I saw a story on the evening news about Homeowner's insurance underwriting, let's talk about what happens when you apply for a policy...

I saw a story yesterday on the evening news, and I would like to explain what happened in this case from an insurance agent's prespective, because the story was sort of one sided.

The gist of the story: a lady in the story had called an agency and gotten quotes for home and auto insurance, and when she was given the quotes she was going to save over $700 per year over what she was currently paying. She accepted the proposals and agreed to switch her insurance and applied for the new coverage. She canceled her current policies with the first company before her new policies were issued. Shortly after applying for the new coverage, she recieved notification from the new insurance company that her home did not meet their underwriting guidelines, that there were 2 maintenance issues she needed to address or the policy was going to be cancelled. The company gave her 60 days to remedy the situation. The problems they found: the paint on her house was peeling and she had a huge tree limb hanging over her roof. She got very upset, and the story says she worried about it for a while, then asked her mother what to do, and her mother told her to call the TV station. The reporter from the TV station got involved and called the insurance company for the insured. The insurance company agreed to give her until her policy renews next year to fix these 2 issues. (Most likely what they would have done anyway had the insured called her agent or the insurance company herself instead of calling the TV news!)

First of all, I need to say I think these stories the news programs where people call in with a problem with a company or contractor do a great service because the reporters can stand up for "the little guy" that has no voice and needs help against big companies. And most of the time I applaud these stories because they really help people that have not been able to fix the problem themselves. But in this particular story I saw yesterday I feel like viewers only saw one side, that of the homeowner, I feel the homeowner should have asked her agent to help her instead of calling the TV news, and if the viewers could have heard the reasons WHY this insurance company took this underwriting action, the story may have made a lot more sense (but of course wouldn't have made such a good news story!). The reporter did say she called the insurance company for comment on the matter but they declined to comment. This is because of privacy regulations agents and insurance companies must abide by, we are not allowed to discuss a person's private info, so the perspective of the insurance agent or company was not represented in the story. So I am going to try to explain how I see this particular issue from an underwriting perspective...

Let me also say upfront I represent many different insurance companies but the company that was mentioned in this story is NOT one of the companies I represent. Most all companies that sell homeowners insurance have very similar underwriting guidelines.

Here is what happens when you apply for homeowners insurance:

You call the agency and ask for a quote, which the agent works up from one of several sources of info, including: 1. what you TELL them about your home, 2. your current homeowner's insurance declarations page 3. the public info avaliable online about your home from the property records in county you live in. NONE of these sources tell the agent about your housekeeping habits or what your house or yard looks like. The agent works up the quote from the information available, and if you like the price and agree to purchase the policy, at that point the application process begins.

Some companies require your agent to personally inspect the property and obtain photos of the front, back, the roof and both sides of your house, and the agent must submit these photos along with the signed application, and the agent is also contractually obligated to make remarks on the application addressed to the underwriter if they see any possible issues with the home.

Some insurance companies send out their own inspectors who are employees of the insurance company to get the photos and do a drive by inspection, this occurs after the agent has already submitted the signed application. In this case, the agent writing the policy will not personally go to see the property.

As an Independent Agent I represent different companies that do the inspection both ways. I have no idea from this story whether an agent or inspector did the inspection and I'm not familiar with this particular company's underwriting methods so I don't know how the inspection was done in this example.

At this point the insurance company's underwriter gets the info from the application and inspection, only then is the policy is issued and mailed to the insured. If there is a problem found, a letter goes out telling the insured what issues need to be addressed before the policy can be issued, or as in the case of this particular story coverage was bound and they issued the policy with the condition that they were giving her 60 days to correct the issues. If there are issues that are too severe the company can inform the insured they are going to rescind (take back) coverage, cancel or not issue the coverage all together.

The reason for the inspection: the insurance companies want to make sure the property they are insuring doesn't ALREADY have damage, or other issues that could potentially cause a claim, and they are looking for good housekeeping habits and evidence the homeowner is taking good care of the property to prevent problems. Some red flags showing poor maintenance habits: peeling paint, bushes and trees needing trimming and weeds in the yard and around the house, trash in the yard, sheds or garages falling apart in the yard, old wrecked or rusty cars with no tags in the yard, old furniture or applicances on the porch, holes in the siding, missing or peeling shingles, porches without hand rails, broken or cracked windows, I could go on and on but these are all things I've had underwriters ask the insured to fix. These issues are a huge red flag to the underwriter because if there are housekeeping or maintenance issues right there in the open on the outside of the house that they can see, what other issues could there be that are not being taken care of that the inspector CAN'T see inside or under the home?

The VAST majority of the properties I inspect have NO issues whatsoever. There are very few times I go to a home and find issues, but in the cases where there have been issues, I've never had a problem with an underwriter not working with me to help my insured remedy the issues.

In this story, the lady has peeling paint and trees hanging over her roof. The reason these issues were of concern for the underwriter: peeling paint can cause wood to rot, and a tree hanging over a roof is nothing but a claim waiting to happen - all it takes is one stiff wind and that roof has a big hole in it.

In this story this particular insurance company's response to the insured was a standard response - they sent a letter giving her 60 days to fix the problems. I've seen many of these letters in my many years in the industry. The insurance company is not OBLIGATED to insure any risk, they did not HAVE to offer her any time to fix the issues at all. And once the reporter called the insurance company, they gave her more time. I wonder if the insured tried to call the company herself? The story doesn't say anything to indicate she did which makes me think instead of calling her agent or the company to ask for more time to make the repairs she just called the TV station.

Lessons to be learned from this story:
1. Home maintenance is VERY important not just because of possible insurability issues but because this is your HOME, likely your biggest investment, and you must take care of issues before they get out of hand. If you have unrepaired issues or housekeeping issues it could end up costing you a lot more in the long run due to bigger problems stemming from what was not fixed, not to mention your insurance company can and has the right to cancel you for not taking care of your home.

2. Keep an open dialog with your Insurance Agent, we are here to HELP people and sometimes all it takes is a phone call to get a situation remedied! If you don't call your agent and ask for help, how is your agent going to know you have a problem? In this particular example the lady in the story's main issue was how much it was going to cost to get the repairs done. Call your agent, our JOB is to intercede between you and the insurance company and we will do whatever we can to help you!

3. DO NOT cancel your current Homeowner's policy until you are SURE your new policy has been issued without any problems or stipulations, especially if you KNOW you have anything that might cause the underwriter to ask you to make repairs or not issue the policy! In this particular story, the homeowner admitted she knew her house needed to be painted but she had not done so. In this particular case, since this homeowner had already cancelled her old policy, if the new company had declined to insure the house and she tried to go back to her old company,that company would have likely also reunderwritten the risk and would have asked her to make the same repairs.