r/HomeInsurance

Last week a huge live tree branch fell off a tree in my backyard and damaged my fence and pergola.

The branch didn't fall because of any peril or wind/hail event. It was random and unexpected.

I need to have the tree branch removed and repair the fence/pergola. I've received some quotes that are about $5500 to get the repairs done.

My insurance deductible is $2500.

Every arborist who came out to assess the limb told me that the tree should be removed altogether because it's a Water Oak at the end of life (70-80yrs old) and it would mitigate anymore damage being done.

To have the tree removed would be $6000

When I called to start the claim, I gave all the information to the desk agent and told her what the arborists said. She very quickly and adamantly said the insurance would NOT cover the removal of the tree because that is considered preventative maintenance that I should've been doing.

Well, I'm not an arborist and the tree is still producing all green leaves. It didn't look distressed to me. I have had branches trimmed here and there. The worst thing that has happened with this tree in the past is some older dead branches falling off.

Should I proceed with the claim and see if the field adjuster sees it any different than the desk agent? If I do proceed with the claim, do I have an argument here to have the tree removal covered?

Appreciate any insight y'all have!

EDIT: thanks y'all. I accept I'm stupid and fucked up this time. Got bad advice from my insurance agent to even try against my better judgment. Lesson learned. And yes, I'm having the tree removed regardless (and shopping for a new agent), so no issue there at least when it comes to renewal lol

Howdy!

I currently have USAA insurance for my house in Florida (By Destin, FL) and my roof is starting to show its age as it was installed in 2008. I used one of the preferred contractors from USAA to come out and do an assessment on my roof so I can get a quote for a full replacement. While the contractor was on the roof he noted I have severe wind damage from a a previous storm and was able to provide data showing a storm had 109 mph winds which caused the damage. I checked my insurance policy and I have a $2,000 deductible for this type of claim and it would cost about 11K out of pocket if I paid in "cash". I have never filed a claim and I am nervous to do so since I don't want my insurance to jack up the rates or cancel my policy. I am not sure what to do in this situation and trying to get some informed help!

Thanks!

My insurance agent keeps telling me I should have a documented home inventory in case of a claim, but I have no idea where to start. Photos of every room? A spreadsheet? There must be a better way than going item by item.

What have you used and how long did it take?

Two California home insurance providers, Travelers Insurance and the Interinsurance Exchange of the Automobile Club, are seeking to hike rates 7% and 11%, respectively, under a new catastrophic modeling plan adopted by the state in 2025.

Developed in 2023 and offered to insurance providers last year, the rate program was created by the Department of Insurance Commissioner at a time when providers were fleeing the state over rising wildfire risks. In exchange for writing residential policies for at-risk properties equal to at least 85% of their market share, providers can adopt the catastrophic model, which includes forward-looking risk factors and reinsurance costs when justifying rate increases.

California is seeking millions of dollars in penalties from State Farm after an investigation found the insurance company was slow to investigate and underpaid claims from the 2025 Los Angeles-area wildfires, regulators announced Monday.

State Farm violated the law hundreds of times in a sampling of 220 cases, Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara said. The maximum penalty amount allowed by law would be around $4 million if State Farm is found to be “willful” in violating state law. Regulators may also temporarily suspend the company’s license, effectively prohibiting the state’s largest home insurer from writing new policies for a year in California.

I live in Missouri and my 20 year old roof, downspouts and the wood underneath need replaced most likely. The deductible would be 5k if I claimed through insurance. We’ve had a few bad hailstorms this season so far. I have no idea how the insurance process works because I’ve never had to claim before. I would like some opinions and some information on the process and any helpful tips would be great. I had a company come out and they said they will take care of the insurance company for me and I wouldn’t have to do anything besides watch my roof get replaced. That seems too good to be true and I don’t want to be scammed. So here I am asking for advice. Thanks

Cause of the loss: I was in the middle of evicting a tenant. They left the property without notice, shut off the gas and electricity, but did NOT shut off the water. It was winter, pipes froze and burst, and the house flooded.

