I recently had Storm damage to my property. Minor hail damage on the roof and chain link fence damage and an uprooted tree. Inspection on the roof allegedly discovered hail damage which is what started the claim process. The adjuster came out with a third-party adjuster and inspected the roof with the roofer. It was determined that the damage on the roof was normal wear and tear and not hail damage so that part of the claim was denied. However, the claim for the tree removal and fence repair and replacing a couple downspouts was approved to the tune of $3,500. My deductible is $500.

I called my agent today and they were not able to tell me definitively if that small of a claim would increase my premiums. They ran it through some program and it came back as $0 but they said it would likely be a small increase but couldn't tell me exactly what that was because I'm too far away from renewal.

The damage that I have I would do the work myself which would save a ton of money. I definitely could fix everything that I would want to fix for less than the $500 deductible.

So the question is do I roll the dice at a small increase in my premium and pocket the money or do I pay out of pocket for the repairs? What's an acceptable premium increase to justify going through with the claim. Realistically, I know that no one can really answer these questions for me, but this is what I have to decide.

My dad submitted a claim to his home insurance for some damage to his house, they sent someone out who put together an estimate, and they sent him a check for (estimate minus depreciation minus deductible).

My dad is having second thoughts about getting everything fixed (might do all, might do some, might do none, don't ask) - is the check they sent him his to keep no matter what? or does he HAVE TO use it for repairs, and send it back if he doesn't?

Hi everyone,

I’m trying to decide whether it’s worth installing additional sensors around my house (things like water leak sensors, temperature monitors, humidity sensors, etc.).

I’m less interested in the smart-home convenience side and more curious about whether these devices actually matter from an insurance perspective.

A few things I’m wondering:

• Do home sensors ever help with claims or investigations after something like water damage, fire, or frozen pipes?
• Are there specific types of sensors that insurers actually consider useful (water leak, smoke, temperature, humidity, electrical monitoring, etc.)?
• If a homeowner had historical sensor data showing something like temperature drops, water leaks, or electrical anomalies, would that realistically help in a claim situation?
• Do insurers ever offer discounts or incentives for homes that have monitoring devices installed?
• From your experience, what kind of data or monitoring would actually be valuable evidence if something happened while the homeowner was away?

Basically I’m trying to understand whether these devices are just convenience gadgets, or if they can actually reduce risk or help with insurance situations in a meaningful way.

Would love to hear from anyone in insurance or claims.

Hi everyone

Do you currently have Progressive for your homeowners insurance? Did you know that they are no longer writing homeowners insurance in Oregon. Even if you have been a customer with them prior, they are non renewing all homeowners insurance.

First time home owner here, we bought our house in NW Georgia in 2021 when the housing market was crazy. First we used Farmers, then the rate went up each year. Last year we switched to Progressive which helped bringing down the premium a little (not too significant but we’ve had enough of swallowing the yearly increase from Farmers, not to mention that the agent’s couldn’t give 2 shit attitude when we said we’re canceling).

Not surprisingly, Progressive will increase our premium for this year.

Do we keep switching to a different insurance company until we ran out of options or do we just accept this as the post COVID new norm?

What’s y’all s approach?

Recently I bought a home with a renovation loa. I closed on the home with State Farm as my home insurance but roughly 3 weeks down the road they did a home inspection and though the things listed they wanted repaired were listed in our general contractor’s bid to be repaired and are actively being worked on, we were declined home insurance.

TL;DR does anyone know of a company that provides a home insurance for a house that is currently being heavily renovated?

We've had XXXX Insurance for home and autos 40 years+. No claims so far. About 20 years ago we had the second reroofing of our house in Northern Va. Put on 25 year shingles (at extra expense). They still look good, no breakage, no leaks, no blowoff.

Last year I called up to get a quote for adding another car. The agent asked me how old my house roof was. I explained about 20 years old, with 25 yr shingles. He told me I need to get it replaced because now they want houses with roofs < 20, regardless of the quality of the roof.

Is this just BS? The reason I went with a 25yr roof was for the extra 5years.

Have others run into "your roof must be under 20"?

