Homeowners Insurance Claims

Data is from the National Instituute of Insurance from 2017 -2021. I did a small amount of rounding to make it easy
But here is your risk. You can expect a winb/hail claim every 33 years, a personal property claim every 20 years, a fire or lightning claim every 500 years, water damage or freeze claim every 60 years, theft claim every 600 years, liability claim every 3,333 years , medical payment claim every 4,000 years. Just data from the Insurance companies that is interesting!'

Based on those odds I've been dammnn unlucky.

It only takes one time - if you are sure it will not ever happen to you then cancel every insurance policy you have and self insure -

Too many people live paycheck to credit card for them to ever be self insured. I’m damn glad we had insurance when the hail storm hit in December of 22. I think our total repair was $60,000 for roof damage. I would not have been happy coming out of pocket for that amount.

I did 10 years ago! But not on a whm, studied actuary tables and did a complete review of my renral home portfolio for 10 years. Came out with a 33% payout to hail claims. If you play long ball it pays off- meaning save your money!

Thursday night, a storm rolled through these parts. Lots of lightning. A young couple raising a young family heard a close by & extremely loud clap of thunder and went out to investigate. Didn't see anything. An hour and a half later, they were calling 911. Everyone got out safe.

I've seen plenty of normally rational people use various sorts of data to justify what many would believe to be illogical decisions, but I'll bet on a whim that these people here, with the fie at their home, are glad they are not as smart as somes on here, studying all sorts of stuff and playing what for them, would have been a stupid & costly long game. Plain & simple, the numbers aren't with you when it is you. Our agency paid out for three total loss fires last year. All homes were in good condition. Two were paid for rentals, so no insurance was required by virtue of a mortgage being in place. We are just one little share cropping office here in central TX.

We are on our 4th roof on our house due to 3 hail storms in 30 years that severely damaged the shingles. Where I used to live the house was broken into 4 times. I was single and worked shift work, the local thieves knew my schedule as well or better than I did. They usually hit my place on the Friday I started the evening shift. All doors got retrofitted with 1/4" plate on both sides of the striker plate from floor to the top of the door frame on both sides with 2 recessed bolts every 8".
Thankfully the place where they were fencing the stolen goods got closed down and most of the theft ring went to prison.

That's an easy save, if my boys got there quick and used proper tactics.

Not sure if to be a total or not. Some companies are totalling out houses because the restoration guys charge out like heck and it is exrmely hard to get the smell out forever. I don;t always agree, but it ain't my call. I've seen fires that did not penetrate the roof and yet, the houses were totaled. Those guys came back in, redid the place and came out way ahead.

They do a good job around here - really like the first reponders around these parts.

I’ve paid for 3 roofs in 16 years for some of the same people in a couple of neighborhoods here in Granbury that seem to get golf ball or bigger hail every 4-5 years. The stats from OP are just like rates and based on low of large numbers. Sure there’s areas and lots of people that go a long time without claims and then there are people who get lucky to get 10 years from a roof.

BIL got three roofs in six years up there in Prosper.

Sounds like the adjusters dropped the ball if the houses were totaled. If they are totaling those houses, then it sure explains why our premiums are what they are and why the insurance companies are complaining how they are “losing” money while clearly posting profits. We could get into the “remediation” cost and what they charge for a fan per day. Or maybe we should talk about the third party desk adjusters. It’s a racket, plan and simple. There is a relatively easy fix to it but there are too many hands in the pot making money and it won’t change. Kind of the like taking capitalism and competition out of the roofing market…I could go on but it won’t resolve itself here.

For me and many like me, insurance is a necessity. I deal with it in my professional life and personal. I don’t like it and would love to see it corrected but don’t see that happening anytime soon. Especially when so many will defend the ineptitude and waste involved.

Maybe 20 years ago, the flexible hose between the shutoff and the toilet popped while I was at work. The home was 2 years old.

I came home to water flowing out drive, from under the garage door. It was about $60,000 total...and it was a downstairs toilet. I cannot image the cost if it had been upstairs

Yep exact same for those who choose to go bare with health insurance - I have seen multiple claims over my 40 years plus in the health insurance business and claims of a million and up are fairly common now days. If you go uninsured with property or health then pray you get lucky -

I paid about a 1000 - 1500 year for 20 plus years with no claims. Right before I sold my home I got a lucky hail storm. I got a 12,000 roof for just the deductible so I got about half my money back. I consider myself fortunate to have gotten anything out of an insurance company.

I get it - but I can also tell you how many folks I worked with over my 40 plus years that insurance saved their butts - I paid tons of life insurance and health insurance claims that literally saved my clients from going bankrupt.