The insurance adjuster first asked for gas & electric bills—I provided those. Then they asked for the bill on the exact date of the accident. Problem is, I literally don’t have that, because utilities were shut off during that period.

I hired a public adjuster (PA) to handle everything, but they completely ignored this issue. It also took them forever just to produce an estimate.

Two months ago I asked the PA to follow up with the carrier. The carrier adjuster is STILL asking for that same “accident date” utility bill. I told the PA I don’t have it.

About a month ago, I pushed the PA harder, and they told me:

“There’s nothing we can do right now. Don’t rush the adjuster—it might enrage them and cause a denial.”

That sounded… questionable to me.

Meanwhile, the only thing I’ve received from the insurance company is a notice saying they may cancel my policy in ~3 months if the property stays vacant.

My questions:

Can I (or should I) contact the insurance adjuster directly at this point?

Is “not upsetting the adjuster” actually a real strategy, or is my PA just stalling?

What do people usually do when the insurer asks for documentation that literally doesn’t exist?

At what point do you escalate (supervisor / complaint / attorney)?

I already know coverage is probably a long shot—but this endless waiting with no progress is driving me insane.

Any advice would be appreciated.

So my roof took a beating from the hail here in Melbourne, FL last week and I have no clue how to handle the insurance people. They keep lowballing me. A friend told me to check out American Masters Roofing & Restoration because they dealt with the adjusters for him. Has anyone worked with them before?? Or should I just keep fighting the insurance company myself? I just don't want to get scammed by some random storm chaser.

​

Hey all, looking for some perspective on the ethics side of dealing with insurance adjusters.

I recently had a garage fire that damaged or destroyed a lot of my stuff. The tricky part is that a huge portion of what I owned wasn’t bought new — a lot of it was secondhand, picked up cheap, or even rescued from “trash to treasure” situations and fixed up.

Now I’m going through the claims process, and I’m struggling with what’s fair vs what’s technically allowed.

On one hand, replacing these items today would cost way more than what I originally paid (if I paid anything at all). On the other hand, it feels weird to claim “full replacement value” on things I got for next to nothing.

So my questions:

Is it considered ethical to claim the full replacement cost of an item, even if you originally got it very cheaply or free?

How do adjusters typically view items without receipts or clear purchase value?

Where do you personally draw the line between being fairly compensated vs. taking advantage of the situation?

Any tips on documenting value for items that were restored, repaired, or repurposed?

Not looking to scam anything — just trying to understand what’s reasonable and honest in a situation like this.

Appreciate any insight.

TL;DR: Garage fire destroyed mostly secondhand/free items—what’s the ethical way to claim their value with insurance?

Posting for my father whose home had significant hail damage after a huge storm system. His insurance, Farmers, is quoting $5700 to cover the repairs of broken cement board and only one coat of paint on the exterior of the home. Two companies came out and said the house would need two coats and their quotes are $14,200 and $13,200. What can we do in this scenario? The house exterior needs repair but everything we’ve learned and read about says it should get the full two coats.

I have a shed-type building on my property that was destroyed by a tree. The adjuster came out and I was told that they would give me 44k to replace the building. When the adjuster was here, he said something about how the check would actually go to my mortgage company, and not me directly. I’ve put in claims before and have never heard of this. Is this common? I’m curious how this would work, and what happens to the remaining funds if I don’t spend the full 44k on the replacement.

Looking for some from anyone or even in particular Michigan-based insurance agents. I have a risk with an older wood stove that’s becoming a dead end from an underwriting standpoint. I’ve already reviewed it with underwriting at:

• I have Auto-Owners, Scottsdale, Markel, Frankenmuth, Citizens, Hanover, American Modern, Foremost.

All have declined primarily because the customer cannot locate a UL label on the stove, and it does not meet their internal minimum clearance requirements. Customer says it was installed to spec, it appears to be installed according to NFPA but he cannot produce an official manual, make or model of the stove. He's not a shady customer by any means just seems like a weird situation.

