Insurance shenanigans

[1918ColonialRevival]

Over the weekend, I got a certified letter from my homeowner's insurance company that basically threatened to cancel my policy if certain items weren't corrected. The items were: a small patch of moss on a porch roof that grows there every summer and a few missing cedar shingles from the side of the house.

I've never heard of an insurance company coming around snooping, let alone threatening to cancel a policy over such trivial things. I've had this company for 7 years, have never filed a claim, and have basically done nothing but line their pockets this whole time.

Has anyone else had an experience like this? This is making me worry that if God forbid something happened and I had to file a claim, the insurer would do all they could to weasel out of it. Are there any insurance companies left out there that don't harass older home owners, especially those who maintain their property?

[Nicholas]

My very short answer is, never heard of that.

Insurance companies: Betting that you DON'T file a claim. Just curious, do you have specific old home insurance? I was told to keep the (incorrect) county appraised age of our house at 1941 to help keep insurance prices down.

[Wackyshack]

Maybe I live in a weird part of the country (Taxachusetts) I have not had trouble obtaining insurance or them writing to me about anything and there were times when the house was a bit torn apart and looking sketchy.

This area is loaded with houses that are pre-1940's so they have to do business with us... a majority of my town is made up of old houses early 1800's and many 1880's and 1950's. It seems we had some major building crazes going on... Now they are shoving in McMansions through every right of way they can find to get into the woods behind existing neighborhoods but that is another story for another time.

Not sure if Hingham Mutual underwrites for your area, but that is who I have.

[heartwood]

yup, without my consent, the insurance company came to my house and took photos of the exterior...they would cancel my insurance (paid in full) if I did not have a small area of the chimney repointed and remove mildew from a small section of the house...I despise insurance companies who work in conjunction with banks and the gov't to make it mandatory...in 25 years of homeownership I've never had a claim...I tell them to send a 'thank you' note to the same address as my bill but have yet to receive one.....

...jade

[JRC]

My insurance co. visited and photographed the outside of my house, and gave me a list of items to be corrected, when I first opened a policy with that company. Some items were understandable, like installing porch railings. But, they claimed my roof needed replaced, and I had to provide a letter from a roofer stating that the roof was fine. They haven't come back since, though. (knock on wood)

[Vala]

Nope, never ever heard of this happening to anyone personally. We have Liberty Mutual.

[vvzz]

I've never had them stop by unannounced, but in one of my houses I had them send a person(after first contacting me) who came out, took some pictures and told me I need to install a railing in the basement staircase. Same demand to my friend in the same neighborhood. The insurance guy who came out was very nice and said he had to pretty much find something, so the railings are his default goto and it seems to keep the insurance company happy and quiet. He also said that if he doesn't find at least something, that might raise some flags and they might do a more thorough review.

In my other house, they also sent a person to take some pictures. It went well, but then the insurance company sent me a letter threatening to cancel my insurance since the house was unoccupied/under constrcution(they came out while we were still moving) Not sure if that has something to do with both being multi-family properties too. I had to have that person come out again and certify that I in fact live in the house.

I personally would just fix the issues(or doll it up) and move on. Insurance company is not your friend and it's probably some sort of internal bullshit initiative, so complying is much easier than trying to fight things.

[CS in Low Hud]

Usually this sort of stunt is precipitated by an internal risk assessment in a given area. If the insurance company realizes that they have too big a cluster of customers, they look winnow things down a bit in that area and spread the customer base (and risk base) out a bit more. It's not like your patch of roof moss is going to actually cause a problem, but if they do that to 500 customers in your town and 100 of them opt to not to make the fix, then if some local disaster strikes, that's less of a hit to their bottom line.

It's annoying, but there you have it.

Chris

[1918ColonialRevival]

Thanks to all who have responded.

This keeps getting better! I called yesterday to get clarification. Turns out the "moss" they were talking about is actually lichens that are on parts of the slate roof. They are actually demanding that we get up there and clean that off. I told them that if their underwriter or whoever did the inspection doesn't know the difference between moss and lichens and if they don't know that growth on slate is different than growth on an asphalt roof, they need to be let go. Most slate roofs I've seen in this area have had lichens in one form or another. I've had several reputable slaters tell me that the lichen growth on the roof is actually protecting the slate surface from deterioration.

So, the path forward is that I've asked a slater I deal with to write a letter stating that the lichen is not causing any harm to the roof and that removing it would be detrimental.

It's amazing what schmucks these companies have working for them. This is making me concerned that if anything ever happened to the roof, if they would try to only pay for an asphalt replacement even though that's not what's in my policy.

[Lily left the valley]

I hope the letter plan works for you.

Sorry to hear about folks having to put up with such utter tosh.