So I get that insurance companies are not saints but to think insurance has not financially saved many many people is being simply uninformed. Not going to debate you because my experience is full of real life experiences for over 4 decades - over and out

Well stated.

And meanwhile the lawyers are all waiting in the wings to have a chance to sue the hell out of the insurance companies - everyone is complicit in their motives - period. One of the main reasons health insurance is so expensive is because there are piles of lawyers begging to sue every doctor or hospital out there - which ultimately drives up the cost of health insurance

Only time I have seen Lawyers get involved on the home insurance side, it is because the insurance was screwing a homeowner and wouldn’t pay for what is owed. In my experience, this is typically handled simply with the transfer of the case to a Public Adjuster. I have only been involved in one case that lawyers got involved and it was an absolute nightmare.

Health insurance is an entirely different animal in my experience than home insurance

While lawyers get involved in auto way more they still get involved in homeowners. Part of why everyone wants out of Fl is hurricanes and crooked lawyers. There are a few firms around DFW tied in with a couple roofing companies and PA’s and already part of the claim before the first inspection. I can promise you that no matter how detailed and good of a job an adjuster does it’s never enough in those cases. But lawyers are like everything else. There are small batch like Jim Adler and those types that give everyone a bad name and have huge impact on rates we pay.

I have heard that Florida has some major issues that other states do not but I have no experience with it.

I agree 100% that when even a PA gets involved, they will pick a field adjusters estimate to pieces. Most the time, not always, the estimate is way over inflated and the insurance will be over paying tremendously.

I have had very few issues with field adjusters and actually have pretty good experiences with them.

Remediation was a very big bill they had to pay and there was no issue getting it paid. That is a freaking scheme... I was told to do it right and call them and the claim paid out and fixed it with me out for the plumber but remediation is making millionaires out of fake paper. Insurance paid for my floor 100% so I was made whole

"Well stated"? Geez Luise. Fire isn't a major rate driver. It's the perils of wind, hail and water leaks. Totaling someone's home in the event of a fire has little to do with explaining why premiums are where they are. Funny, somes on here claim they get shorted at time of claim, but when adjusters total out the home and pay the sum of the dwelling, and contents, then they are wrong also. Earth to you guys, they don't do it because it costs them more money.

"insurance companies are complaining how they are "losing" money while clearly posting profits" - let that there digest a little. Pretty sure the heavily regulated insurance industry has severely restrictive accounting regimens which have to be followed. Somes have spoken about money earned on investments all while reserves have gone down and sometimes decimated.

Insurance is something that is lttle complained about when economic times are good. It's just another canary in the coal mine chirping about how the economy is really performing.

A couple a years ago when the temperature got down to zero, we had a friend that had her pipes bust in the attic. The damages were over $300,000. Prior to that when this friend's husband was alive, they chose not to carry insurance on their home. It's a good thing that my wife talked her into getting home insurance.

Someone woke up Monday morning with their panties wedged too tight.

I’ll take one WAG what your business is and would place a significant sum of money that I get it right on the first try. Reminds me of a pharmaceutical rep defending their industry to justify their livelihood. No one is attacking a position, it’s the industry as a whole.

Overpaying on one claim won’t make a difference, over paying on multiple will. Especially when combined with the other waste within the insurance industry. And I agree, there are plenty of times that adjusters under pay too or insurance denies obvious claims. That’s when PA’s and lawyers get involved…saving everyone money of course.

I appreciate how you skipped over the rest of the discussions concerning third parties, lawyers, and etc. I didn’t even hit on the “preferred contractors” and how they are exempt from the laws put in place by insurance lobbyist.

I’m not here for an in depth argument but more than happy to oblige simply because I find it entertaining.

My point is that insurance is a necessity for most, a requirement for all in some instances, and is riddled with waste and inefficiency like many other industries. Having a good agent is priceless, especially in the economic disaster that we are living in but they are restricted by rules and regulations.

I disagree that insurance is only attacked when the economy drops. I have had issue with it from the first time I was forced to buy it and would have some of the same arguments ten years ago that I do today.

If you want to look at attorney involvement in home policies, you only need to look at the ridiculous mold fiasco and the unsettlng issues it brought to the TX markets with increased prics and lack of markets and all over, gues what mold. That's the stuff that made momma cuss when on her knees cleaning it up with vinegar & water. Evidently, that there mold was worth millions to some. If she had only known. I also harken back to the lawsuit where a nearby lightning strike went in, super heated the rebar and left the foundation worthless (in their opinion). They still own that house and have had it rented out for years.

I personally know some of the head mucks in at least a couple of large companies. They ain't bad people. it is a free market and companies do have to compete within the market which makes them attempt to keep thier business "clean" so they can earn the right to provide insurance for people who have to have it or desire to have it.

