Homeowner's Insurance is a Scam
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- Опубликовано: 19 янв 2023
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𝙈𝙞𝙡𝙡𝙚𝙣𝙣𝙞𝙪𝙢 𝙏𝙤𝙬𝙚𝙧 𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙮𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙩:
• Millennium Tower
𝘾𝙝𝙖𝙢𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙞𝙣 𝙏𝙤𝙬𝙚𝙧𝙨 𝙎𝙤𝙪𝙩𝙝 𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙮𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙩:
• Champlain Towers South
𝙊𝙣 𝙋𝙤𝙞𝙣𝙩 𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙮𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙩:
• On Point
𝙊𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙅𝙤𝙗 𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙮𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙩:
• On the Job
𝙊𝙣𝙚 𝙤𝙣 𝙊𝙣𝙚 𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙮𝙡𝙞𝙨𝙩:
• One on One
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Disclaimer: Nothing contained within this video should be construed as legal advice. Building Integrity makes no claims of its own regarding the guilt or innocence or liability otherwise of any legal entities mentioned in any of their videos. These videos are made for news/informational and educational purposes only.
Please remember this critique of the industry does not include your local insurance agent. Most local agents I have met truly believe in what they are selling you and want the best for you... but they have no control over how underwriters and carriers behave once a claim is made. This 2 part series is about how the corporations behave at a deeper level when claims get made and then inevitably denied or underpaid.
Idk, Every time we call them they just blame us, instead of the previous home owner or the fact the house is old, some don't know what they're doing, & they never come back when they say they will.
29:38 - You mention that you hope other channels and people would talk about this issue.
Question: Do you have other recommendations of channels with information like you provide?
Of course your local insurance agent knows all this. They are salespeople, this is what they sell. (I'm not saying that they're denying your claims, I'm just saying they understand what's going to happen when you make a claim, and that you're going to have to go through this "sue the company" process)
@@Datamining101 there's no way for anyone to prove whether or not every single salesperson knows.
When you find a good agent, they will be well versed enough to help you find the best policy. Agents carry (market)the policy for the company, they don't write them.👍
A wise friend told this. His quote "never feel sorry for a bank or an insurance company. They are truly scammers.
I’ve said for years, go downtown to any large city, anywhere on earth and look at the largest skyscrapers and buildings dotting the skyline and read the names on the tops of those tall buildings. They’re either the names of Banks or Insurance Companies on those multi-hundred million dollar skyscrapers, always. Just shows you who’s making the money. This is the rule rather than the exception.
They've (the banks) have brainwashed us to think we need them in order to buy a house.....driving up the price of housing and our reliance on them.
the only time insurance companies get scammed on a large scale is in the jewelry industry. alot of shops, more than you think, when they get robbed, they claim more than whats actually lost. its a part of the reason they over charge for everything, they are getting screwed there.
BUT
if instead of charging everyone else more in other insurance plans like health, they just, spent a bit of money to audit the jewelry shops they wouldnt have to charge us more. they are just lazy evil companies
Did your friend ever finished the phrase? Or is he still talking ?
Usury/Usurers
Finally paid off my mortgage. The next day I cancelled my home owners insurance. In the 20 years I was required to have it, not once did it cover any of the incidents that occurred. I live in a hurricane zone. About 30 miles from the coast and I've been through multiple hurricanes. 99% of damage during a hurricane is associated with rain and insurance companies do not cover damage caused by rain. How convenient! I'd rather just maintain a healthy savings account and be prepared.
It's a year later, have you been able to save enough to cover the replacement costs? I just paid off my mortgage, live in a hurricane prone area and bought flood insurance just in case. Now the underwriters want to review my policy. Not sure what to do.
I live in N. FL, about 25 miles from the coast, and have not made aclaim in 33 years of paying for insurance. Finally went bare a couple of years ago, and now putting the premiums I would've paid in a CD devoted to any possible home repairs caused by hurricanes. (My property has never flooded, btw.)
I’m trying to talk my husband into the same thing. Our house is paid for and we have never had a claim. Every single year the premium goes up and up and up.
@@joycewright5386I’m thinking of doing the same. I’m 25 miles from the coast. My house was built in 1960 and for all those years never had any damage.
