r/HomeInsurance

Contractor we signed with giving us a hard time with itemized estimate. We settled our first work itemization with adjuster and insurance around 26,000. our contractor wants 43,000. The adjuster gave us the time to come back with more bids which we did that matched or were higher due to the times (the work is mostly dry wall repair, flooring for most of our first floor from water damage in February). I asked the contractor we signed with to come back with an itemization for the work that is supposedly 43000. He gives me a hard time then finally agrees but says he uses a 3rd party. Mind you he is quote a larger company and in fact researched and reputable said he’s worked with insurance companies before and would fight for us. We are suppose to start work 7/13 and he’s been nothing but a hassle. First he sends me an exactimate that is 46000 with many errors. A huge one i didn’t see is 16000 in removing and reinstalling a toilet 35x which the insurance examiner laughed at and i think took pity on me for even considering this guy. I kept it cool but instantly thought is my contractor conning me? I approach him again about it saying we need this done and I need the real itemization as to why it’s $43000 so we can get the rest of the money so I don’t pay almost 17g out of pocket. he comes back now with a $33,000 exactimate still with errors and tells me he’s matching the adjusters itemization but that’s not what he costs? like what?!? Why isn’t the other $10,000 mystery money listed. Isn’t the whole point to ask for what you are worth and need so we can get to as close to the scope of work value so the insurance can match ? Or am I the dumb one? Someone please let me know if this is industry standard. Mind you this is with ZERO upgrades in the estimate included, just the repairs and restoration needed. He refuses to list the full scope properly and look over his 3rd party estimate and I’m having a freak out because we have animals and a whole family and airbnbs settled to move and he’s about to crumble everything I’ve set in place for months to keep his time line. And I’ve gone above and beyond to help him to find other estimates as he was who I was going with. thanks!

I have GEICO homeowners insurance on my home which I’ve owned for one month. We have some water damage resulting in a need to replace tile around a toilet. I could do the tile myself or find a cheap contractor to do it. My deductible is $1500 and I’m already $2500 in for the drying.

Should I file the claim? Hoping to avoid having my premium jump drastically.

We are in California. Years ago my dad transferred the house title/deed to me and my sister. But the mortgage (owed to bank) is still under is name. He still lives in the home.

Who should be the one buying the home insurance policy?

Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Mine went from around 2400 to 5100 over two renewals and nothing about the house changed. same roof, no claims. citizens dropped a couple people i know and the private quotes came back worse.

I don't think most people budgeting off the mortgage realize the insurance can add another 300 to 400 a month.

A tree fell on my pergola during a storm: We are going to file with home insurance. My handy man build this pergola for cash. Would insurnace pay for him to fix it? How would that work?

It’s a 4 bedroom home, built in 1972 and very very well maintained. Fire and Police say no suspicious circumstances, probably a heater owned by the tenant that was turned off on the unit but still powered from the wall.

The house is a total loss, I have just started to work with the insurers and realise that “I do not know what I do not know.l

What are my rights?

What are the traps?

What advice do you have for me?

Do consultants on how to deal with insurers exist? If. yes then who are they?

Any advice would be gratefully received.

Yes I am insured through a broker using AMP with Vero as the underwriter

My housemate’s homeowner’s insurance for the next policy year was a pretty steep rate hike - around $500/year, roughly 33% increase. We would love some advice from Reddit on our options:

- Current company (Central Mutual) would offer a very small discount ($67) to increase deductible from 1k to 1.5k (my thoughts are that 1k deductible seems low for homeowner’s insurance, but not sure it’s worth changing for the tiny discount)
- Current company would also offer a small discount ($126) for adding a wind/hail deductible of 1%. That seems to mean that any storm-related claim would fall under this deductible that would be a full 1% of the insured value of the house (~485k, so $4800). Given that it would take 38 years to spend 4800 at 125/year, I’m inclined to NOT make this change. Does anyone have experience with switching to this model, good or bad?
- Agent has a quote from a competing company (Liberty Mutual) that is only $100 more/year than the previous premium, but the deductible is slightly higher. This coverage doesn’t seem to have the separate wind/hail deductible, but we will confirm. Is it worth switching to a new company that he/we don’t have any experience with? The house has been insured with the current company for 50+ years and they have been good per my housemate, including paying for a new roof around 13 years ago.

Any thoughts on our options or other questions we should ask? Ty in advance!

Where can I get an umbrella policy if I don't drive, so I only have homeowners insurance? The company I currently use would not provide an umbrella policy without adding auto, so I want to switch companies. Does anyone know a good company that will let me have an umbrella with just homeowners? Thanks in advance for any help you can provide!

