How much is your homeowners insurance going up? (Liberty: HOA, condos)
Raleigh, Durham, Chapel Hill, CaryThe Triangle Area
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I've been happy with Amica but I can't take nearly a 100% increase in just 3 years - it's crazy. I argued it last year bringing up the whole socialized roofing thing, but they say their hands are tied because they have no way to prove the age of people's roofs because nobody pulls permits. Something needs to change in regards to how the insurance companies handle people making claims on 20+ year old roofs - passing off the cost to everyone does not work, our premiums will very quickly get out of control.
The house we are purchasing has a new roof and a new driveway. Will that help lower our rate?
What do you mean when you say, "Nobody pulls permits"?
The house we are purchasing has a new roof and a new driveway. What do you mean when you say, "Nobody pulls permits"?
I'm not sure if permits are required for roof replacement or not. May depend on the town.
Without a permit, the insurance company has nothing in writing that determines the age of the roof. This is why they will replace a 20+ old roof with "hail damage" for free. At least that's what they say - the reality is they could surely tell the age of the roof by looking at it, but it's easier to just pay for it and pass the cost off to everyone, even those that don't take advantage of this.
I'm not sure if permits are required for roof replacement or not. May depend on the town.
Without a permit, the insurance company has nothing in writing that determines the age of the roof. This is why they will replace a 20+ old roof with "hail damage" for free. At least that's what they say - the reality is they could surely tell the age of the roof by looking at it, but it's easier to just pay for it and pass the cost off to everyone, even those that don't take advantage of this.
I sent them my warranty certificate when I got a new roof and my paid invoice. My agent said it will be evaluated when I renew in December. Fingers crossed. I think every house in my sub division has got a new roof from insurance, it's hard to say no to a free roof (deductible withstanding). Mine was leaking and I paid out of pocket, which after watching like 10 of my neighbors get insurance claims approved seems like I am the sucker at this point for paying for it myself.
I sent them my warranty certificate when I got a new roof and my paid invoice. My agent said it will be evaluated when I renew in December. Fingers crossed. I think every house in my sub division has got a new roof from insurances, it's hard to say no to a free roof (deductible withstanding). Mine was leaking and I paid out of pocket, which after watching like 10 of my neighbors get insurance claims approved seems like I am the sucker at this point for paying for it myself.
Yeah just for the record, I have no issue with people with actual hail damage making claims on roofs that aren't end-of-lifed. My issue is the people making claims for roofs 20+ years old. It happens all the time, and it's not right. But as everyone on here knows, I'm a broken record when it comes to this.
I had a claim for water damage and had a large raise in premiums. I got a discount for single claim forgiveness when I signed into a new amendment. So I got a discount that pretty much would add up to the cost of a roof over the course of 10 years. So I figured, I could pay for a new roof out of pocket OR try for a claim and lose the discount and pay for it in premium increases. It's really just the ideal example of information asymmetry in the insurance industry. If I end up getting a large increase cause of the 80% of houses making claims on street, it's just going to expensive lesson for me.
That's a good question and the hard part is, most of us wouldn't go with an insolvent insurer, but that's not as relevant is it? Most of the insurers most folks would use are going to be rated well from a financial perspective. But for a consumer, "crappy" means "they make your life hard to process claims."
Quote:
Originally Posted by scar1919
The house we are purchasing has a new roof and a new driveway. Will that help lower our rate?
What do you mean when you say, "Nobody pulls permits"?
Quote:
Originally Posted by m378
I'm not sure if permits are required for roof replacement or not. May depend on the town.
Without a permit, the insurance company has nothing in writing that determines the age of the roof. This is why they will replace a 20+ old roof with "hail damage" for free. At least that's what they say - the reality is they could surely tell the age of the roof by looking at it, but it's easier to just pay for it and pass the cost off to everyone, even those that don't take advantage of this.
For roofs under $15K you aren't required to get a permit. Average cost going off of Google for roof replacement in NC is 1/2 that. Having spoken to neighbors that have reroofed, that sounds right; our neighborhood is a bit smaller homes and the "anecdotal average" seems like less than the google average.
Back-of-napkin math tells me that I could double the size of my 1300 sf rancher and come in well under that; Extrapolating that a bit, even a 5K sf home, in a simple Georgian architectural style would come in for about the same (given the area of the roof and simplicity of the lines. Those aren't post-pandemic prices but all the same.
That's a good question and the hard part is, most of us wouldn't go with an insolvent insurer, but that's not as relevant is it? Most of the insurers most folks would use are going to be rated well from a financial perspective. But for a consumer, "crappy" means "they make your life hard to process claims."
