Homeowners insurancy industry must be reined in

Friday, March 18, 2005

Homeowners insurancy industry must be reined in

By: GERALD LANE SUMMERS -

My neighbor is 89 years old. Her roof leaked during the latest round of storms, causing thousands of dollars of damage. I asked her if she had notified her insurance carrier. She said she could not afford to do so for fear of her rates being raised.

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Some contributors to this paper seem to think that such behavior by the homeowners insurance industry is perfectly appropriate. They would treat claims for theft or storm damage to a house the same as they would a claim for an automobile accident. Bad drivers tend to demonstrate their recklessness over time, and keeping track of such things is a reasonable way for an insurer to judge its risks. But treating a homeowner, rather than the house, as a bad risk because a storm has damaged it is outrageous. It says nothing about the homeowner except that he is inclined to enforce his contractual rights.

The law says that no one can do indirectly that which he is prohibited from doing directly. It would be patently illegal for a homeowners insurance policy to state that if the insured made any attempt to enforce his contractual rights, he would be punished by either cancellation of the policy or a huge increase in the premium. It should likewise be illegal for an insurance company to discourage and/or punish the making of valid claims by any other indirect method.

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Our legal system is dependent upon the availability of insurance at reasonable rates. The idea is to spread the risk among all citizens so individuals like my 89-year-old neighbor do not suffer excessively when disaster strikes. The system is now being corrupted by a homeowners insurance industry that wants not to spread the risk to all homeowners, but rather to dump it all on those who make even legitimate claims. This practice must be stopped.

Temecula resident Gerald Lane Summers is a retired attorney whose professional experience includes insurance law. His personal homeowners insurance rose dramatically after making a storm-related claim.


http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2005/03/18/opinion/commentary/22_41_313_17_05.txt

We pay out month after month, buy God forbid we actually want the insurance company to help when we need help.
Once you expect to collect, not just pay in they will screw you over.

many homeowners who went through 2-3 hurricanes are still trying to get claims paid by the insurance companies.

My husband and I were lucky. Even though we went through 2 hurricanes our sturdy little house had no major damage. After the second storm we lost a number of shingles and actually had a minor leak in our roof. We didn't file a claim as we knew the amount of damage we had would not meet our deductible. So we did all the repair work on the house ourselves. It cost a little under $500.00.

Well guess what? Our insurance went up anyway this year.

I have been amused by the ultra, jeb-loving, right-wing legislature in this state being forced to show some compassion for their many constituents and trying to give them some relief from being charged multiple deductibles by the insurance companies for claims for 2-3 storms in a row.

Interesting how when they decide to provide relief it not "welfare."
Also these guys have pretty much let the insurance companies do what they want here in the state in the last 6 yrs the jebster has been in charge.