Same here! USAA homeowners. The coverage was so minimal I just ate the cost and did the work myself. Deductible was slightly greater than 1/3 of what they would cover. Pretty eye opening. I'm selling the house and living in this government shack until they bury me!
Sad, isn’t it?
I have hundreds of stories, seen businesses ripped apart by a total fire only to come out ahead, more competitive than their competition. Seen insurance companies pay claims they flat said are excluded, but we are going it cover it anyway. In all honesty if an insurance company breaks what's in writing it can become a bad faith claim and the insured is entitled to 3x what the claim is. I have seen that happen as well. The real issue is most insured 1. Don't know their rights, 2. Have not read a policy so they honestly have no clue what they bought or are really entitled to, 3. Most folks try to pad an insurance claim, fraud is up to about 100 billion a year now from claims, 4. Don't have a good agent or ask the right questions. 5. How can someone know for a fact if they don't even know what the ins laws in the state are, have never read the policy etc? I have seen maybe 12 claims were not adjusted correctly according to the policy wording over the last 30 years, most of those resulted in the ins company taking a pounding, an adjustor getting fired etc. Bottom line have an agent who has your back, knows what he is doing and be reasonable.
Did they cover what was in the policy or no? If not they have a problem! You can complain to the DOI, but do your homework and make sure you are in the right, not just a want and hope. If it's a bad policy, find a good agent and find a better one. Keep in mind an insurance policy is a contract you both agreed upon, both sides have to keep up their end of the contract. Consequences for both sides, the laws in your state are very very much in your favor. Any Vague wording can be pushed in your favor for sure. Ins companies have lost hundreds of billions on stuff they did not intend to ever cover, but their wording in the contract was a bit vague because of maybe 1-2 words and bam. State Farm covering flood in New Orleans when everyone in the country knows flood is covered by FEMA and the US Govt not ins companies. The people who all got paid were to cheap to buy flood insurance, knew better and then got paid anyway, you and I pay for that in premiums.
I did not know that, but I believe it! Crazy
That seems almost outright criminal, are they going to pay back all payments? I know the answer to that. But that is some BS…
), have spent the last 12 years or so of my career in the business both on the carrier and network / agency side. Personal Lines is tough right now. Where we're seeing the biggest success is with agents that are focusing on small CL and getting their E&S / non-admitted game in order.
Bingo!!!Not an agent, but I work for the largest agency network in the country based here in the Northeast (let's leave names out of it so I don't have Google finding me here
Basically what's happening is inflation is driving costs for the insurers up faster than they can add rate to the end customer (i.e. charge more) , which means they're losing money on every new policy they write, so they're electing to pull back, exit states, not write more policies until rate catches up. States like California are a clusterf**k because the DOI won't let the insurers charge more, so they non-renew, exit, stop writing more which ends up just hurting the customers.. Florida is just as big an issue for different reasons.
And for all of you dogging on the insurance industry. Make sure you're doing business through a local independent agent. At least then you're working with a small business owner from your local community who has the option of placing business with a multitude of companies and working to get you the right coverage. Good agents and brokers can be a godsend.
Brush has become a really big deal. A lot of places are becoming completely uninsurable.
