Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
OP didn't say the pipes themselves were covered. And sure, you can prevent frozen pipes - neither I nor my parents EVER had them! Preventable things are covered all the time... WHOOPS - JUST READ ALL OF OP AGAIN - the pipes "leaked"? That does sound like something different but for anyone else, the damage from frozen pipes is definitely covered.
And, yes, the insurance company is proposing to continue to cover the OP's future water damage. But clearly he's made enough claims to raise the risk levels of future claims. They can raise his rates or suggest a higher deductible.
As I said earlier, such problems are to be expected in old houses, and the OP ought to be taking preventative steps, not using insurance to pay for repairs along the way. If he agrees to a higher deductable, then the insurance company can safely presume he'll start doing things to prevent reasonably predictable failures.
And as has been mentioned by me and others, claims for water damage go into the CLUE database that will increase the cost of insuring that house even for future residents.
Insurance sucks. They want you to pay and pay and pay, but they really don't want you to make any claims. That's homeowners insurance, car insurance, health insurance, any kind of insurance. If they can find a way to deny your claim, they will. If not, they'll pay, but even if you have an otherwise perfect "record" and only make one legitimate claim, you can expect for your rates to go way up.
This isn't coming from a "scorned" person, either. i just know how it is.
insurance was designed to cover the things that would be totally catastrophic to us if it was us it happened to . but over time the insurance gets used for everything and not just catastrophic stuff .
so with greater claims by the pool the more expensive the premiums become or the less coverage or bigger deductibles you get.
decades ago most of us did not even have major medical .we had blue cross and blue shield and you paid for pretty much everything out of pocket not hospital related .
today we want everything paid for and so the climb in premiums has been incredible .
insurance was designed to cover the things that would be totally catastrophic to us if it was us it happened to . but over time the insurance gets used for everything and not just catastrophic stuff .
so with greater claims by the pool the more expensive the premiums become or the less coverage or bigger deductibles you get.
decades ago most of us did not even have major medical .we had blue cross and blue shield and you paid for pretty much everything out of pocket not hospital related .
today we want everything paid for and so the climb in premiums has been incredible .
Yes, this is true. We no longer have health insurance, we have pre-paid medical care with an insurance component to it.
May as well figure out single payer and be done with it, since we've gotten to the point where those services are what most people are expecting, despite not wanting to pay the premiums to actually pay for all of the services.
Insurance sucks. They want you to pay and pay and pay, but they really don't want you to make any claims. That's homeowners insurance, car insurance, health insurance, any kind of insurance. If they can find a way to deny your claim, they will. If not, they'll pay, but even if you have an otherwise perfect "record" and only make one legitimate claim, you can expect for your rates to go way up.
This isn't coming from a "scorned" person, either. i just know how it is.
Car insurance. My deductible for Comprehensive was raised on it from $100 to $500 several years ago. I'd had several claims for vandalism (cars kept getting keyed, from the front bumper to the back one. Every ****ing car, 4 of them) over an 18 month period. Thousands of dollars in damage.
I pretty much knew who was doing it but couldn't prove it.
in many states , like ours (ny) your insurer can not raise you for a comprehensive claim . however they can elect to drop you and those comprehensive claims count big time as a negative in CLUE when shopping for insurance
We had one claim, a small kitchen fire, that resulted in having to replace the countertops and back splash. We aren't talking granite here, but it was 72 linear feet for just the countertop. It ended up being a $5000 claims with a $500 deductible.
They paid it, but they immediately raised our deductible to 1% of replacement cost. It doesn't sound like much, but that was a $2000 deductible. Plus, they raised our rates for the next three years. Every year, the deductible would go up and up because of the increase in replacement cost. When it hit $2500, I said no more.
I contacted my agent, and we froze the deductible at $2000. I pay about $30 extra a year. My problem was that we are approaching the time of fixed incomes. I could see it spiraling beyond our ability to pay the deductible.
Insurance companies don't want you to file claims. Ever. I hadn't had a claim in maybe 25 years. It didn't matter.
At the rate you are going, you will be lucky just to have any insurance coverage. Soon, you will be black listed by most preferred insurance companies. They keep track of EVERY SINGLE CLAIMS you make. Once you are black listed, doesn't matter where you shop for new insurance, the answer will be "NO". You'll end up with some third rate company who will charge you 3-4 times your normal rate.
There must be some law that prevents them from dropping you. So, without knowing all of the laws, etc., my next step would be to ask them to please put that in writing, so you can discuss it with your lawyer :-)
there are no states i know of that will keep an insurer from dropping you -for any reason , including just deciding they have to many outstanding policies in an area . we are seeing it in long island now where after sandy insurers are cutting exposure .they are dropping you ,claim or not .
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
