Public Service Announcement: If you've replaced your roof...
 

...update your homeowner's insurance policy.

I replaced my roof in 2016 due to a hail claim. I got my annual insurance policy update (20+ legalese pages), and I happened to notice that it said to check my reported roof age because that affects my cost.

It turns out that the claims department doesn't talk to the billing department, so they didn't update my roof age when it was replaced. They were assuming that I had a 20+ year old roof, and the difference in policy cost is notable - over $400 per year for my house. I updated the records and my premium went down notably.

Now I'm going through the hassle of trying to get credit back for the last two years where I've overpaid. It seems like a straightforward argument, but we'll see how much fighting it takes.

I just thought I'd share this, because it's a big price difference. I didn't know that it was that important, and I assumed that the insurance company had the right date given that it was replaced via a claim.

that's like asking the government to repeal a tax ROFL

Another sad tale that exemplifies the anguish experienced by those who dismiss the advantages of thatch.

FAX

Well maybe not repeal, but the government certainly repays taxes if it can be shown they weren't owed. This is different, of course, but I'd be surprised if they didn't make this right. Good way to lose a customer.

The Claims department is probably staffed by assholes from Maine.

he knows im only kidding :thumb:

:D

It's to the insurance companies advantage to not update roof replacement. They don't want to pay for a new roof and then lower your rate.

having 17 rent houses I need to make sure my policy is updated as I had about 10 roofs replaced 2 years ago.

This was a good thread to bring to peoples attention. Thanks Rainman.

BTW I really wanted to vote for PMII but I didn't. Has he replaced Gaz as the new poll default?

Massachusetts.

Massholes.

10/10. Would read (and laugh) again.

As an update on this, I've been fighting with USAA Insurance about this. Here's what they said:

1. They admitted that they've overcharged me $400 or so a year for the past two years, but they're not going to refund the overcharge, with the implied conclusion here that they're crooks.

2. They admitted that their systems don't talk to each other, so even though their claims department covered the new roof, the information was never passed to their policy department to update the policy. So it's their fault that I was being overcharged because they're incompetent.

3. They admitted that they're still overcharging me, but their system does not allow them to update the home's features and update the rate once it's been established for the year. They recommended that I continue to be overcharged this year, and next year they'll set it to the proper level. I am not making this up.

What's just as bad is that they were incredibly snarky about it. I got treated so badly that my wife took over to try to salvage it, and she contacted them separately and was treated just as rudely. I then gave them one last chance because they were being morons and I thought surely one person there had the ability to problem solve, but no - strike three. Just incredibly rude and uncaring people these days. We've noticed that they've been cutting their customer service for several years, and apparently their customer service center is now being run using labor from the Starkville Institute for the Socially Inept.

If you ever consider buying some insurance, do me a favor. Contact USAA and get a quote that takes a long time and a lot of work to prepare, and then tell them that you're not buying it because of this thread.

I hope they all get trapped in a fire that's not covered by insurance.

I had USAA awhile back because I was in the Army and bought into the whole service thing. Yea until my buddy who works as an insurance broker talked me into shopping. Oh my was I getting completely bent over by them. Not only was my insurance outrageous I was also being insured with the lowest possible coverage that barely would have covered shit.

**** USAA.

I need to renew my rentals next month, I will give them a call.It should be fun because I had like $178,000 in claims in 2017.

Holy hell. What happened? I don’t even....

Hail storm. Lost a bunch of roofs.

You should be getting volume discounts from your roofer.

:D

Oh, good. I mean, not good about $178,000, but make sure to give them a lot of different scenarios to price. Ask them about each property separately, and then in every possible combination. I'll rep you if you make them waste more than 50 hours on your quote.

And dang, that's a lot of hail. Hopefully it was just the normal proactive hail replacement stuff and nothing that caused leaks.

My insurance decided to jack up the rates 30% after last summer's hail storm and as a bonus kicker they changed their deductible for wind/hail to $2500. Thank goodness I've got a good independent insurance guy who ran the numbers through several different companies and I'm switching to a new company with better coverage for about 30% less than last year.

Interesting thread, may save me some money.

The "Duck Boat storm" got our roof and it was at least two months of drama and hassle before it was all over. We have $1500 deductible and when we received our renewal it went up $600 for the annual premium. I just figured it was because they were trying to recover the $7500 that they spent on the roof.

I am going to verify that they updated the age of our roof now due to this thread, thanks.

Damn. I have USAA for my HO’s insurance and just got my roof replaced earlier this year....

So, no USAA for life?

I'd definitely get a new insurance company. Go with State Farm, USAA (if applicable), or Farmers. Since you got the roof fixed you're going to get a discount on your premium for having a new roof. Isn't an open market great!

Rain Man... why not shop around off principal?

Thanks, Rainman.

I’ll put this on my list of things to save $$ I’ll probably forget to do.

We recently switched to USAA and they inquired on the impact-resistance of our newer roof shingles. If we had Class 4, it would take our annual insurance from, $1200/yr to $115/yr. We don't. Ouch.

Yep. My roof was over 20 yrs old and I had trouble finding an insurance company. Once I replaced it, plenty of options.

Yikes man. I didn’t realize it got that bad down there. I was envisioning a bunch of your trailer houses swirling around a tornado. LOL

The reason why insurace has a bunch of assholes is because you will blow your brains out in the first year unless you follow a script and just be cold or you are a dick. The people with actual love and empathy will go on to a more rewarding job. The ones that get shit done and keep insurance company's are the ones that care the least. Sorry your shit is messed up rainman. They should be able to give you your money back. The people on the other end just don't give a **** and don't know what they are doing. I would think filing a complaint would be pretty easy because insurance has tough as **** regulations. What rainman says goes for cars as well though. It's not so much an auto accident raises your rates or a claim raises your rates it puts in motion an examination of the risk and other crap on your policy.

Why do they all sound Middle Eastern?

Well, thanks to Rainman/CP we are getting a nice refund and reduction in our premium increase. It is still going up, but not as much.

Odd that the two/three departments involved don't automatically communicate. :banghead:

Excellent! Good for you, and I'm glad that this thread helped.

On my own situation, they flat-out said no refund of the overcharges. Using my CP bulletin board skills, I got on the insurance company's community board and started advising others to do this, while reporting that I was switching insurance companies since they wouldn't adjust my premium to reduce the overcharge this year and wouldn't refund me past overcharges. I then got a call from some problemsolver dude who adjusted the premium and refunded me half of the overcharges. It's not a win, but it reduced the loss quite a bit, and I'm still feeling justified in going out shopping for a new provider.

No refund of the overcharges!?!? Holy crap, that would take some nerve.

I am assuming that we will get the refund, but now it may be in doubt.

I will keep you advised. Sometimes it doesn't pay to pay your bill early I guess.

Thanks again!

I'm actually having issues with the insurance company over the roof. The roof on my house was replaced 20 years ago, however it was covered with 30 year shingles. The roof is fine. No leaks. But they are trying to bust my balls and make me replace the roof. I swear they must all own roofing companies on the side.

Bump