From what I was told by my homeowner’s insurance (rider on it): no pre-existing roots/issues or else policy coverage is invalid…but the adjuster has to prove it if an issue comes up. No claims within 30 days of policy addition.
HomeServe coverage: no pre-existing roots/issues, but maintenance on the sewer lines (which is covered) won’t void the coverage if discovered.
It’s all gray area, but from what I was told by three of my co-workers, who all had to pay out of pocket when their clay pipes failed, once they fail and collapse and your sewage backs up, the mess is so big it’s hard to prove what the cause is, what’s known is the pipe is collapsed, which is covered in both situations by the rider and aftermarket warranty.
The only way you’re going to have them come and tear up and replace the pipes is total failure leading to sewage back up in your house. They won’t preventively replace the pipe unfortunately.
That being said, it was around $15-18k for all the work/labor for my co-workers, that is crazy.
My friend had the rider through State Farm, lives in OP and was able to negotiate with the adjuster to have it completely covered minus his $500 deductible.
We are definitely in for higher premiums. Hurricane IAN estimates are for $95B in property damages. The reinsurance market is a mess and that’s what most of your homeowner & auto carriers rely on for their products, so they will need to collect higher rates to backfill the gap left from that hit.
I don’t think we’ve seen the worst of it yet either. With the economy tanking, we’re set to see even more increases and costs still going up.
I get mailings pretty much every month from the water dudes in the city of Buffalo trying to get me to buy their line insurance. My house is so old that no one knows the actual build year. You guys think it’s worth looking into?
I don’t handle personal lines often, but I know our Personal Lines dept is always pushing this coverage to clients @ renewal. Like anything, it’s great if you have it and need it, and sucks if you need it and don’t have it. I’d ask your agent/carrier for quote and see if it’s worth it!
My brother is in the business as well and we’ve talked about opening up our own place, but it’s tough. Alot of risk purchasing groups scooping up all the retiring agencies for insane prices, doesn’t leave alot of room for us small guys to acquire a book to get started.
Not to mention the opportunity available at some of these busy shops for a young guy like myself is sometimes a no-brainer. They’re being forced to hire so many new, inexperienced people, someone like myself with 10+ years of experience gets some pretty good offers thrown my way.
My wife & I are having a baby in January, so I think I’ll be on diaper changing duty for a bit too
the insurers are having to deal with the realities of actual inflation, not fake inflation (CPI).
the costs assoicated with setling claims and repairing damage have gone up huge as have the costs and frequency of fraud, arsons etc. etc.
i know of insurers running 300% loss ratios. Allstate and Statefarm and others are pulling entire lines of business from whole states. I believe they are both exiting auto insurance in California.
Once the true claims costs are factored in the policy rates need to go up by at least 50%.
"Due to the current marketplace with the cost of parts and building materials and labor it has driven the companies to increase rates anywhere from 7 to 22%. We are hoping that things will get better in the first quarter of next year. this is the worst I have seen it in 20+ years of doing this.
The insurance market is such a mess right now. We have several companies that are refusing to write new business in NY."
