Home Insurance Increase

16 years ago

We just got our home insurance bill and it went from $365 to $525. We called our State Farm agent and she said everyone's rates have gone up.

Did your homeowners insurance go up?

DH and I are going to look at other companies to compare prices. I don't mind it going up a few dollars but $160 is a bit much.

SamKaren

your resident DJ

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Comments (8)

socks
16 years ago
Definitely do some comparison shopping. I don't know if ours has gone up.
monica_pa Grieves
16 years ago
Three big factors in Home Insurance prices:

Current market value of structure
Crime rate in area
Recent claim(s) history

Your increase does sound unwarranted.
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I understand the frustration, I have been a homeowner and I insure my entire family. What I am saying is save it for the big ones. There is another post out there regarding homeowners insurance and a leak from the ice maker. $20-25k in damages, that's what it's for. Yes it's also for the new roof if its damaged in a storm. What I see and ask my insurers to avoid is the small petty claims. The other day I had someone here and had to tell them no. In less than one year they had a water claim for $6800, a wind claim for $427 and a theft claim for $800. Now of the three, most definately agree with the big water claim. Wind happens, in this case it was a tree branch, why couldn't they pay that and the theft claim, $800 and by their own admission probably someone they knew. Point here, if they has assumed the risk and loss on the smaller stuff they wouldn't have been dropped. The other two just killed them. The $1227 dollars they got from the insurance company, no doubt will go towards increased premiums for the next 3 years and more than likely they will end up in a state insurance pool. Would you insure that? I know the mold issue is a big one. I can't say as I have had allot of experience with that one as we don't have a big issue with it here in IL. More than likely things will settle down in this market, they usually do. All I am suggesting for now is to use your insurance wisely. There are allot of companies getting out of the homeowners business, their getting out because they are losing money at it.
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Two.25 That's where i got the info lol. The state run is the ONLY insuance available The very minimum is around 2400 with a 2500 first deduction. It will NOT cover furniture ,living expenses,out buildings ,landscapes nor total destruction .resulting from Hurricane . Which strikes me as the most necessary coverage lol To me the worst thing that could happen is total destruction,most likely caused by hurricane except for fire which the payout is good though there is a clause about fires caused by hurricanes. Have went through 4 since living here heaviest damage caused by flood which of course is not covered at all Carried state farm from buying the house in 79 and had one payout of around 1800 ,800 from flood. Cost 10,,000 to repair though that is not quite fair as the repairs are better than the original. The house was livable and most of repairs except roof was done by me. there was an allowance for housing and fixtures but not needed but seem exempt from new insurance. and obviously those would be the greatest expenses. So seems I would be paying 3 times as much for a third the coverage ?? lol Another complication is the "housing bubble" house has declined in value by around a third Would assume payout ,if available would be based on current value ?? Since the last hurricane Wilma I opted to drop the insurance and put the premiums into an account al least Currently the fund is at 12000 and could be expanded to 20. I figure no matter what happens I will still have the land which happens to be the most valuable part of the house. Anyway i thank you for the advice gary
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Two stories about Chubb's exceptional claims paying - first one, from my days as an insurance rep for a small agency. We had a customer who had a Chubb policy on her summer home, estimated replacement cost something like $200K, customer had paid the premium in full. After the policy was written, the Chubb appraiser visited and did the walk-through. Within a couple of days of the walk-through, the house was gutted by fire. The appraiser had preliminary paperwork on his desk recommending an increase in the coverage to something like $350K on the house but had not formally notified Chubb's underwriters or the customer and had not billed any additional premium. Chubb told the customer about the proposed increase, asked them to pay the premium difference for the coverage gap between $200K and $350K, then paid $350K to rebuild the house. True story. Second story: friends of ours took a second honeymoon in another country and her very expensive diamond ring disappeared from the room safe - she had removed it to swim, forgot to put it back on, packed up the last day and checked out of the room with the ring still in the now-unlocked safe. Naturally when she called the hotel on her way to the airport, the housekeepers couldn't find the ring (uh huh). Chubb's check arrived within days of their return home, and when my (spacey) friend lost the check, Chubb FedEx'd a replacement to them right away. We pay through the nose for our Chubb apartment policy because we're relying on that level of service if and when we have a claim. Maybe someone will add a negative 'Chubb didn't pay my claim' comment to this thread, but I have never heard of a poor claims outcome with Chubb. Lots of (justified) complaints about the premiums, but not about their claims records.
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So you got a quote based on information you provided including the square footage that you probably got from the listing. Once the application was bound and evidence of insurance supplied to your lender an inspection of the property was performed by your insurance company. They came up with something different than you originally were quoted with. If you have your appraisal from your lender, check the cost approach and look at the cost of replacement and compare that to the dwelling coverage you currently have. They should be relatively close. You can shop, another inspection by another insurance company will be done and they may actually come up with yet another number. If you don't agree with your insurance agent, provide the appraisal so they can compare. The inspectors do make mistakes, I've even seen them do the wrong home. Heck, my inspector did my neighbors home.
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socks
16 years ago
How about the deductible? If it's higher, it could help on the premiums.
liljunkr
16 years ago
We just got a marvelous 20% discount for installing Miami/Dade rated hurricane shutters on our windows.
There are a number of things a person can do in the way of home improvements to get home insurance rates reduced.

