Homeowners Insurance Surprise

T

The Rodent

New Member
Received my annual homeowners insurance renewal offer this week from Allstate. Shocked to see my annual premium went up 40%!! Had this policy for 30 years and I don’t live in an area at risk for wildfires, landslides or floods. Earthquake insurance is a separate policy. I live in California.
Looking at the details of the renewal offer, noticed the listed square footage of the house increased from 2036 to 2612 square feet (+28%)!! For real estate tax purposes the county assessor has always listed the 2036 number. I have not done any remodeling to increase the square footage of my home.

A call to my Allstate agent was less than satisfactory from my perspective. I was told since I have an attached 2-car garage (like most homes in Cerritos), this was now added to the square footage of the dwelling resulting in higher coverage limits and therefore a higher premium. Was my garage not covered for the prior 30 years (rhetorical question)? The lack of transparency of Allstate to communicate this dramatic policy change was egregious in my opinion.

Needless to say I am not pleased. I have two questions for the community:
  1. Has anyone else experienced this dramatic premium increase?
  2. If you are happy with the rates, coverage and service from your homeowners insurance carrier, give then a shout-out here. I’m looking for change.
 

Blah don't get me started on homeowner's insurance. Allstate wouldn't take me on because of the kind of dog I had. He was a mixed breed from the animal shelter. They wanted to know what kind. Dobie and Husky so the shelter said. He looked like a dobie and had the personality, but never bit anyone as long as he lived.
 
Welcome to the new world of homeowner`s insurance in California! We ARE in a high fire danger area-almost lost our house last year-and are currently in the process of buying a new home. We have actually already moved into it as renters as we won`t be completing the purchase for a few months. Now I`m wondering if we`ll even be able to. Our new place is very close to our old one,and also came very close to burning in last year`s fire. All of the trees beyond the back fence are burnt. I was given a quote of $1,000 per year at one point,but then was told that they wouldn`t insure it because the sellers had filed two claims last year. Yes,one was for smoke damage and the other for living expenses as our entire town was evacuated. It was technically just one claim and I have since been told that since it was a disaster area that it should have not been counted-and shouldn`t have in any case because it was not us. So it still remains to be seen if we will be able to obtain insurance when we do complete the purchase. I`m hearing of people around here being quoted anywhere from $7,000-$12,000 per year-ummm,no thanks.
 

It's pretty high here. Because we are in Hurricane alley. I have have State Farm and last year mine was about $1700. And that's with our house being on high ground about 30 miles from The Gulf. Plus I have a 2% Hurricane deductible based on a replacement cost of $170,000. So for Hurricane damage the first $3400 is on me. All other claims are subject to a 1% deductible or $1700.

I have never filed a homeowners insurance claim in my life. So all I have paid in so far are donations to insurance companies. But I gotta keep it in case we get hit with a big one like the Bahammas just got.
 
Insurance rates continue to climb in many areas, as more and more natural disasters hit. Auto insurance also seems to be rising because of the number of drivers "texting", and causing accidents. When we moved to the boondocks, 17 years ago, I checked on home insurance from several of the major companies....then, someone told me about a small local insurance company, and their rates were substantially less, and have hardly gone up in all these years. We've had one small claim....a big tree branch broke of and damaged a window....the local agent came out the next day, and had a repair service at our house 2 days later....total cost Zero. Note...every time you see a TV commercial for Allstate, State Farm, etc., etc., you can be sure that anyone who has a policy with them is helping pay for that commercial.
 
I'm in the San Fernando Valley, so not far from you, Rodent. We just changed carriers to AAA, saved a little bit, but our auto insurance (through them) will drop come January because of moving homeowners to AAA.

Our garage has never been included in our square footage count. Only living space is counted. I'm not suggesting that our garage isn't covered by insurance, only that it's not included in the square footage of our home.

Might be time to get some new quotes.

p.s. We've had only one homeowner claim but it was a large one. 1994, for roughly $125K due to heavy damage from the Northridge Earthquake. Our carrier was Oregon Mutual at that time - they were easy to work with, sent an adjuster within 2 days of the quake, and paid us with zero drama. Can't tell you how relieved we were to have bought the EQ rider.
 
The Rodent said:
Received my annual homeowners insurance renewal offer this week from Allstate. Shocked to see my annual premium went up 40%!! Had this policy for 30 years and I don’t live in an area at risk for wildfires, landslides or floods. Earthquake insurance is a separate policy. I live in California.
Looking at the details of the renewal offer, noticed the listed square footage of the house increased from 2036 to 2612 square feet (+28%)!! For real estate tax purposes the county assessor has always listed the 2036 number. I have not done any remodeling to increase the square footage of my home.

A call to my Allstate agent was less than satisfactory from my perspective. I was told since I have an attached 2-car garage (like most homes in Cerritos), this was now added to the square footage of the dwelling resulting in higher coverage limits and therefore a higher premium. Was my garage not covered for the prior 30 years (rhetorical question)? The lack of transparency of Allstate to communicate this dramatic policy change was egregious in my opinion.

Needless to say I am not pleased. I have two questions for the community:
  1. Has anyone else experienced this dramatic premium increase?
  2. If you are happy with the rates, coverage and service from your homeowners insurance carrier, give then a shout-out here. I’m looking for change.
Click to expand...

If you have ever had any connection to the US military or coast guard, check out USAA. I've been with them forever; they have good rates and excellent service and no surprises.
 
OP here, thanks to all who contributed with comments, shared experiences, and suggestions.

Bundling was the way to go. After significant research yesterday, I successfully landed new home/auto/earthquake policies with AAA. My savings will be around $400 annually!
 
I have had Allstate homeowners insurance for years, at first bundled with car insurance. I haven't had a car in more than 10 years so now it's just the homeowners which actually went down last year. Now I'm anxious to see if they'll raise mine in November. The rationale for raising your premium seems hokey to me and your rhetorical question is one that deserves a real answer. Also the percentage of the additional square footage does not match the percentage that they raised your rates. I'd be ticked off too.
 
Most companies give you a low rate the first year, after that watch them...
 

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