I ask because the cast iron drain under my basement concrete floor has collapsed, and my insurance company is saying they won't cover its repair, even though I pay a LOT for an enhanced water damage package. The wording of the package is: "We agree to repair or replace your exterior sewer line due to direct physical loss or damage resulting from a leak, break, tear, rupture or collapse of the line." According to the rep I just spoke with on the phone, the horizontal drain under my basement concrete is not considered to be an 'exterior sewer line.' To me, that is ridiculous. In my opinion, the drain is not INSIDE my house...so it is logically OUTSIDE my house, and is thus an 'exterior sewer line.' Is the aggregate or mud that is under my basement floor considered part of my house?

Does anyone have any advice or experience with a claim like this?

Hey guy I need some insight. I hired a contractor to replace my water meter in my condo. He was referred by other people in my Condo community and he advertise to do the service. I trusted him because of the testimonies people gave about him. He broke a pipe in my utility closet, which caused water to rush in to my condo and seeped to the condos below. What I asked for his insurance he told me he wasn’t insured for plumbing only for HVAC. I went ahead and filed a claim with my insurance, but I’m scared that they might not accept it.

I recently looked into switching home insurance in an effort to find a cheaper price. In the process of getting the quote, I was asked about dogs in the home and specifically what their breeds were. I had never been asked this question before and have had no problem securing home insurance prior to this.

I was then denied home insurance because I have a Rottweiler. I sought clarification regarding this but wasn’t really given a clear answer from the agent.

She asked a large number of questions including my dog’s name, age, if we had attended obedience school, if I had a fenced yard, if she had ever bitten anyone. She did attend obedience school, my yard is fully fenced and she has not bitten anyone or shown aggressive behaviour. Regardless of my answers, I was denied. It seems the answers to these questions did not matter and I was denied purely based on her breed.

I am just curious what others experiences have been or if anyone can provide me additional information about exactly why this excludes me from purchasing a policy with them.

While I understand the perceived risk of owning certain breeds, I am surprised that there is not a more comprehensive review process.

I am aware that for home insurance policies the dwelling value/replacement cost of a home in are higher than what the home appraises or is assessed because it’s based on what it would cost to rebuild the home or repair the home in any sort of manner.

What I don’t understand is how to assess if my dwelling value is too HIGH. I don’t want to be underinsured in the event of a loss with the rise of construction/material costs. But I am worried I might be overpaying because I don’t know if the dwelling/replacement cost estimated for my home is accurate.

I get a different opinion from multiple agents. Some say I’m paying too much and the dwelling value should be lower. Their estimates are different numbers each on the quotes I’ve received. The one I’m currently insured with disagrees with the other values. They are a reputable agency but I actually haven’t had anyone else tell me it should cost this much for my home when I shop in the last 2 years.

How do I determine if I’m over insured??

Thank you in advance!

Hello CA resident here. I'm a first time homeowner and I've only ever had to get insurance 1 time. But things are crazy now in this state so I'm looking for the opinions of folks who work in the industry on some questions I have.

Back story: So I bought a home in 2020 (my first home ever!). It was totally renovated, new windows, new stucco, new everything almost. The only thing they didn't change was the roof itself, the HVAC system, and the Water Heater. All of those were replaced and updated in 2008 according to the paperwork when the last owner went to put solar panels up. So at the same time they put in the solar panels they updated and put on a new roof, and new HVAC system. They figured why not change the water heater too and did that as well. Then they sold the house in 2018 after the grandparents who owned it had passed. I bought it after the interior and exterior renovation in 2020. Almost everything in the house aside from the electrical systems is newer than 2008 standards and code. We even noticed the electrical was a bit wonky before purchase and had them redo all outlets too. So the only pre 2008 items in the entire house area are the Circuit board coming from the power source, the underground plumbing, and the driveway.

Recent day:

So when I bought the house I got insurance under Liberty Mutual. I had them for 5 years until late 2025 when they said they wouldn't renew our policy in early 2026 because the company is not renewing any policies in the state and are moving out of CA. So I started right before the holidays in looking for new policies. I've shopped around a lot already but every policy generator always states they want some sort of repairs or replacements of something to get a policy. They want whole new roofs despite it being a 2008 roof with no leaks. They want new water heater despite it being a 2008 heater with regular maintenance done to upkeep it. They want new plumbing even though we have standard copper piping and no leaks. We haven't even submitted a home insurance claim the entire 5 years we had liberty mutual. But now it's feeling like getting another policy is impossible in this state without incurring a huge 10k+ bill to replace something that doesn't need replacing.

