He would not of had to tell them. They would find it out when they paid to run the reports before they issued the policy. Then, he would be in the same situation. Most companies are going to require the roof exclusion when they find that it has already been paid for and not replaced. Good info to know for those that may be shopping for a house. I do not know if you can privately get the CLUE report. My guess is not. But, you can go have an agent work up a quote on a prospective home purchase and run the reports. They will not go back very many years though as some companies have only been participating in CLUE for a few years now. Some smaller, regional carriers and mutuals may not participate at all. But, they will likely inspect for prior damage AFTER they write the policy. Then you are at their mercy.
So fletch do you think it is strange that American Family is willing to insure the home and roof and treat it as if a claim had never been filed. The agent said he would come to the house and unless the roof has curling, missing shingles or obvious damage, it wont be an issue. My wife was friends with this guy way back in high school so I don't think he's screwing us.
True, he probably just has to submit photos taken from the ground and say that the roof looks good. What he is not telling you is that he has no control whatsoever over how an adjuster will handle a future claim. He can say what he wants, but the adjuster and company can and will do whatever they deem appropriate at the time of a loss. If a claims adjuster sees a lot of old damage, he could drastically discount the loss or deny any further claim at all. Not saying that it would happen, but saying there is not way for the agent to tell you that it will not happen. Old hail damage to shingles becomes much more apparent over time and is unmistakeable. I still think they will run the CLUE report before the policy is issued and then the underwriter is going to start asking all the right questions. I would be surprised if Am Fam does not use CLUE reports. They may not, but I really would be surprised. Most big companies do. It saves them a lot of money in fraudulent claims and gives some good history on both properties and property owners.
Fletch, I don't think what you said applies to all states. In this case, the homeowners were given cash and thats it. I dont know about disclosure agreements, but im pretty sure if they said that they were going to cover the whole house and you didnt sign a disclosure statement saying that ive told the insurance everything (which I dont remember doing), they can't not insure a piece of the house they find out later on that someone else was paid to repair.
It does apply anywhere when a home has a mortgage. They may not of had a mortgage on the home, or they used a small local bank that trusted them to make the repairs. Or, the threshold that the mortgage company uses to set up an escrow account was higher than the claim amount. The insurance company would definitely not have to pay for old damage. Disclosure statement or not. They simply dont have to pay for damage that obviously occured prior to the original effective date of the policy. I have sold homeowners insurance for 23 years. Believe me, I have seen it all. Now, with the CLUE system, it is easier to research damage history on each property.
That makes no sense, homeowners insurance insures your whole house unless stated otherwise. They can't just go around excluding things that happened before with a different homeowner in the same house. Do you know of any laws or things you can cite? You know more than me since you sell homeowners insurance, it's just something I refuse to believe = ) Ill try asking my homeowners insurance the same question and see what kind of feedback I get.
Would you expect your auto insurance company to repair deer damage that happened to your car before you bought it used? Should they have to replace aluminum siding on a home from a storm that happened 10 years before you ever owned it? They do not owe it, and will not pay it if they determine it to be damage from prior to the original policy period. Refuse to believe it if you like. Read your policy. Homeowners is an occurence based policy. The occurence had to happen during the policy period. End of story.
Well that analogy just made me look stupid. Good point. But in this person's case, the the money was paid out and they fixed something else. But the Insurance Company never knew it, so when they looked in the system they would see that it was paid out wouldnt they? And the insurance company would have to prove that it was still the old roof?
Yep, and that is very easily determined. A claims adjuster or contractor can age shingles and shingle damage surprisingly accurately. Many of them can even tell you what brand they are just by looking at them.
