Many times, we have customers calling in for a quote and are surprised to find out that even though they had a significant home insurance claim from a prior hurricane, they’re still able to find insurance at competitive rates. Home insurance claims typically fall into two categories. Those that are ratable and those that are considered Acts of God.
How are claims classified?
Ratable home insurance claims are those that are generally a reflection of the underlying risk. This means a reflection of you or your house. For example, if you have a prior liability claim where someone was injured at your home, an insurance company may consider you a higher risk person and will consider this a ratable claim when quoting your insurance. Or if your house has a broken pipe that causes water damage to the home, an insurance company may consider your home a higher risk home and will consider this a ratable claim when quoting your insurance.
Act of God claims, however, are situations that are generally not a reflection of the underlying risk. These are considered situations where you couldn’t have done anything to prevent the claim from happening in the first place. Examples are Hurricanes, Hailstorms, Tornados etc.
So how long do these claims stay on my record?
Insurance companies consider claims on a 3-5 year lookback. it depends on the company. If you have a single claim during this time frame and it’s considered an Act of God claim, many insurance companies in Florida will not surcharge your quote if you’re out shopping around for new insurance. If it’s two or more Act of God claims within a 3-5 year period, you may have difficulties finding competitive insurance.
However, if your claims are of the ratable type, such as a liability claim or a water damage claim, you may have difficulties finding competitive insurance until the claims are 3-5 years old…..and this can be true even if it was only one claim.
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