1. installing fire extinguishers in every room (the ABC's)
2. installing alarm systems for fire, plumbing leaks and burglary. Even the battery operated smoke alarms in each room will give you a break as long as they work at inspection every time. Test them regularly. Don't just push the button (that only shows the battery is charged and the alarm sounds. Blow some smoke into them to make sure they work.
3. changing from fuse box to circuit breaker
4. update to code all switches and outlets
5. exchanging regular outlets with in 2 feet of all water lines to GFI outlets
6. changing the water inlet hoses to the commodes regularly.
7. having window and door regular glass replaced with the un-breakable or burglarproof glass.

If you have, a fire hydrant with in 300 feet of your home that gets you a small break in your rates, having cars and homes with the same insurer can also get your rates reduced.
You will have to endure an inspection occasionally so it can be a bit inconvenient but saving money in this day and age is not easy.
Five yrs ago when we purchased this house the insurance cost us $1,798.43 a year. With all the upgrades and work we've done our rates have gone down 40%.
Try talking with your insurers agent and ask what you can do to get discounts.
If you don't ask they wont tell you.

LIL
azzalea
16 years ago
State Farm has been on shaky financial ground for years now. They had to completely pull out of my state, because of their practices.

You may want to try a real insurance agent--the kind who represents many companies, who can do the leg work for you. I have an excellant agent, who has always gotten us great deals. I've comparison shopped on my own from time to time, and there's no way I can get anything close to the wonderful rates she gets us. A good agent will know your specific situation, and will get you the best deal, with the best company for YOUR specific situation. Every person is different and can have differnt insurance rates. Example--we have one company for our auto insurance. There's no way we can possibly get a lower price. DD had them for a while, and had a pretty good rate, but one year when money was tight, asked our agent if she could find a better price--which she did. I thought, hey, maybe we can do better, too. So asked for a quote from the 'new' company. Because of our different situations, they were good for DD, but would have been more expensive for us. It really does take an expert to navigate the various options and prices. Good luck

Just had dh check ours, as we just got the bill for it. Went up only $40 this year.
kacram
16 years ago
yep, ours went up. has gone up every year. Not quite that much though
bigfoot_liz
16 years ago
since 2004 my rate has gone up 400%. actually from 2005-2008 it went up 400%, 2009 was only 20%. in 2004 orlando was hit by 3 back to back hurricanes. i had filed a claim after the first hurricane, Nationwide sent a sissy CA boy to check out my roof who whined about the humidity and didn't want to get up on a ladder to check my very damaged roof. they rejected my claim saying my roof wasn't damaged enough & that it was old. hmmm...you've been insuring it since 2000... anyways that taught me that you MUST have $10,000 in cash ready & waiting for hurricane season because insurance companies are only crooks.

here in FL you can be dropped for no reason, have your rates go up constantly, your company can up & leave FL and you can't dare complain. everyone i know who owns a home, lives in fear of being dropped, once you are, you are open to paying whatever insurance companies want just to be lucky to get coverage that will not pay you anything. for years i've been saying, just wait till the rest of the country's insurance companies start trying to pass off inceased costs on them. here in FL costs are by law contained w/in this state. that means that if we are hit by 4 hurricanes all costs to insurance companies are spread only to it's FL customers. i think it should be that way for ea state...we had no hurricanes at all last yr and our costs should go down. ~ liz
monica_pa Grieves
16 years ago
I just asked...ours stayed the same this year.

Home Insurance Increase

Comments (8)

socks

monica_pa Grieves

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socks

liljunkr

azzalea

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bigfoot_liz

monica_pa Grieves

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