Can my home insurance agent give me 'neutral, unbiased' info?
March 8, 2024 5:09 AM Subscribe
For the second time in two years, there's been major flooding in our house.
For the first flooding, pump equipment failed. The home insurer reimbursed us fully, within a reasonable amount of time and due diligence -- I think it was within two months of filing the claim, and no push back, just lots of information-gathering about the sequence of events. There's now been a second flooding for the same reason as the first: failed pump. (This pump was installed after the previous flooding and is less than 2 years old, but the plumbing company has not stood behind the manufacturer's (very good) warranty, saying we need to pursue it, even though the plumbing co. purchased the pump directly.)
What I'd like to know is, if I ask our agent their opinion about the ramifications are of submitting another claim, can they tell us without it affecting the policy, or does simply divulging the second flooding event trigger consequences even if we don't submit a claim?
The particulars are
- The insurance company is a large, reputable, national company
- After searching the policy documents multiple times, we can find nothing about repeated claims, multiple claims, or cancellation at all, let alone defining the number of claims in a certain time frame that would trigger cancellation.
- We plan to remain in this house about four more years, and paid 10+ years of premiums before we made the first claim.
- This claim would be for less than the first (we made some preventative improvements last time), but is still hefty: ~$17,000. We have a high deductible but this is more than 3x that.
My math says that even if they raise the policy premium after we make a claim, that we will still come out ahead as long as that premium is less than $12,000 across the next four years. However, I've heard horror stories of policies being cancelled for repeated claims.
Last but not least, we've considered that we could seek damages from the plumbing company, but that seems more complicated.
YANAL/home insurance agent/our home insurance agent, etc.
For the first flooding, pump equipment failed. The home insurer reimbursed us fully, within a reasonable amount of time and due diligence -- I think it was within two months of filing the claim, and no push back, just lots of information-gathering about the sequence of events. There's now been a second flooding for the same reason as the first: failed pump. (This pump was installed after the previous flooding and is less than 2 years old, but the plumbing company has not stood behind the manufacturer's (very good) warranty, saying we need to pursue it, even though the plumbing co. purchased the pump directly.)
What I'd like to know is, if I ask our agent their opinion about the ramifications are of submitting another claim, can they tell us without it affecting the policy, or does simply divulging the second flooding event trigger consequences even if we don't submit a claim?
The particulars are
- The insurance company is a large, reputable, national company
- After searching the policy documents multiple times, we can find nothing about repeated claims, multiple claims, or cancellation at all, let alone defining the number of claims in a certain time frame that would trigger cancellation.
- We plan to remain in this house about four more years, and paid 10+ years of premiums before we made the first claim.
- This claim would be for less than the first (we made some preventative improvements last time), but is still hefty: ~$17,000. We have a high deductible but this is more than 3x that.
My math says that even if they raise the policy premium after we make a claim, that we will still come out ahead as long as that premium is less than $12,000 across the next four years. However, I've heard horror stories of policies being cancelled for repeated claims.
Last but not least, we've considered that we could seek damages from the plumbing company, but that seems more complicated.
YANAL/home insurance agent/our home insurance agent, etc.
I'll just mention that a relative put in TWO sump pumps, precisely to avoid this type of situation - they were even in the same sump area, just one on top of the other. If the first one failed, the water would continue to rise until it triggered the second one.
This worked rather well for the lifetime of the two pumps.
When they replaced the pumps a couple of years ago, whoever did it only put one in place instead of the one and a spare. Now within the past couple of months that one failed - a very similar situation to yours, with extensive water damage in the basement. They applied for insurance, which paid for the damage.
There may have been a bad batch of sump pumps that hit the market 2-3 years ago! It's very much not normal for sump pumps to fail after only 2 years.
posted by flug at 5:41 AM on March 8
This worked rather well for the lifetime of the two pumps.
When they replaced the pumps a couple of years ago, whoever did it only put one in place instead of the one and a spare. Now within the past couple of months that one failed - a very similar situation to yours, with extensive water damage in the basement. They applied for insurance, which paid for the damage.
There may have been a bad batch of sump pumps that hit the market 2-3 years ago! It's very much not normal for sump pumps to fail after only 2 years.
posted by flug at 5:41 AM on March 8
I wish I had more specific info but I will say that I called my insurance company (USAA) to ask a question about coverage once (my live-in partner's bike had been stolen and I wanted to know if there was a potential for coverage under our renters policy) and that non-claim inquiry is right there in my policy history every time I log in. It kind of freaks me out although I have no reason to believe it affected our premiums in any way.
posted by misskaz at 8:43 AM on March 8
posted by misskaz at 8:43 AM on March 8
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If the replacement pump is still under manufacturer’s warranty, then there shouldn’t be a problem with insurance. Technically, they paid for it (with you chipping-in a deductible, I assume) and they will expect it to be replaced under warranty.
The tricky part is how it might have been (mis)installed, which would be on the plumber and which might void the warranty. Your insurer should get involved in a situation like this, because they have money in this and will not want to pay-out more money because someone they already paid did a bad job.
Definitely get your agent involved up-front, so they can get an adjuster out and work on getting the pump replaced under warranty.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:28 AM on March 8 [4 favorites]