agent and I pointed out every single tool on it.

 

[YotaAtieToo]

It pisses me off that they want a list. Nothing says fun like making a 10 page list of everything you just lost. :rolleyes:​​​​​​

I pay for $xxxx just give me that.

To add to that, we have friends who took a video of their house and garage. Helped them a lot with insurance.

 

[MtnYota]

What $/sq ft are people planning on for replacement values?

 

[NOTHINGWILLCHANGELANCE]

It pisses me off that they want a list. Nothing says fun like making a 10 page list of everything you just lost. :rolleyes:​​​​​​

I pay for $xxxx just give me that.

To add to that, we have friends who took a video of their house and garage. Helped them a lot with insurance.

highly suggest people take video of their house/shop/garage/etc every 6 months. open all drawers, closets, etc. I make a video file per room and save it to google drive.

 

[WLDWUN]

Have you ever heard of anyone getting a discount for having defensible space around there home vs someone surrounded by manzanita or stacked in with other homes?

You'd think a guy with a 100' clearing, a large tank of water, fire hose, and a tractor should pay less than the trailer with 8" of pine needles on the roof and bushes growing out from under the porch.
​​​​​​

Nope, and we did look into it.
I have 9 acres. I have spent over 15 years clearing all the brush from it, all that is left on most is 80-100 foot pine trees
those I have limbed up most to 20 feet, around the house to 25. Removed over 50 trees 6" and smaller and another 25 24" and smaller.
I have 2 dedicated water tanks filled year round, 2600 gallons in one and 600 in another.
I have 1000s of feet on 1.5" PVC line buried around the house with 7locations of 1.5" pipe stands so I can have large amounts of water at any corner of the house if needed.
2" gas powered water pump if the power goes out.
generator dedicated to the well circuit
200 feet of fire hose, 600 feet of layflat and enough garden hose to reach Nevada

does not help at all:rolleyes:

reason is that for the fire rating (called a brush index 0-15)
they do not look at your property alone. they look at all areas out at least 1/4 mile from your house.
and the company that give the rating for the insurance companies is out of New Jersey

 

[grumpy356]

I did learn something this year about insurance. The catalina mountains were on fire this year, all of Tucson could see it everyday and night. So alot of people without wild fire insurance were calling my wife's office to get insurance. There is a wait when this happens. Something about conditions and that they would have to wait 30 or more days before the policy would go in effect. This is with Farmers insurance though.

We did switch from USAA this year as well. 1700 a year down to 875 a year with farmers and got more coverage.

Same thing with hurricanes and people who live on the gulf coast. You can't buy flood insurance with a hurricane bearing down.

 

[Pony_Driver]

I did learn something this year about insurance. The catalina mountains were on fire this year, all of Tucson could see it everyday and night. So alot of people without wild fire insurance were calling my wife's office to get insurance. There is a wait when this happens. Something about conditions and that they would have to wait 30 or more days before the policy would go in effect. This is with Farmers insurance though.

We did switch from USAA this year as well. 1700 a year down to 875 a year with farmers and got more coverage.

Good to know, USAA has been bringing the SUCK on everything except car insurance the last few years.

 

[Talon2006]

Good to know, USAA has been bringing the SUCK on everything except car insurance the last few years.

Interesting you say this.

Had my truck stolen, with a bunch of tools, Recovered the truck but not the tools and a few other items. A few months before on my birthday My wife had bought me a tool bag and I took pics of everything inside of it. (amazing how quickly tools can add up in value). I had a detailed list down to every item I had in that truck that was stolen.

Sent the agent the pic of all the tools spread out. Her respince.. "There are over 50 items listed and only one photo provided." Took two months to settle the claim going back and forth with them. Thank god I had some receipts. Eventually I sent every single photo I had in my phone that had a tool in it. They shut up and closed the claim.