For roofs under $15K you aren't required to get a permit. Average cost going off of Google for roof replacement in NC is 1/2 that. Having spoken to neighbors that have reroofed, that sounds right; our neighborhood is a bit smaller homes and the "anecdotal average" seems like less than the google average.
Back-of-napkin math tells me that I could double the size of my 1300 sf rancher and come in well under that; Extrapolating that a bit, even a 5K sf home, in a simple Georgian architectural style would come in for about the same (given the area of the roof and simplicity of the lines. Those aren't post-pandemic prices but all the same.
I paid well over 10k for my 2800sf 2-story home and I'm pretty sure that's the going rate.
I think its frustrating seeing a storm come through and then the roof vultures go house to house "inspecting" for damage and working with insurance companies to prematurely replace roofs only to drive everyone else's rates up, but I cant get a break on having to replace my water line that we discovered broken after buying the house was loosing thousands of gallons per month. FWIW, I dont recommend Hometeam Inspection out of Durham. They gave me a water pressure reading from a broken spigot, and never mentioned it was stripped with a secondary shut off valve to stop it.
I've never made a claim for anything while paying Erie's ever-increasing rates for 13 years. Thats when I discovered how you get penalized for loyalty. They basically told me that if I filed a claim on the water line that it would result in a "zero" sum claim that would be noted as against me and follow my file forever, and it felt like a threat TBH. I just paid the 2500 out of pocket for the line. Because there are so many people using their insurance as a maintenance fund, I've been told that home insurers build detailed profiles on customers now that travel from company to company. When interviewing another company 4 years ago, an agent questioned me about a claim that my MIL made 3 states away for a a/c unit that got destroyed in a winter storm. That made no sense to me. I pressured them about how they'd come up with this information and the agent told me that the insurers are linking family members together to calculate the risk pools. They're not supposed to discuss it, so I dont know the exact details of how its done. Perhaps its nothing new, but it wouldn't surprise me if they didnt try to calculate risks based on facebook friends. Everything is a scam.
I also have heard that NC participates in a program that sends company "inspectors" to homes to investigate various things only to tell the homeowner they are required to repair said items (siding, driveway cracks, and trees) or the company will drop their policy which costs the homeowners lots.
I think its frustrating seeing a storm come through and then the roof vultures go house to house "inspecting" for damage and working with insurance companies to prematurely replace roofs only to drive everyone else's rates up, but I cant get a break on having to replace my water line that we discovered broken after buying the house was loosing thousands of gallons per month. FWIW, I dont recommend Hometeam Inspection out of Durham. They gave me a water pressure reading from a broken spigot, and never mentioned it was stripped with a secondary shut off valve to stop it.
I've never made a claim for anything while paying Erie's ever-increasing rates for 13 years. Thats when I discovered how you get penalized for loyalty. They basically told me that if I filed a claim on the water line that it would result in a "zero" sum claim that would be noted as against me and follow my file forever, and it felt like a threat TBH. I just paid the 2500 out of pocket for the line. Because there are so many people using their insurance as a maintenance fund, I've been told that home insurers build detailed profiles on customers now that travel from company to company. When interviewing another company 4 years ago, an agent questioned me about a claim that my MIL made 3 states away for a a/c unit that got destroyed in a winter storm. That made no sense to me. I pressured them about how they'd come up with this information and the agent told me that the insurers are linking family members together to calculate the risk pools. They're not supposed to discuss it, so I dont know the exact details of how its done. Perhaps its nothing new, but it wouldn't surprise me if they didnt try to calculate risks based on facebook friends. Everything is a scam.
I also have heard that NC participates in a program that sends company "inspectors" to homes to investigate various things only to tell the homeowner they are required to repair said items (siding, driveway cracks, and trees) or the company will drop their policy which costs the homeowners lots.
USAA sent someone out, that took pictures, at some point a year or two after we bought our house. She seemed to take a lot of pictures of my chicken house (which was a ratchet hillbilly hack job made largely from pallets by yours truly.)
I was pretty sure I'd get a nastygram about trees that make my wife nervous but never heard anything.
I have Liberty Mutual for my condo policy. They are excellent. I have filed several claims so far, and they always reimbursed without any hassle. My premium hasn't even increased. My annual premium is only $245 for a 2BR/2BA 1400 sq ft condo in the heart of downtown.
I'm also getting a very good alumni discount.
You might want to check to see if your insurer offers any alumni discounts. I know that Geico and Liberty Mutual does.
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