It took 20 years to pay off, how many to save to replace at today's cost and buy new appliances, cars, furniture etc. INSANELY stupid
10 months ago my house was destroyed by a tornado. Nearly a year later, insurance offered me 25% of the repair price of the home. After thousands of dollars on engineers, public adjusters, utilities, and having to maintain two houses (we had to live somewhere!), I finally got a little less than twice that amount. I am out of pocket for the rest, including the engineering fees and so forth. As far as I am concerned, my Big Name insurance company is a pack of thieves that will never be held accountable. You can bank on the fact that I am reducing coverage to the bare legal minimum, going forward. "Good hands," my butt. Thanks for this vid.
It's important to have attorney representation from early on in that process.
@@ReflectedMiles You mean lawyers are not scammers?
@@outlet6989 As with every profession, there are honorable attorneys and dishonorable ones. The majority of the honorable ones will never make the news while the dishonorable ones tend to more frequently for obvious reasons. A family that I have been close to for many years lost their home in a storm about 8 years ago. They were fully covered by their insurance but the troubles with the insurer began after just a couple of months, long before rebuilding costs were being billed. They asked me what I thought they could or should do, and I gave them the name of a respected real-estate attorney who, in turn, had them go to a fellow attorney who handled insurance disputes routinely. As soon as the company had him to negotiate with, they started paying up. It was already more expensive for them than it would have been if they had just paid without an attorney compelling them, but since he was ready to go to court for even higher costs, they paid. The family has repeatedly said that his involvement from early on made all the difference, and that is how it works in most cases.
@@outlet6989 Gonna depend on the lawyer. But if they're taking your case? They're gonna try to win - cuz that affects their win/loss record.
If you're going to end up navigating the legal system, you're going to need a lawyer. That's just how it works. And often, if an insurance company learns you have a lawyer already looking at the case early on? They'll cave and pay what they owe - they know if goes to court, they will most likely lose.
Did you have your home insured for at least 80% of the replacement cost? On the surface that story sounds bad but there is a lot of information left out that probably explains the situation that you ended up in and it wasn't fraud by the insurance company
All great points discussed. I don’t live in Florida but I’ve had my own problems with a renters claim years ago. My apartment building had Fire and Water damage from an arson case. I had a small policy for $12.5k covering my stuff which was all damaged and molded. The adjuster tried everything not to fully pay my claim. He said nearly everything could be cleaned including my television that had 3 inches of water in it. The packing and cleaning alone cost me $8k, plus in the interim, I still needed to replace my belongings like clothing, furniture, and electronics so I could function at my job and live. My actual loss was closer to $15k all in. I could have replaced my clothing for a lot less than it cost to clean it, but he insisted I use a disaster recovery company to clean everything. He fought me for 3 months before eventually giving in and paying the full policy. I had to retain an attorney to finally get that result. It’s not like my policy was that big, but the insurance company acted like I, as a crime victim, was trying to defraud them. They don’t acknowledge that dragging the claim process along costs the policy holders money and often increases the insured loss. The kicker on all of this was after we all moved on is that I was forced to keep my insurance company for 3 more years after my loss. The reason was that I had a total loss on my renters policy so no other insurance company would write a policy for me. I eventually found one that would but I still paid nearly 100% more because of this claim in my past. Insurance companies not only burn their customers with unnecessary delays, they also collude to prevent consumers from moving away from the bad ones.
When you get older you will say f it and move on and these old guys in the office know that.
We had the same problem with our car insurance company. They kept trying to use the base model of the car as the value of the car. Our car at the time had 4 models DX, LE XLE and Symphony. Ours was the top of the line Symphony. The insurance company tried claiming there was no such thing as Symphony. I had to show them a copy of the original window sticker on the car that show the cost of each option. Even at that they still fought me like I was the enemy.
That's lame. I hope that insurance company paid your attorney fees.
These posts are much appreciated. It is my view that it would helpful to find a time and medium for reporting on the actions of specific companies. If individuals are not able to or comfortable doing that here, could perhaps links to other legitimate news sources be given? That way we would begin to find out the scope of the problem as well as the names of specific insurance company scammers. Best wishes to all.
@@sd906238 If you are needing a payout, then you are indeed the enemy.
I've been saying insurance in general is a scam. They all charge a lot, and they all find a way of never completely covering anything if they can help it.