I am somewhat entertained also. My apologies, if I "missed something" again.

Oh, I agree. The mold issues were some of the most wanting waste claims and a lot of people made a mint off of them. I could tell you similar stories and then flip the script and list individual insurance companies that are well known for denying claims and then approving them simply because a re-inspection was called. Without even having the re-inspection...I am sure that we could compare stories but most of those cases are isolated and not the general rule.

I am sure you "missed something" again since you didn't address any of the discussion items from the previous response, but for some reason your tone seems to be dismissive and a bit defensive in nature in regard to this subject, so I am sure it is probably best if we agree to disagree regarding the stellar integrity and efficiency of the overall insurance industry.

What I find is funny as an adjuster is how people claim insurance is over paying but I’ve never heard it said by someone who has a claim!🤣

There is this guy owning his home and three rentals in Bellville, not exactly known as a hail prone area, who sure is glad he didn't study those actuarial tables.

I did Black Mold Remediaiton back in the day, it was a gold mine. We would do the pack out, have a onsite storage container delivered and put the stuff in there, do the actual mold remediation and do the build back. That was usually after we had already replaced all the Cast Iron Sanitary pipes under slab which at the time Insurance paid for.

My buddy, an adjuster, took a mold reading within a home in Hosetown. Came up over what it should be. He ventured outside the residence and took another reading. It was even higher.

I have no doubt, We used to use the same hygentist to test, I have seen it myself as well

Back in the late 90's we were doing a lot of black mold jobs, at first we were all wearing suits, masks, etc. After a few were were in jeans and shirtless since the houses were mostly vacant while the people went to a hotel while the remediation took place

We made sure all the houses passed by after applying the chemicals and letting them dry, we would come back with Kilz and a spray paint rig and have the painter paint all the studs and seal in all the mold if any were left.

That was when the Big 3 Insurance in Texas stopped selling HomeOwners policies and Farmers was cancelling people right and left, next thing you knew there was no longer and HOA or HOB policies in Texas

Seems like almost every mold claim was more to do with neglect or just being an older home.

Black Mold was a trigger word back then, it was the a gold mine for some.

Your posts are ridiculous and filled with the industry nonsense. I attacked the industry by stating facts and providing information so homeowners can critically think. However, I did not attack agents or yourself personally. Throwing up every claim you can find to justify your point is silly. Dude has probably paid close to $200,000 in premiums the past 20 years on 4 houses. I just went to The Texas Department of Insurance to get comparison quotes and they ranged from $1,389 - $10,500!!!!! There are plenty of disgruntled insurance consumers on this site, which is opportunity for a professional to consult and find the best products for them. Just quit with the fear mongering and start consulting.

Well heck, I was hoping this one would go quietly into the night......

"Your posts are ridiculous and filled with the industry nonsense. I attacked the industry by stating facts and providing information so homeowners can critically think. However, I did not attack agents or yourself personally. Throwing up every claim you can find to justify your point is silly. Dude has probably paid close to $200,000 in premiums the past 20 years on 4 houses. I just went to The Texas Department of Insurance to get comparison quotes and they ranged from $1,389 - $10,500!!!!! There are plenty of disgruntled insurance consumers on this site, which is opportunity for a professional to consult and find the best products for them. Just quit with the fear mongering and start consulting."

Such a sage. Fear mongering again, I had forgotten who originally brought that to me. Twice now you have thrown that at me and my "posts are ridiculous" but, you are not attacking me personally. Hmmm . . . , what planet do you live on?

Along the lines of someone talking about what he does not know - the Bellville insured purchased his first home in 2009 and that policy back then cost all of $635. That home has more than doubled with its replacement cost and the insurance cost has had an eerily similar and only slighly larger ascent in its premium. The first rental was several years later. We don't have no 20 years for him to "probably" pay nowhere near any $200,000.

In a perfect world, what Ram advocates could be positive for an individual, if the skies part and little or nothing goes wrong. Unfortunately, our free enterprise economy would not work were it not for insurance. There would be much more limited or no growth. Insurance allows you to leverage risk as you grow & hopefully prosper. I's pretty simple really - you willingly pay a fee and give up the unknown costs of futire claims for a certain period of time. If you prefer the unknwon future financial consequences without insuring them, so be it. Be prepared to pay cash though as no bank is going to rest on your faith with an uncertain outcome. Self insuring has its own costs in and of itself and can be financially devastating if things don't go right.

I have to double quote (sorry), "Just quit with the fear mongering and start consulting." - geez, thanks for the solid advice. Don't know how I have made it nor why anyone has ever done business with me. Thank you for puttng me in my place and on the right track. Thank you. I am in line with my posts, ridiculous. I'll add I am not worthy.

David Huddleston
New Braunfels, TX