What’s confusing is that the stove is fully encased in masonry, sits on a non-combustible floor, and appears to be installed in a very conservative manner. Despite that, underwriting is still drawing a hard line due to the lack of a UL label and internal clearance standards.

At this point, I’m trying to determine if there are:

• Any Michigan-admitted or regional carriers that will consider these on a case-by-case basis
• Any surplus lines options that don’t automatically disqualify due to missing UL labeling

Not looking to force a square peg into a round hole; just trying to understand what realistic option exists before telling him it’s a full stop unless the stove is removed or replaced.

Appreciate any insight or carrier experiences you’re willing to share.

Been in our home 13 years. never used exterior plug at back of home. last summer, noticed the outlet and though would be easier to use it versus extension cord from inside laundry room. But, outlet didnt work. Looked dirty, but opted to just flag for our next annual electrical inspection. Fast forward to inspection yesterday. Electrician discovered reason it doesn't work. Inside that outlet, evidence that there was fire in that outlet at some point in time. Since we never used it, I am guessing it happened before we purchased the home. However, no way to know for sure. Electrician said is possible that if he cuts open interior wall, will see that the damage was contained to just that outlet box versus having spread to the wire going into the back of it (when shining flashlight he said it LOOKs like the wire coming into the back remained white - i.e. not burned). BUT, also possible that the wire could have been burned and who knows how many feet. He turned off the breaker and we are leaving it off - but that breaker feeds all of our bathroom outlets. Minor inconvenience for the moment. He suggested that he not cut the wall and we discuss whether to call homeowners insurance - in case the damage is not contained to just that outlet. I don't know how to determine when the damage occurred, or what insurance would likely say. Should we first get alternate electrician to look? If damage is isolated, the fix is doable for us. If it ends up not being isolated and a bunch more walls have to be cut and wire re-rerun to all bathroom outlets - THAT is likely very expensive. Electrician said if he cuts the wall, insurance may not then cover repair cost. So, we need to decide whether to have him cut the wall and hope for the best case scenario (that damage is isolated to just that exterior outlet), or call insurance. What do you recommend?

We just updated the deed to our house which is in our name as husband and wife but upon death it transfers to a trust. I thought we were supposed to have the insurance updated to the name of the trust initially and instructed our agent to make said change. However, our attorney advised us that since the home remains in our name we should still be listed on insurance policy (we also have an umbrella). When I instructed the agent to change things back, I was advised that they kept us as the name insured and only added the trust as additional named insured and suggested to just leave it. Can anybody weigh in this?

I don't know if what the pros and cons are of using a plumber/flooring repair group I find by myself, or if I use All-State's preferred vendor list. I don't even know if Alacrity or Sedgwick are companies that are trustworthy or not. What to do?

This is a home insurance issue.

Thank you!

We had some water issues in our basement and had to tear out some drywall and carpeting. While we were working with some people to determine the source(s) of the issues, we had additional water come in through the same areas, getting additional dry wall and carpet wet. We were well set up to dry it ourselves; we have an industrial blower and great dehumidifier and not that much more got wet anyway.

I filed a claim with our insurance carrier, Allstate. In the course of that initial call to file the claim (with a woman who was outright mean to me, but that's a post for another day) she said that to file the claim I had to have a remediation company come in to professionally dry it. When I said I didn't think that was necessary, based on what had gotten wet, she stated unequivocally that I had to do it and directed me to a local company. They came out, measured the moisture, and set up a plastic murder room with blowers to dry it out. The area they set up to dry was approximately 20% of the entire room. They scuffed my walls and ceiling during their equipment set-up. The entire space was "drying" for about 36 hours before it came down.

Fast forward--my claim is denied. I am working on that separately because I think it's bullshit given the additional water coverage we have. But with the claim denied, Allstate also declined to pay the remediation vendor the $2,400 bill. I ended up paying it after they (immediately, within 2 weeks of receiving the first invoice) threatened a lien against my house. We would not have engaged this company at all if Allstate hadn't said it was required. Do we have any recourse for getting Allstate to reimburse us this money? Or is getting that refund part of contesting the claim denial?