The biggest scam is the deductible. You either pay out the ass for coverage you very well might never reach the monetary value on, or you pay out the ass for some crazy high deductible when you do need to use it.
@@Helladamnleet That's how managing risk works. This is not the fraudulent part. You can either pay them up front to cover a bunch of stuff (meaning you'll make more claims thus the premium is high), or you can cover yourself for a bunch of things (the deductible) and you'll make fewer claims and pay a much lower premium. Insurance isn't meant to be "bad stuff happens and I win the lottery"
It's always cheaper to cover yourself (just think of all the employees they have to pay with your premium before they pay you one cent for damage), so you should almost always choose the highest deductible you can tolerate, and cover those losses from a rainy day fund you keep yourself.
@@Kandralla No, when the deductible and premium far exceed the average yearly medical expenses of someone in my demographic it's called being scam artists.
Like, what's the point of paying like $14k a year for insurance just to have an $8000 deductible that isn't even close to met by the singular $700 yearly checkup
Yes, I know we're talking about homeowners insurance but the same thing applies. You give them tens of thousands of dollars throughout the years and they fight you on a $500 window.
Same thing with car insurance. You could be a loyal customer of 25 years, have given them the cost of your car twice already, and they'll still fight you on anything possible.
@@Helladamnleet you not being able to afford it does not make it a scam. Some medical issues can cost in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, that's why you pay $14k and have an $8k deductible.
Insurance is risk management, not pre-paid medical/home repair.
Nonsense. Say this when your house burns down and you're left with nothing. Nobody I know has ever had any trouble getting money from an insurance company. If you are having trouble then it's because they think you're lying and they're probably right.
My insurance went from $1400/yr when I bought this house in 2016 to $7300 in 22. 5x price hike in 6.5 years. Absolutely ridiculous.
It's all part of the RESET. Stay aware and alert on future shenanigans. Remember these words:"You will own nasing and be happy."
How about banking the $7300 and fund your own “insurance”.
@@sct4040 mortgage companies require you to have insurance
That's crazy.
Mine the same. Been with same company (USAA) for over 40 yrs. Total crap!
Insurance's main goal is to do everything in their power to deny your claim
We were directly effected by Ian, and it tore off several of our shingles. Our neighbor opted to use his insurance company to replace his roof. They did approve his claim, but then they immediately dropped him. We've been paying our insurance company for over a decade and have never filed a single claim. Despite that our monthly rate has gone up consistently almost every year. We're afraid to even use it because we know so many people that have been dropped after filing a claim. If we had just saved the money we have paid them we would be so much better off.
Same here. Have never filed a claim for the same reason. We still get the shaft, it seems.
And self-insuring won't meet the requirements for the regulation the insurance lobbies write and then bribe politicians to enact.
If you would have just saved the money and then your house burned to the ground what would you do?
I save a ton on my insurance by having a huge deductible. Like $25,000. So I deal with the regular things like a damaged roof. But if house gets cut in half by a falling tree I have insurance.
Also I have a home equity loan active but with a zero balance so I have the cash flow to deal with things.
All of my neighbors have been getting their roofs replaced under insurance over the last two years. (I know this because every time, the roofing companies come to my house and tell me I should get mine replaced and they'll help with the claim and it won't cost me anything...) The roofs are getting old and it's never due to a hurricane, just ordinary storms. I felt that it's not right to use insurance for a routine replacement, and I'd rather not risk my rates increasing or getting dropped due to making a claim. Then my insurance premium went up by $800 a year last year. So I'm paying for it either way. ($800 a year for ten years is basically a new roof.) So should I make a claim if I'm paying for it anyway?
Our premium when up $1k and had to go to citizens. When we bought our house 3 years ago , insurance was $1700. Before we switched, it was up to $3471. This is a 3 year span. We had never filed a claim.
I work as an inspector and see this every day. thank you for being very clear about this issue.
Never knew they claimed money they owed as fraud… that’s some bs.
Yeah we do that and it's jail time, they do that and it's fine. Bunch of damned jesuits and foolmasons and their fvcked up laws.
