Home Owner Insurance Rant

[Texas Proud]

Quote:

Originally Posted by frayne No doubt this has been covered before but just got my HO insurance statement for the coming year. Currently paying about $550 for covering an average 1800 sq. ft home, basic coverage, no flood insurance and have the highest deductible allowed. That said I still think it is too darn much. Have been with the same insurance company (autos too) for 35+ year and never had a claim. Why do I feel like I am paying mob protection money and getting screwed at the same time ? BTW State Farm is my carrier. Am I being unreasonable, what is everyone else paying ?

Yes, you are being unreasonable....

I remember reading somewhere that your chance of a big loss is around 1%.... so, every 100 years.... (did a lookup and it looks like from the best I can find the chance of a complete loss due to fire is 1/16,000)..

Even if you had paid that amount for the last 35 years, your total premium was less than $20K... If you had one major loss you would get more than all your premiums you ever paid....

[FANOFJESUS]

Quote:

Originally Posted by imoldernu When the Florida insurance on my manufactured home rose to 30% of it's current real value, and the insurer requred a minimum insured value of $50K... we decided to self insure.

Wow that is really wild.

[MRG]

Quote:

Originally Posted by travelover Reshop your rates evey few years. I combine home, auto and umbrella to get the best overall rate.

Some great advice. We stayed with AmFam for 30 years. When we shopped around saved 20% for same coverage.

We also learned what our local agency had been doing. Had been rear-ended twice, not my fault. Agency practice was to not let information out of their door. Was quite shocked when we discovered those 2 accidents were considered my fault by Nexis Lexis. Took several months but finally disputed, and my insurance records changed.

If I had the emotional energy, after all the crap with LN, the State Insurance commission would have been contacted.

MRG

[Amethyst]

Did you find out by searching Lexis-Nexis yourself? What kind of search criteria? We reported a hit-and-run and our premiums rose, although we were assured it had nothing to do with our claim and "everybody's premiums are going up." I believe in trust but verify - and I like to do the verification on my own.

Quote:

Originally Posted by MRG Amethyst We also learned what our local agency had been doing. Had been rear-ended twice, not my fault. Agency practice was to not let information out of their door. Was quite shocked when we discovered those 2 accidents were considered my fault by Nexis Lexis. Took several months but finally disputed, and my insurance records changed.

[MRG]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Amethyst Did you find out by searching Lexis-Nexis yourself? What kind of search criteria? We reported a hit-and-run and our premiums rose, although we were assured it had nothing to do with our claim and "everybody's premiums are going up." I believe in trust but verify - and I like to do the verification on my own.

No, we found that out through our new broker what Lexis-Nexis had one file. Then we contacted them to dispute. After the dispute was final they did send us a report, our premiums dropped accordingly.

I'm not sure how many agencys play the game ours did. Their refusal to provide my information to L-N caused L-N to default our accident as 'your at fault'. The police in this state just document the facts, the at fault information came from the agency. The way we got it fixed was to go back to the AmFam adjuster who sent us his determination.

FYI, our old agency used to feed us the same story you got.

MRG

[Carlos2]

I am surprised at some of the prices for insurance that I am hearing. I have a 2500 sf home and pay AAA $1045 for the year. I don't have flood insurance nor do I carry earthquake insurance. I have a $3000 deductible.

I know people move away from CA because of taxes, but what I notice is that states get their money one way or another. I know Florida has no state income tax, but their property taxes are very high and I can see from this thread so are the homeowners' insurance rates. The same can be said for Texas with their high property taxes.

[Gatordoc50]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Carlos2 I am surprised at some of the prices for insurance that I am hearing. I have a 2500 sf home and pay AAA $1045 for the year. I don't have flood insurance nor do I carry earthquake insurance. I have a $3000 deductible. I know people move away from CA because of taxes, but what I notice is that states get their money one way or another. I know Florida has no state income tax, but their property taxes are very high and I can see from this thread so are the homeowners' insurance rates. The same can be said for Texas with their high property taxes.

Florida's property taxes are not high. Below the national average plus there are homestead exemptions that make them even lower. Insurance is costly especially if you are near the coast or in a floodplain. (much of Florida is).

[Carlos2]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gatordoc50 Florida's property taxes are not high. Below the national average plus there are homestead exemptions that make them even lower. Insurance is costly especially if you are near the coast or in a floodplain. (much of Florida is).

Read the part under property taxes.


State of Florida.com - Florida Tax Guide

[Gatordoc50]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Carlos2 Read the part under property taxes. State of Florida.com - Florida Tax Guide

That is a private site, not a State site. While Florida is ranked 23 out of 50 in the property tax rate, there are homestead exemptions that lessen the value of your home. The standard homestead exemption is 50 thousand dollars. So a rate of 1% on a 200 thousand dollar home is actually a .75% rate. Additionally, there is great disparity between counties.. Some as low as .50%. We also have a Save our Homes clause that doesn't allow valuations to rise more than 3% a year. My home has an assessed value for tax purposes 1/2 of its actual value. Florida as a whole is quite rural with low average income. The idea that we pay higher property taxes as a whole is simply wrong.

[Gatordoc50]

http://taxfoundation.org/sites/taxfo...009av-20110225
Here is an interesting chart showing property taxes by county. Louisiana is going to be cheap as is Kentucky, Alabama or other states with limited services. As you can see, Florida counties are pretty widely dispersed among the set. Sorry to hijack the thread. Florida has high insurance, heat, bugs, humidity, sink holes, hurricanes, and gators. But we don't have high property taxes.

[kmt1972]

Actually I am pretty happy about my insurance. I pay $2500 a year for insurance on my 3500 sq ft house and my car. The amount I pay actually went down over the last 5 years.
I also have life insurance which I will pretty much cancel in a couple of years as I get close to FIRE.

[meierlde]

Quote:

Originally Posted by 2soon2tell How about $2050 for just homeowners on a 2700 sq. ft. home in a Houston suburb. This does not include flood insurance on our home. This is through USAA and I have been told that Texans pay the highest HO rates in the country.

It should be noted that there is quite a variation in premiums in Harris County, in Clear Lake you have to go with the wind pool, whereas its different in the Woodlands. The distance from the coast does make a big difference, in the expected winds and thus the damage. The nearer the coast the higher the premium, thus Brazoria and Ft Bend would be higher than Waller Co for example.
As you go north the chance of a big tornado EF5 goes up however, so that north of Austin etc it is quite high (Jarrel for example).
However on big thing that has driven the rates up is hail storms and having them happen over a metro area resulting in a lot of new roofs. While in Tx you can't have your premiums raised because you made a weather related claim by law, if you and your neighbors in an area have a lot of claims from the storm the rates for that area can go up. (But is because the group of claims not your individual claim, the law holding that you can't do anything about the weather).