I’m looking for advice from roofers, public adjusters, or anyone who’s dealt with something similar.
I live in Georgia and have an Allstate homeowners policy.
Before filing the claim, I contacted my insurance broker because I’d heard there are a lot of roofing contractors who exaggerate storm damage. My broker referred me to a contractor he personally trusted and told me that if this contractor said I had legitimate storm damage, then I should file a claim. If he said I didn’t, then I shouldn’t waste my time.
The contractor inspected my roof and said I had both wind and hail damage.
Allstate then sent out their own inspector. During that inspection, numerous areas on the metal roof and valley flashing were marked with chalk and photographed. There were also many photos taken of the metal roof components. The inspector agreed that all the valley metals had hail damage on them.
A few days later, an Allstate adjuster called me. During that conversation, I was told that Allstate’s review of the initial inspection found hail damage to the metal roof, but not to the cedar shakes, and that they were assigning an engineer for further evaluation rather than simply denying the claim.
The engineer came out and inspected the roof. His report concluded that only two cedar shakes and two rain caps had hail damage. He concluded there was essentially no hail damage to the metal roof, and the report contains ZERO representative photos of the chalk-marked metal valleys or the other chalk-marked metal areas that were documented during the original inspection by the first inspector Allstate sent out. The engineer’s report even states that additional inspection photographs exist but were not included in the report.
Based on the engineer’s report, Allstate wrote an estimate for approximately $767, which is below my $10,000 deductible, so no payment was made and the claim was effectively closed.
What I’m struggling to understand is how the claim went from the original inspection documenting and photographing numerous chalk-marked metal areas—and my being told there was hail damage to the metal—to an engineering report that barely discusses the metal roof at all and instead finds only two hail-damaged cedar shakes.
Has anyone dealt with a situation where the engineering report substantially differed from the original inspection?
At this point, would you:
Hire a public adjuster?
Hire your own engineer?
Retain an attorney?
Request additional claim documents before doing anything else?
If anyone has recommendations for an experienced public adjuster in Georgia—especially someone familiar with cedar shake and metal roof claims—I would really appreciate them.
I’m genuinely looking for professional opinions on what my next step should be. Thank you for reading.

Hi, home owner here. Upstairs unit had an AC leak to my floor. Damaged my engineered floorboards. Water was literally coming out the seams of the boards when I step on it. Went to management office today and they said its likely the building's responsibility rather than upstairs unit because the leak happened quite deep inside the building. They can cover all damages EXCEPT flooring. They said its listed in the "declaration" that the building will not cover flooring. Even though this was their responsibility and not my fault. I have home insurance but that would raise my insurance cost and there is a $2000 deductible for water damage related costs. Is this typical of condo buildings? I feel like I'm being punished for something that I wasn't at fault for.

Edit: It took a little back and forth, and a reminder that the slow response times in correspondence were in violation of Department of Insurance regulations, as was the failure to take all factors into consideration when making the decision, but they are going cover the whole house replacement.

Ohio resident. Hail damage to my siding and roof in April. Insurance approved full roof and back elevation for siding. Siding is aluminum and discontinued. Itel sends a good enough recommendation. No where has a sample of this recommended siding.y contractor called multiple places. I called the suppliers listed on the Itel report, neither of their distributors carry said siding. Insurance is extremely slow to respond. What are my next steps? Ohio has a match law, but line of sight seems to make it so the back can look different, but if we can’t even get the “good enough” what are we supposed to do?

I’m having trouble finding insurance that would cover the refinance of my home it’s in the zip code 33614 I need the coverage for at least 173k and the mobile home was built in 1980

Hi

I am just wondering does the AA home insurance we got cover vandalism? Specifically if someone damaged our oil tank and oil leaked out? Would they cover the clean up? I am overthinking here but worried too about this.

thanks.

NC

1999 house

Moved in 2021

Amnica Mutual Insurance

Deductible $1,000.

We had Amica Mutual Insurance homeowners insurance since 2018: Old house from 2018 until 2021 claim free, this home 2021 - 2026 claim fre.

Last week, we noticed a smell and discovered water damage in sink cabinet.

(Same day, our hvac stopped working and we had to just invest in a new unit two days ago - huge expense!)

We have filed claim (again, first on our record), but adjuster said we do not have to pursue if we decide not to seek payment.

Amica's preferred vendor came for mitigation and is completing that portion today: $1,400 to take out most of the cabinet, some flooring and drywall, run de-humidifer and fan and scrubber for three days.

Estimate on reconstruction is $5,700 (temporarily remove counter top, build in new cabinet (frames remain), take out and reinstall plumbing and dishwasher, etc.

Total estimate about $7,100.

Q: impact of pursuing payment vs withdrawal.

We are approaching hurricane season and it is always possible this could cause an event where we need Insurance.

I'm looking for insights specifically from an underwriting standpoint as to the severity of having the claim and pursue payment vs have a zero-pay claim and we end up paying it ourselves.

Thanks.

Hi everyone,

I will be living in a corridor room in Ryd, Linköping. My landlord (Heimstaden) informed me that I need to arrange my own home insurance.

As an international student, I was wondering:

* Do students usually need to purchase their own home insurance, or is it sometimes provided by the landlord or university?

* If I do need to buy it myself, which home insurance provider is most commonly recommended by students in Sweden?

* Approximately how much does it cost per month, and what coverage should I make sure is included?

I would really appreciate any recommendations or experiences from current or former international students.

Thank you!

We’re thinking about moving from the LA area to Spokane and I’m trying to compare homeownership costs. I pay about $7,000 a year for homeowners insurance plus California property taxes. What are you guys paying for insurance and property taxes in Spokane? Just curious what it actually looks like for people who own a home there.

After your roof has been replaced, make sure you update your home insurance policy stating the date of your roof replacement.

Being a 57 year old, I had no idea this needed to be done. I made an assumption that the insurance company would update this information since they were the ones paying for the replacement. I've had my house since 2001, have had about 4 new roofs (living in a hail zone), and my policy information showed the age of my roof as 25 years old. This change to my policy information saved me $250 a month. It makes me wonder what other simple changes like this am I missing.

my two daughters found a duplex to purchase so they can buy together but live separately. In the process of setting up closing and we are being told homeowners insurance is going to be 3,000 because owners are occupying. This makes no sense from what I’m reading online it should be a standard policy. Any insight would be appreciated.

Several companies have come by saying they can inspect my roof for hail damage similar to my neighbors and once approved they will replace it at no cost to me. They have good reviews and no neighbors have complained yet. I have seen them replace a few roofs on my street.

Is this legit?

Also they said my insurance premium is even likely to go down due to the high quality materials they would use. Is this true? Is there any chance it can go up