Please forgive me ahead of time, I’m not sure of how to write all this, I’m pretty upset right now about what is happening, I don’t feel like this is right and I feel all alone in this, so please bear with me and I hope you’ll understand what’s going on….thanks in advance for reading this:
So I paid off my mortgage on my house the first part of April, 2026, after 30 years, and it was also time to look around for some new insurance on my auto and home and I found some really good rates with State Farm and I had been with them in the past and had no issues until a rate increase a few years ago so I had changed to a different insurance company.
Now, back to State Farm. I got signed up with a different agency and got my premiums set and paid the first month I was set up with auto pay and these premium amounts were for six months. They were a little bit higher than where I was before, but he said that was the best he could do. The agent told me that he needed to send out an adjuster(?) to take pictures of my roof since it had a little age on it and they needed to make sure that it was OK to include in the policy and he said he felt like everything would be just fine. My policy started on April 8 of 2026. It was several days later when I got a phone call from my agent and he was stammering and stuttering around saying that I had some “slight hail damage” and I would need to have a contractor/roofer take a look at it and put in an estimate of what they felt needed to be done to fix it and if they felt it didn’t even need anything then to write up a report saying that, and send it in. He said it may not even need anything, but he said it just showed “slight hail damage“ those were his exact words and he said this on the phone . I voiced my frustration because I am on disability and on a fixed income and I told him I just don’t have that kind of money for major repairs but I also stressed to him that I have no leaking, no visible damage that I can see, and IMO, my roof is in good condition, and he was more or less saying well that’s too bad. He also reiterated that I had “plenty of time” he said “6 months” to put in a report from a contractor and if my contractor said it didn’t need any work then they would accept it, and if it did need work, then said I had til July 5th to fix it or they would drop my policy. (6 months-July 5th? something is wrong with his math?)
So I went to work making phone calls and I had a contractor come and take a look at it. He said he did see some minor hail damage on the front part of my roof, but on the back, it looked fine. I hadn’t even had a chance to make a return phone call to State Farm when I got an email from the agent, saying the only way they would overturn that decision would be a complete roof replacement and to “clean up the yard of vegetation” What??? trim bushes, clip some tiny vines off of where? I don’t know what he was referring to! I asked him to be more specific about what he meant in the yard and I got no response. I made the request in an email 2 more times, and still got no response. I mentioned this to several people and friends and they said there was nothing wrong with my yard. I felt like now they’re being nitpicky. And regarding the roof wanting a complete roof replacement now? I was extremely upset and I was thinking oh you changed your mind now? I mean, can they do this? and he was adamant he said the underwriters made that decision not him. He said he understood my frustration and he was sorry. So everything was getting worse by the minute I put in a claim to the former insurance company because I’ve only been with State Farm for 20+ days at that point and I really didn’t think they would even look at a claim so I’m waiting for the claim for the former insurance company. I’ve got an adjuster who is also working on this, as my contractor friend doesn’t do roof repairs.
So on May 1, I received a letter from State Farm that was dated April 27, 2026 stating that they are not gonna send me my policy which I had requested, because they have decided they are not going to continue covering me after July 5, 2026 because of the need for a new roof and the excessive yard issues and it’s a lot of formal yada yada yada in this letter and if I have any questions I can contact my agent well, my agent doesn’t seem to want to talk to me about repairs and I haven’t even had a chance to get things rolling. It did say that if I put in a report from a licensed roofer stating what needed to be done and that it had to be done within 60 days. They would possibly consider reinstating my policy. I have absolutely no leaks. There are no shingles that are gone. There are no shingles that are lifting or visibly damaged to my eyes and to most people that have looked at it. I am waiting for a licensed roofer to come and write up their report, but they haven’t hardly given me a full week to do this and they’re already saying goodbye basically.
since I’m on disability, I know I have a lot of rights in Illinois and I have been suggested to contact the IDOI and make a complaint I just wanna make this known and see if anybody else has been treated this way I didn’t even know I had any “slight hail damage“ I feel like State Farm is being jerks about this and even the main agent that is over my policy said “oh I’m from Decatur so I got your back”.
Also, I told them that I preferred to communicate through email (because it creates a paper trail and I have that documentation), but they don’t seem to want to do that, well that’s too bad because they talk on the phone and they twist things around and they twist my words or they try to anyway, and the other agent already has lied to me first saying all I needed to do was repairs, and or submit a report if the roofer didn’t feel like I needed anything done and everything would be fine- that was said in a phone call and then he sends an email saying that it had to be a complete roof replacement. Oh, I am livid! And I just want everybody to know what they are doing. This is an agency out of Chicago and that’s who I was connected with when I called for rates to get new insurance. I am hoping and praying that the former insurance company will accept the claim they actually did say that they didn’t see a problem.
I am going to be shopping around for a new insurance company, but my concern is will other insurance companies do the same thing to me? I sure hope not.
Thanks for hanging in with me and reading this!