I've been an adjuster (left that job behind long, long ago thankfully). Adjusters aren't paid based on whether or not they deny claims, but the idea that everyone is trying to get something past "us" is driven into our heads during training, and many adjusters take it to heart and are argumentative by nature. We are told "pay what we owe" but are also told many ways claims "should" be denied, including arguing with people on an old roof over the condition of the roof. I remember during my training having to talk to an elderly woman about why her claim wasn't covered while the roofer and my trainer were on the roof arguing over it. Never felt so awful. Decided then and there I couldn't do it anymore. Add to the fact that the company expected us, as employees, to front the costs of the hotel... gas... food... etc while out adjusting claims. Not as independent adjusters.... as employees. Then caution us against spending "too much" on food. One manager recommended we stick to McDonalds! Anyway - great video!
Everything you wrote just reinforces the fact that the insurance industry is a fraud.
I went to an interview at a nuclear power plant years ago. Drove from Georgia to South Carolina. I stayed over night with my aunt rather than at a hotel. I bought lunch and diner at a Hardies fast food place at the same time so I wouldn't have to make 2 trips. When I gave my receipt to the Personnel lady she started squawking about the receipt from hardies. She said " did you buy food for 2 people?" I was thinking I didn't fly there, rent a care and didn't didn't eat at an expensive restaurant. I only charged them for some for from a fast food place.
Once you realize insurance companies are in the business to make money it all makes sence.
@@AkSonya1010 then insure yourself baller
I really get a kick out of their use of the "replacement value" to depreciate property to almost nothing. Their excuse is that you've got your use out of it, so it isn't worth much.
I had a 30 year-old home, built in the 70s with copper piping for the plumbing system. When the development went onto city water the ph-value of the water changed and the copper reacted to the chemicals that the city added. I first noticed this because I needed to constantly clean-out the screens and aerators of the faucets in the house, as the accreted lime was detaching from the pipes and clogging the faucets.
Then the copper began to fail. At the elbows, where the metal is thinnest. This all happened under the house, and after a few visits from the plumber, he showed me how to replace failed elbows with compression fittings. I did that several times. I never even contemplated making an insurance claim on any of these occurrences because the damage was minimal and my out-of-pocket expense was within our means.
Then one night, I went to use the toilet in the master bathroom..... And walked onto a completely soaked section of carpet. I began investigating and heard a hissing sound from inside the wall behind the vanity in the bathroom. When I touched the drywall under the sink it crumbled in my hand and I had to shut-off water to the entire house to stop the spray coming from the failed elbow (the hot-water side of the system) that was in the wall behind the vanity.
Next day I called my State Farm insurance agent (who's son I went to school with) and he asked me a series of questions- pretty benign- and put in the claim. I also called my local SERVPRO franchise to do the mitigation and cleanup, as we had a real mess, with the carpeting soaked, the subfloor (pre- Advantec) blown-up like a sponge, the drywall ruined up to waist-level and numerous other issues with water damage (hot water is evil when it starts working on your home)
The "Adjuster" State Farm sent out wanted to immediately deny our claim, stating that he thought that this was a "long-term water leak that went unreported and unattended.
The SERVPRO franchisee quickly challenged him and said that there was no way we could have known of the leak inside the sealed wall and, additionally that the fact that it was hot-water contributed to the condition of the drywall and subfloor.
Apparently the "adjuster" was unhappy by being called-out by SERVPRO and began making little shots at our claim. He rated our existing carpeting as "low quality", our carpet-padding as "commercial grade" and the ruined drywall as substandard.
Again, our SERVPRO expert called State Farm and provided an affidavit- and samples of our materials attesting to the quality of our carpeting, drywall, etc. He really did come through for us.
In the end, we were made whole, but only after a bitter struggle and with the help of genuinely good people who had our best interests at heart.
So glad it worked out for you! You described my worst nightmare as a older, single, low income person. I love my little, hard earned home, but live in fear of the next scary thing happening.
l had several issues with ins companies.. south Florida hurricanes.. and l will tell you the difference between adjusters is like night and day.. one guy was terrific.. the other a real prick.. all l can say is document, Document, DOCUMENT..! and get a copy of the adjusters report..!!
Can't say enough good things about this series; keeping people safe and everyone honest. Great work.
In my 20s I got in a car accident and had painful, but easily treatable injury. I had some medical bills which at the time were extremely difficult for me to pay, but looking back, they were very mild when compared to other medical costs. A few scans, a few Dr's visits, and 6 months of PT visits. The insurance refused to pay.
