Call Geico.

Why did they come and inspect? Did the former tenant call them? I'm not sure if it is a state law but for the rental I own I have a different type of homeowner's insurance. It's a landlord policy. If this is what was on yours maybe you now need a regular homeowner's policy. Call Nationwide and ask them. I'd also call whoever you have your car insurance with and ask them for a quote.

Were those problems noted in the original purchase inspection? Had any of that been mentioned when negotiating price? If Nationwide saw evidence of tree limbs on the roof and then there was no paperwork at closing to show that it was resolved, I could see them being angry.

Nationwide threatened to cancel coverage of a house we were buying because of a major problem. We managed to resolve it before closing, so our situation never got as bad as yours, but we were told to give them hard evidence (receipts, invoices) of the work being done. They do not mess around.

You have two choices. 1) Take cpartists' advice to find new insurance, at least for six months or so until you make repairs. 2) Ask Nationwide what you can do in 48 hours to fix it. They might just say get a handyman to haul off the fence and trim a few branches. If that's all they require, they might give you 48 hours to do it.

Good luck.

Ha, we would prefer not to find a new insurance agency because all of our policies are bundled with Nationwide, which is convenient. Up until this, they have been great to deal with so I am still hopeful this can be resolved without switching companies, but it may come to that I guess.

annz3: I am not sure why they came out. We were not notified of any problems before we closed on the house and they had covered the property for about a month before they changed their minds. Ours is a regular homeowner's policy, but perhaps I can ask them about a different policy for while the home is under repairs.

HopeForBest: No, none of these issues were inspection issues because they are not major in the grand scheme of things and they were work we knew we would have to do to the house anyway just to get it up to our standard of living. Good to know that they gave you a chance to resolve the issues. I am going to ask for that too. 48 hours might be stretching it, but I think we can get this work done pretty fast since most of it is clean up.

You also need to advise your Bank. Your mortgage undoubtedly requires you to have homeowners in an amount to cover their loss were a casualty to occur.

If the house burns down tonight I feel comfortable in the final analysis the bank will get their money. Did the Insurance Company notify the bank of the cancellation?

none of these issues were inspection issues because they are not major in the grand scheme of things

Did your inspector write them in the report? I know for sure that tree limbs over the roof were mentioned in ours. Our agent advised us to fix it right away because it could jeopardize insurance. If the insurance agent got wind of your inspection, that can create a lot of problems.

Some things we might see as no big deal are actually deal-breakers for insurance. You can't assume what an insurer may or may not overlook. We addressed 11 things that appeared on our inspection so there would be absolutely no questions.

SaltiDawg is right. The bank needs to know. A completely uninsured home is a problem, even for a few days.

Good point about the bank guys. I hadn't thought of that. I think I will wait and talk to the insurance company tomorrow and see if we can come to a resolution before calling the bank. But yes, that will have to be done too. UGH.

We shopped this year and auto was somewhat cheaper but all the homeowners quotes were the same. I mean within a hundred dollars. Very strange I thought.

I had a problem while building with Liberty Mutual. They cancelled my course of construction insurance because "your house isn't finished." It had been, idk, 7 months, and we had paid for a year. They sent someone to do an inspection and he found the house wasn't complete and nobody was living in it. Well, duh.

It all got straightened out. They are real skittish because of all the fraud out there.

Talk to them first. But be prepared to call someone else as well.

Good luck!

If you look at what you signed with the insurance company, there is usually some sort of language saying that your coverage is contingent on several things which could include a visual inspection, CLUE report. credit report, etc.

I would speak to your agent but also be prepared to find other coverage. When you look for new coverage you will probably have to disclose on the application that your previous insurance was cancelled by the insurer.

The bank will soon receive notice that you coverage is cancelled and will procure their own coverage if you are not able and take it out of your escrow.

States have their own individual insurance laws so some of my advice may not apply in your state.

Good luck. It's a worrisome mess and I hope you resolve it quickly.

If you don't resolve this immediately, the bank will force place insurance. This is very expensive insurance that will be tacked onto the end of your mortgage. It is very important that you deal with this at the open of business after the weekend.

The insurance company sent out an inspector because they do that with all of their policies. Usually, it's not a big deal and you would never hear about it. When the inspector saw the condition of the house, he had to report it. It would have been nice if they had given you a period to cure the issues. Plus, the house had become unoccupied which is another set of problems for the insurance company. But, they didn't and it's just business for them.

