Today we’re talking about what happens to your home insurance if you need to file a home insurance claim.
Will your rates go up? Will you get dropped? Will you have trouble finding new insurance? Are you stuck with your current carrier for a certain number of years?
Most times, the insurance carriers here in Brevard County will not arbitrarily increase your rates because of a single claim event. However, not all claims are equal in the eyes of the insurance company. If your claim is the result of an “Act of God” such roof damage due to wind from a hurricane or if a tornado causes a tree to fall on your home, insurance companies will generally classify these types of claims as a non-ratable claim. This means, since you couldn’t do anything to prevent the damage from occurring – you typically won’t be penalized with higher rates.
Other types of claims, such as some fires, liability claims, medical claims, water loss claims including pipe breakage or water intrusions from wind driven rain are commonly classified as ratable claims. This means that insurance companies will generally charge additional premium or remove claim free discounts if you file this type of claim. The increase is generally in the 10-20% range.
Will I get dropped?
Now with that being said, insurance companies won’t typically drop you unless you’ve had multiple claims in short period of time (e.g. 2-3 claims in a three-year period). However, if you do file a claim, the insurance company will want to see some type of documentation that the repairs have been done within a reasonable amount of time or they can and typically will send you a non-renewal notice.
Can I still find insurance?
Most importantly, if you do file a single claim you are not stuck with your current carrier and you typically won’t have difficulties finding new insurance unless your claim is a liability claim. And even if you do have a prior liability claim, most insurance companies will only do a three-year lookback on your claim history.
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