Is your insurance information accurate?

22 years ago

I thought mine was until recently. I had to change companies for my homeowner's insurance, and before signing the application I read it over. It said that my house was built in 1950, is 1100 sq.ft., and sits on less than five acres. It has no fireplaces, no fire extinguishers, no pets, and I smoke. None of that information is true.

I thought they'd accidentally switched my file with someone else's, and they were writing about another house. But no, the insurance agent told me she'd gotten the information from my previous policy, and maybe in the process someone made "a typo or two." I guess so! My house was built in 1860. It's 1900 sq.ft. and sits on 31 acres. It has a big fireplace, a bunch of extinguishers, a bigger bunch of pets, and I don't smoke. I'm wondering how long the erroneous information existed in my file, and what would have happened if I'd had a claim...

Just thought you might want to check yours.

Susan

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Comment (1)

joyfulguy
22 years ago
Seems to me that there's a funny smell about this situation.

Should you run back as many years as possible and find out, if you can, where all that erroneous information came from?

Also - who signed the application forms on your behalf in earlier years?

Probably a good idea to have that person's eyes checked.

Or their brain - for signing anything unread.

(Surely they didn't sign blank forms, to be filled in later??)

Thank you, thank you for checking this application.

Have you asked the insurance company whether they'd like to employ you - to check the information on policies back with the owners who bought them - to see who else has been asleep at the switch?

Perhaps the insurance company should do some random checks with other policyholders, to see whether/how many other policies there may be in which the info on hand may be so egregiously erroneous.

And whether most of the policies with such scandalous information were written by one/a small number of agents.

Seriously - I think that I'd check back in a couple of months, going as high in the company as you can get (President, if possible), to find out what amount of investigation the company went through to trace down the source of this trouble.

For I think that they should view such a multiplicity of errors in even one policy very seriously.

If the person on the higher level of management takes the view that it was an inconsequential issue - I think I'd look him ('twouldn't be a "her, surely?) straight in the eye and inform him that I had a strong feeling that we should take our business elsewhere (if they did their business in so slovenly a fashion).

After all - you're betting that there'll be trouble: every insurance company is betting that there won't be.

You don't find out that they do business in a lousy fashion - until you have a massive claim.

That's when people find out the level of intregrity that's to be found in their insurance comapany. If it's low - that's too late to find that situation out.

You should do the same investigation thing - do you know others who've been using this insurance company?

How accurate is the information that their policies sport?

I recommend that you do sme serious checking before your next renewal date.

ole joyful (sometimes a suspicious old bugger, as well)
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Is your insurance information accurate?

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joyfulguy

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