Just don't delay in getting a new insurance binder. Have the new insurance coverage dated to the date of cancellation. This way you can't be charged for a force placed policy. Get a copy of the insurance binder to the mortgage company immediately. Your insurance agent will know what to do. Double check and triple check in a few months to make sure the forced placed policy has disappeared. There is a lot of paper work shuffle and a lot of different companies involved in resolving this problem.

I've been writing home insurance for about 18 years now. I don't know many companies that are not doing home inspections for all new business and now a lot of renewals. More than likely the letter you received would have given you a time frame to clear up the issues and the termination date would have been atleast 45 days out depending on your state's insurance laws. You can call Nationwide, but you won't be able to speak with an underwriter, they are not there to be brow beat by consumers. They have rules and regulations they have to follow. Your risk has liability issues, that's why they dropped you. Before you secure new coverage, and I would do just that, make sure all the issues are cleared up or you will continue to have this issue. Some company's inspections are more stringent than others. Some companies have loosened up their guidelines while others have come on pretty tough. Some of your issues would now be considered minor issues. If you have time and can get the issues resolved prepare to take pictures, have receipts for the work done or request a second inspection. They may or may not do that, don't forget that is additional up front cost for them which put's their profits out even further. My guess is your not actually dealing with Nationwide either. Depending on your state it may be Homeside or another company.

Thank you all for the tips. As an update, I spoke with Nationwide on Monday (Memorial day, so that was a waste, my bad) and again this morning, after we had a chance to get into the house yesterday and assess our workload. Thankfully, I mis-read the cancellation notice and, as two25acres pointed out, we do have two weeks before the insurance is actually cancelled.

We can take pictures of the repairs and submit them for review. However, they refuse to extend the deadline beyond two weeks to give us time to complete all of the work. I asked them for just one month. Apparently the underwriter (who I did not speak with, this came via the sales agent) thought the idea that we could fix a porch, fence, and tree in a month was laughable and had already decided the risk was not worth it. My husband has been in construction for 20+ years so I am sure we could have done it, but c'est la vie. It has surpassed my level of patience.

Moving on to find a new insurance company! And ASAP too because I do not want the bank to find insurance for us! Thank you for the heads up on that guys.

Two25acres: Will we still need to say we have been dropped by Nationwide when we shop for new insurance, if the policy has not yet actually been cancelled yet? Also, the previous owner had insurance on the house with no issues. I am going to call their agent specifically...do you think they will now take issue with things that were fine before?

I do not want the bank to find insurance for us!

As a private mortgage administrator, I will not let a property remain uninsured for a single day. I receive the cancelled policy notices and act on them immediately.

The cost of a new policy is the borrower's responsibility, as will be the feefor the lender dealing with that, up to $595 in our area.

Just did one recently--the fee was $1,195 for the insurance company, plus the lender's administration fee of $350. That was for three days coverage after the homeowner had let her policy lapse. Maybe your lender is more lenient.

Worthy: It hasn't lapsed yet :) Good to know on the costs though.

And you will not be able to hide the fact from a new insurer that you are being dropped by the first one. Either you would be lying on your application (fraud) or they will look it up.

Best to be upfront, if asked why you are being dropped simply tell them the truth. Use the phrase "for conditions" which you have already/are addressing. Just make sure that the inspection that is done with the new company is done when the work is done. If that is not possible, the new company will bind you coverage and if you don't pass inspection they are obligated to give you so much notice. Not sure what state your in but generally its 30 - 45 days notice of cancellation for conditions.

Also, pay attention to anything from your lender that may indicate forced placed insurance. Some companies will automatically secure it once they receive notice from insurance company that there will be a cancellation.

As for the prior owners insurance company, that's really not an issue. You don't know how long they were insured by that company and if it was long term they wouldn't necessarily have know about the recent conditions unless they also inspected the property.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for all the advice guys. We ended up getting insurance through a new company (the one the prior owners had used) before the current one lapsed. I called my bank to let them know of the changes since it is done through escrow and we needed to pay the new company, and they had no idea the insurance was about to be cancelled in less than a week. So I guess they don't find out until it actually drops? Who knows, but it worked out for us.

You need to follow up on the call to the lender with an email informing them of the change in insurance companies to protect yourself. We changed insurance companies at the beginning of 2015. The next month the lender sent the payment to the old insurance company despite being informed. My husband spent hours on the phone getting it corrected with the 2 insurance companies and the lender. Because of the lender's mistake they raised our escrow amount for a year since it looked like our insurance was twice as much as it was. Only this month, 18 months later, did the escrow finally go down to where it should be. We should also be getting an overage check sometime in the future.