HomeOwners Insurance Cancelled

[Jamielly]

What is the name of your state? Texas

We bought a house just over a year ago. Due to the large amount of Mold claims filed recently in TX the Ins. rates have skyrocketed and our particular Ins Co was one of the ones that was the worst. We began shopping around and found that the seller had not disclosed (or rather, lied on his disclosure) that he had made a claim within the last 3 years and it has been the cause for us to be denied insurance at every insurance company we have called thus far. Apparently our old providers forgot to check... We called a Ins Co that informed us, after specifically asking, that the claims made by the other owner would not affect us. We were sent a Binder, as well as our Mortgage company that then paid out on the premium, and now exactly a week later, and after canceling our old provider, we received a Cancellation Notice in the mail from our *new* provider stating they would not continue to cover us past next month due to the claims filed by the previous owner.
Now, not only do we have the claims by the previous owner, we have a Cancellation from our new company that will put us at an even higher risk when looking for a NEW insurance co yet again. Is there anything we can do in regards with this new company? I am not looking for "monetary damgages" only to get insurance on our home. Can we force the New company to follow through with the insurance they sold us? And is there anyway to get the cancellation off our records? If not, how long do those show? I am livid and in a horribly tight spot. Our OLD providers will not take us back bc we have been *Cancelled* and all other places we have called so far that will take us want to charge us around $2,000!!!

Please Help!
Jamie

 

[HomeGuru]

Get insurance in place then hire an attorney to look into litigating with the insurance company but more importantly filing against the Seller for mispreresentation. Use the seller disclosure law to your advantage.

 

[Jamielly]

We are already in the process of trying to take the seller, along with some others to court. This Insurance Issue has just been one more leak in an already sinking boat.
Do you know of anything (laws, ect) I can "throw" at this insurance company when I call them to have some words? Also, can you please let me know how this Cancellation is going to affect us, and how long?
Obviously I would rather not do business with a company that didn't even have the balls to call and let us know, but rather just sent it in a letter.... But is there someway to rectify this without going to court?

 

[southernponyboy]

In Texas, an insurance company has the right to cancel a homeowner policy within 60 days of inception date regardless of reason. This can be for prior claims (either your's or ones filed on said property), or for the conditions of the home, or for your credit score, basically whatever reason they want to use. It sounds like the insurance agent didn't think the prior claim would show up, so he bound coverage anyway and the insurance company did find the claim and denied coverage because of it. This is not illegal, but it is poor business in my opinion.

I work for a large insurance co here in Texas, and I feel your pain. There are many, many people in the same boat as you. I suggest you contact a Germania Insurance agent or Texas Select Insurance agent. They are still writing the HOB and the prior claim should not affect the rates with them.

Whatever you do, hurry and do it before your policy runs out as that will make the situation even tougher.

I dont know what area in Texas you are & that will affect the availability of a policy for you as well.

Your best bet is to find an independant agent, like I stated before. I know that Allstate, State Farm, Farmers & Farm Bureau will not insure you. I think you should take whatever policy you can find and ride this out for another year. We are hoping the industry will look up next year. But really, who knows?

Also, I dont know how much you are insuring your home for, but the $2,000 range is pretty common now. I would expect to pay at least $1,500 for a decent policy now.

Also, I dont think you can sue the insurance co as this is a standard rule designed to protect them from having to insure a home that they dont want for whatever reason. As long as they are not discriminating against you based on age, race religion etc they can do this. You know what I mean.

Sorry you are in such a tight situation. Hope this works out for you.

 

[lckwod]

Jamielly,
I understand your problem in away when it comes to the cost of homeowners ins. here in texas. I bought my house in march 2001 and had ins. through farmers at 670 a year. then in march of 2002 i found out they were not going to renew my contract because they no longer were writting HOB.or something like that. I could have gone with another type of plan through farmers ins. but it would have cost me 1300 which I can not afford. I did end up going with texas select as sothernponyboy had mentioned to you in a reply. I now pay 865 (praying it will not go up in march again). It is worth a try to call and find out if they can do anything for you. I really hope everything works out for you. Insurances can be killers LOL.
Southernponeyboy,
I was just wondering if maybe you might know why homeowners ins. is so high and if maybe in the near future we might get some relief from the high prices here in texas. It seems because of taxes and homeowners ins. it will be harder to afford houses.

 

[tammy8]

I am not going to answer for TX but here in NC we as insurance companies are experiencing the same thing ie rates increases and companies pulling out of our state. The reason is the companies simply can not afford to continue doing business when they suffer the loses that our states tend to experience. Dollar for dollar insurance companies are losing their a$$es with the payout on claims. Homeowners claims tend to be in the thousands and sometimes tens of thousands and when a company only collects say $500 for the yrly premium there is no possible way to recoup these payouts.

In NC our homeowners policies have increased and in some areas as much as 50%. I am amazed though at the rates in TX as I have just had a insured move here from Fort Worth and he paid almost $1300 for a $150K home there where he is now paying $1100 for a $400K home. I unforuntaley see the trend in the rates being similar in a couple of yrs to come.

Good luck and hate to say but basically you would be wise to take what you can get.