I went to consult an attorney who seemed baffled at my circumstances, and kept trying to see if I did something wrong, or I was lying about something. Once he was satisfied with my story, the attorney told me, "sometimes, the insurance company will just deny the claim, not because they sincerely believe they shouldn't pay it, but because they think you aren't going to fight them." To be sure, legal fees would quickly eclipse the entire claim, and I didn't have any money.
I eventually went to the state commissioners office, on the advice of the attorney. Shortly before the insurance company had to present their case to the commissioners office, they settled and paid for everything I asked for. Very bizarre experience. I definitely felt glad they was a public agency out there who would treat me fairly.
Damn. What a horror story! I'm glad you are safe and that everything was taken care of. What a nightmare!
I had to go all the way to the Congressional Ombudsman to get my auto insurance and Medicare to stop fighting about charges with ME providing paperwork and settle it between themselves! They obviously were expecting me to give up and "pay" with no ability to do so.
To get damages from "uninsured motorist" (insurance that the insured paid for) we we forced to hire our own lawyer to fight for it. Go figure.🫤
the attorney told me, "sometimes, the insurance company will just deny the claim, not because they sincerely believe they shouldn't pay it, but because they think you aren't going to fight them." The attorney is right. Once I filed a claim to the court - the insurance company paid for everything.
I had a medical insurance adjuster tell me that claims are always denied and must be resubmitted a second time. She said they deny in the hope you give up.
That's the way pretty much all insurance works unless it's so clear cut they couldn't think of even a single extremely flaky angle on which to attempt to deny it.
This was stated about 25 years ago in a NYTimes article, interviewing a former claims examiner from one of the most recognized medical insurers. They had been told to simply deng every fifth claim, because only 1/3 of customers would appeal the denial. So a huge number of rightful claims would never need to be paid, while those who appealed could be paid much later, with no penalty to the insurer. The insurer claimed this was not their policy but something an overeager training supervisor must have created.
Same with the VA and Social Security disability.
@@mezmerizer0266I’m on the third round of reproving I paid my attorney. They magically forget and keep trying to withhold payments to pay my lawyer (who retired 8 years ago.)
100% first adjuster is there to just piss you off in hopes you take whatever they give on the second adjustment
Wow, thank you. I had NO idea. We have only once submitted a homeowner's claim in our many years of home ownership. Our roof was damaged in a storm, and our insurance company did cover a new roof without any difficulty. I guess we should consider ourselves very lucky!
If a roof is two years old, I'd expect insurance to replace it. But if it's 20 years old, I would not. The old story about the new car, that once out of the dealership and onto the street, is worth half of what you paid for it five minutes ago.
@@davesmith5656 But as he said in the video, insurance is supposed to cover replacement cost. Whether you roof is old or new should not matter- you are paying premiums to have whatever is damaged be replaced with something new. It's not like you have the option to get your old, damaged roof replaced with another old roof.
@@iamjane9628 ---- Then that is socialist, not capitalist. It should matter if your roof is old or new, and premiums should reflect depreciated value, and pay only that.
@@davesmith5656 Insurance contracts that say "replacement" are not "socialist". They're contracts. You freely enter into them. That's capitalism in a nutshell: people freely entering into contracts for mutual benefit. Insurance covers whatever it says it covers in the contract.
@@milesrout --- Read my comment again. I think you missed my point. It has nothing to do with "freely entered into".
Were in Florida and last year out of nowhere our insurance company sent out an inspector to check the exterior of our property. Everything passed just fine but they said they required a new roof to continue our policy and we had 3 months to comply. Again everything passed inspection and the roof is only 15 years old. We're financially able to put out $20,000 cash to comply but what about people who aren't.
my roof is 40 yrs old i have had patch pieces put on after a big wind storm.. its in the back of the house and the edges.. i have travellers and its been never an issue to renew my policy.
They should be able to write a policy that discounts the value of the roof (depreciated value). The stated value for "contents" varies greatly, I would imagine. I do not have expensive stuff, so I opt for a low "contents" value, and pay less than someone who owns expensive furnishings and decorations. A big problem I see with the entire culture is the propensity to "sue". And for juries to hand out awards that are ridiculously far beyond outrageous.
@@2wheelman --- I had a "family owned and operated for 40 years" roofing company tell me I needed a new roof. Then I got lucky and found a couple of guys who patched one spot ($300 bucks), and it never leaked again.
