It all started with a puddle on the floor. My husband and I made a claim with our homeowners insurance company. We have gone through the entire process from filing the claim to having inspectors come over to look at the damage. I thought we were done, but, we just got another letter from the insurance company.
We got a very confusing letter from our homeowners insurance company. The letter arrived to us by mail on May 25, 2012. This was the Friday before Memorial Day weekend. Our post office doesn’t drop mail off to us until after 4:00 in the afternoon. This meant that there was absolutely no way of getting in contact with our insurance company until May 29, 2012, at the earliest.
To make a long story short, we had a mysterious puddle on the floor. The insurance company sent out a claims inspector to assess the damage. He got out a ladder, went up onto our roof, and looked around. His assessment was that our roof was just fine.
Later, we got a somewhat confusing letter from the insurer. An entire page of that letter talked about our roof. We knew that the claims inspector had officially decided that our roof was just fine, so we figured that the letter was little more than “paperwork”. California has a lot of regulations about when an insurer has to send a customer certain types of information.
Then, we got this new letter. It said:
“State Farm has reviewed your above referenced policy as a result of your recent claim. We believe that there are some positive measures that can be taken which would reduce the potential for similar losses. We appreciate your assistance in making the following improvement(s):
The roof (s) on the dwelling appear(s) to be in need of repair or replacement. A licensed roofing contractor should inspect and make the needed repairs. Please notify your agent when the repairs are complete, and provide a statement from the roofing contractor to your agent.”
To me, it sounds like our insurer is requiring us to repair, or replace, our roof. This is despite the fact that the claims inspector, whom they selected and sent out, said the roof was just fine. The rest of the letter mentions that they appreciate our cooperation with the underwriting requirements described in this letter, and that we have 200 days to make the repairs and get the statement from the roofing contractor to the insurer. The letter also contains this ominous sentence:
“You are a valued policyholder and we hope that by giving you notice of the conditions you need to correct, we can continue to serve your needs”.
To me, this sounds like a nicer way of saying: “Get your roof fixed, by a contractor we approve of, or we are going to drop your coverage.” This was the first, and only, homeowners claim we have ever made, and we have had the policy since 2005.
Image by Mr. T in DC on Flickr