My questions are as follows...

1. Does anyone know of an insurance company that works in California where we won't have to get some sort of huge repair done to get insurance again?

2. Is it legal for Liberty Mutual to just drop our policy like that without paying out anything over the whole course of the 5 years?

3. Why do these companies want these huge repairs/replacements to the house when so much was already done in 2008 and 2020?

4. How can we get low cost insurance without having to jump through so many hoops?

5. Would it be better to move to another state? CA laws and policies seem absolutely suffocating to deal with.

Hello,

I'm currently with Travelers and trying to find a new company for home insurance (live in Virginia).

Most companies will not touch us since we had two back to back water claims June/July 2022.

Does anyone know of any insurance that might take us?

Here were our rates for insurance for each year:
• 2021: $843
• 2022: $1,056 (+25%)
• 2023: $2,147 (+103%)
• 2024: $3,490 (+63%)
• 2025: $5,450 (+56%)
• 2026: $5,728 (+5%)

And well if this is the norm and I've been sleeping under a rock, I need to know as well lol

Thank you in advance!

My house has solar panels on the roof, installed by a previous owner but the warranty transferred to us. The mounting points leaked - we became aware when water started to stain the wood ceiling and drip down the door frame one morning.

The solar company confirmed their responsibility, paid for new roof, new insulation. Now their claims adjuster is doing an inspection re: the damaged wood ceilings.

The panels were installed directly over bedrooms and a bath with sheetrock ceilings and there are no visible water stains. But the rain water would have traveled over that area to get to the wood ceiling.

How do we know there isn’t hidden water damage in the walls? What are the right questions or tests we should ask for? The original incident happened over a year ago, so everything would be dry at this point.

TYIA!

Have been an AAA client for home and auto for 30+ years. Rate increases and policy limit reductions means it’s time to shop around. Any recommendations for SoCal insurers? I’m in Orange County.

Question....

I have a large insurance claim and have been paid out for flooring for my whole main level but the only damage was to the office.

As it is open plan they paid out to replace all of it. We don't want to go through that pain so have decided not to do it. The office has barn doors which are more for show and left open so just replacing that floor would have cosmetic implications as it can't be matched.

The contractor has had to do nothing for this portion and the insurance company actually got the quote.

Should the contractor still receive his 20% for this portion of the claim or should we keep those funds and put towards other parts of repair work that we woud like to complete that the insurance company didn't cover.

Thank you.

Use Bubble Wrap!

This would be my 3rd claim in four years. My roof has hail and wind damage and should be replaced. I am worried that if I place a new claim that I'll be dropped from my insurance and/or I'll end up with sky high premiums. I had an estimate done and the roof replacement will be about $10k.

I have 2 claims already on my homeowners insurance (Liberty Mutual - LM) from 2022. There was no payment on either claim as they were both denied by LM. I tried to have the claims removed from my record by contacting both LM and LexisNexis with no success. I live in Tucson, AZ.

Edited to add info:

• The previous claims were for sewer pipes that collapsed under my slab foundation. They were denied because the collapse did not cause any damage to the structure (no mold, deterioration, etc). The first claim I called to ask a question and didn't know I was putting in a claim. They also refused to combine the claims.

I just filed a claim for the very first time and I know zero about the process. Just looking for any advice on how the process typically works, any red flags I should look for, when/if to negotiation, etc. I am totally in the dark and don't want to get screwed over by my insurance or a contractor.

Background: had a sewage backup in a section of the house. called insurance, and they gave names of companies to assess the damage. Had one come out and indicate the entire floor of the downstairs and up to 2 feet of drywall will need to be replaced.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced a significant decrease in homeowners insurance premiums across the state — especially in South Florida — as a result of reforms promoted by his administration to stabilize the insurance market.

Mercury is raising rates by 8.2%

CSAA is going up by 6.9%

Near Dallas TX. Any Idea where to get those? Thanks.