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My father passed away this year after being a loyal State Farm customer in excess of 30 previous claimfree years. He had a hailstorm in 2003 and a tree damaged his garage in 2007. First off, the adjuster would only pay for the house roof replacement. Not the detached garage! They stated the house was damaged but not the gararge! Just 25 feet apart! I thought that was wrong at the time but my dad being volnerable at 80 yrs old and had a good rapport with his agent, pretty much stayed out of it. I, being only two blocks away from dad, too had hail damage.My home insurance company (Cincinnati Financial)sent an independent contractor to evaluate my damage and deemed damage to my house and garage. They even included a birdbath and tv antenna that I had not even noticed. Since that loss, dad also had a tree fall on his detached garage. The adjuster called it $1, 100 total damage. Dad called 3 tree tree removal companies. The cheapest was $2, 800. There was no way any of them would do the work forState Farm 's figure. This is still hard to believe...but the adjuster told dad that HE could get them to do it for less! After the deductible, they gave dad a check for $460. So I myself cut the tree up and paid to take it to the landfill. The cheap labor State Farm wanted to find was me. I didn't mind, but I knew dad was getting screwed.
To the real point.. My father passed away in Feb '10 and one can imagine all the things an executer has to go through. The detatched garage roof was one of them. I asked a contractor to give me his opinion on the garage roof as it was curling up and needing replaced. It was less that ten years old! He called it previous hail damage. So naturally I'm thinking they should have replaced it back in '03 and talked to dad's agent. They opened a NEW claim! The adjuster told me it was not hail damage, but a back shed showed some damage. It was figured at $400 damage. State Farm sent me a letter stating the damage did not meet the $500. deductible..but still a claim.
I'm thinking Ok..I guess you can't disagree with their adjusters decision.(even though their letter stated i could do so) So I decided to let it go, just get the house ready to sell.
Well guess waht? the next thing I recieve is a letter from State Farm Insurance Company in my deceased father's name stating his policy will be dropped! I had bad feelings about the company before this, but this blew me away! Now, I had to scramble around trying to find a company that will insure a vacant property! So now, thanks toState Farm Ins Company, my dad's estate must be insured by a specialty company for over twice the normal premium. Like a good neighbor?
Just goes to show, people, being bigger is NOT better. If you notice on tv, we are pounded with State Farm commercials. Who do you think is paying for them? I believe my deceased father is one of them.
I often wonder who they think they are fooling with these sort of business practices. Several people have shared THEIR State Farm stories with mine. Most are negative. My question is: Can TV advertising trump that?
Before dad died we purchased a rental property that was insured by State Farm for some 40 years and at the time I considered keeping them as the insurance company thinking they have had it so long and it seemed a simple process. This too was unbelievale. They wanted ME to have a licensed electrician to inspect the home and submit it to them. Wait..it get's better..at MY expense! I didn't even consider that and called my own home ins company (Cincinnati Finanial) and they took it without a problem. And by the way, I'm not promoting them, just stating facts. I just tonight searched out the top 50 property and casualty insurance companies and guess what? They were not only in that group, but have been there for the past 16 years! That's a good neighbor to me.State Farm wasen't even on the list. Bigger is better? I don't think so.
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Dear Dave,
I am very sorry to hear about your Dad, and I understand your frustration involved with this situation.
I am not employed by State Farm, but I have some knowledge of claims experience.
On your first point, I cannot tell from what you typed if you had damage to your garage or not. If you had no damage to the garage, there would be no reason for State Farm to pay for a repair. But, if you had damage due to hail to that garage State Farm will pay up to 10% of the dwelling replacement cost.
Contact your agent and ask him or her how to go about obtaining reimbursement. The letter you received should allow you to appeal any decisions to the State Farm review board. In working with State Farm I have found 90% of claims issues to be a result of bad communication, and that is where the agent can help you.
As to your second point, unfortunately, State Farm will not insure a vacant home, and that is why it is being cancelled. I don't believe that State Farm is trying to be mean here or cause you any hardship. Insurance companies are highly regulated, and if State Farm insures one vacant property, they have to consider all vacant properties.
I am sorry that you have to pay more, but you can go back to paying less if you put a renter in the home or live in the home yourself.
I hope I have been helpful to you.
Similar to the above person, I also have experience in the field.
You mentioned that there was a claim made for hail damage to both structures, except that the garage ended up not being covered. Hail damage will not manifest itself in the form of curling. Curling of the shingles is a wear and tear issue that could not have been caused by hail.
Regarding the tree, I would check your State Farm policy. Many will allow for a fallen tree to be removed from a building but NOT cut up and disposed of once on the ground. If that is the case, that could explain your issue there.
As the previous respondent mentioned, they would not insure a vacant property. It carries too much risk and insuring them would cause greater problems for State Farm or any other company.
The other two are correct. People really need to read the policies before they start making accusations...if you don't read them you sound ignorant..you are lucky you got that much to remove tree. Some homeowners pay less than that for tree removal
Totally sympathize with the complaint, the other comments are quite suspect.
Well it looks like a certain insurance company did some damage control in the previous comments. State Farm in the homeowners area is terrible in my opinion, but not bad in the auto area. Why? Could it be that more people know more people and more companies involving auto repair vs home repair? In this case there is less knowledge on how to deal with your house on the part of the homeowner. So State Farm or their "contracted" not "employed" assessors make bonus on percentage of denied claims / settled claims under x dollars? So please all of you previous commenters, tell me how an assessor does get paid, how they are performance reviewed? Are they specifically trained on the assessment their are assigned to do? Or is the auto accident expert assessing house damage. Or the home expert assessing auto crashes or boat catastrophes? Give me the down and dirty of how you make your money?
They are crooks, when our basement flooded they refused to pay for the damages due to their fine prints. We have been paying premium for the past 8 years.
Dave,
Yes I have had the same experience with State Farm. They took advantage of my elderly 80 years plus parents. My dad had SF for 50 plus years and his agent had taken over from a retired agent. This agent was picking up one of his children from primary school next door and noticed that dad happen to have roof shingle damage from a recent storm. My parents did notice this and were grateful. The agent asked them to go through the process of a claim and roofing shingles replaced quickly. Not done, SF immediately dropped the home policy and left my dad very angry. The agent could not get company to reinstate and after being the agents idea in the first place. So my dropped SF in all facets and asked me to do the same. I took up for SF for some stupid reason and I make two claims to the amount of 11K total and they do the same to me. My home policy with SF 18 years and auto 39 years. I would like to see State Farm logos at college athletic arena's removed. There nothing neighborly about taking advantage of the elderly. I went with Eerie Insurance, which higher rated according to reviewers.