@@davesmith5656 in this litigious society that you reference, in order for a family owned company to endure 40 years, they might have a need to avoid risking $100K liability for a $300 job, while a couple of found guys may be (unwittingly) willing to risk it ? B-)
Josh's story about the aircon unit's getting ripped out and causing major water damage highlights the nature of liabilities. "For the want of a nail .... the kingdom was lost" :-o
We live in colorado and had the unfortunate experience of having to have our roof replaced after a historical hail storm came thru. It would take a 100 page essay to go thru our experience with the adjuster . He was as sorry of a person I’ve ever met. Luckily our agent is a great guy and got involved on our behalf along with the roofing contractor. Between the two of them I was finally able to get approval for an entire roof replacement. They do not hesitate taking your annual premium but when it come time to live up to your policy tule they do everything in their power to get out of paying. Let me close by just saying insurance adjusters are the scum of the earth.
Insurance companies have been denying homeowner claims due to nebulous excuses of not having proper joist anchors since the Oklahoma City tornado in 1999. In Mississippi, after Hurricane Katrina, insurance companies were denying claims like you've seen in Florida. 2 insurance adjustors in Mississippi successfully sued State Farm and won a $100 million judgement last year. Insurance companies started these tactics on the recommendation of the McKinsey Group.
Huh, McKinsey has been in the news up here in Canada. I had never heard of them but their dealings sounded fishy. I guess you just confirmed my suspicions.
Ducking McKinsey. Every time.
I'm surprised that insurance adjustor didn't accidentally slip and fall off the roof. Allegedly.
I'm sure he would be repairable.
This really shows that our societies need a proper criminal law for companies. In a society where individuals can be punished for harming others, professionals must be subject to that even more.
Yeah but we're living in late stage capitalism so companies have more rights than people.
@@LeCharles07 At which time in history was it really better?
@@frederikqu7717 Post-depression era through the 1980s - sure as shit wasn't perfect (indeed about 90% as bad), but I suppose it was slightly better, thus answering your question :D
Thanks for a great channel, Josh. Love the content regardless of the subject matter.
I had a claim denied for hail damage on my roof, here in Ohio. The tail end of a tornado came through our neighborhood in 2020. Honestly, at the time of the storm I didn't consider filing a claim because it didn't seem that bad, although the hail piled up was pretty impressive.
About 2-3 weeks after the event literally every house in my neighborhood for about a 2 miles started to get work done on their roof, so I asked one of the contractors who was working on my neighbor's roof to take a look. He said it was absolutely worth filing a claim.
Now, my roof was about 15 years old. I replaced it when I bought the house, and in all that time I'd had the same insurance company and never ever filed a claim of any kind.
When their adjustor came around, he spent about 1 minute on my roof and told me there was no claim to be paid out. I was more than angry, it was clear that they'd reached their limit on how many claims they were going to pay and decided to just make it difficult.
I saw an ad on Facebook for an independent adjuster, and contacted him. It's literally one of two ads I've ever responded to on there. He came to my house and we walked over the roof together, and he showed me the damage that he saw. He took on the case for a percentage, and he made life hell for Liberty Mutual, and eventually got my claim through. He tacked on a few other things like siding repair.
I switched insurance companies and got a lower rate. Insurance in general is a scam in my opinion. If these companies can afford to sponsor baseball stadiums and the like they're making too much profit, and if their execs are making $ 10M and up then they're basically f**king all of us.
Yep, I think all insurance should be socialized non-profits with complete transparency. Everyone's rates would be a fraction of what they are now and they'd actually cover what they said they would. The way these greedy just for profits run things, it's no wonder they deny so many legitimate claims and spend so much on shareholders and advertising. If they were actually charging fair rates and honestly following their own policies, it wouldn't be possible for them to act as they do. I also think the government should absolutely stop bailing them out, but considering they're all in bed together, that'll never happen unless we collectively stop electing people who take corporate money.
Aha!
@@TheAwesomes2104 the problem with this approach is that insurance conditions, claims settlements, risk control expectations, and other features of insurance contracts would be subject to popular pressure. This would put pressure on the state run insurer to cover any and all claims, regardless of their merit. Politicians seeking re-election would then run on forcing insurers to cover dubious claims with no rate increases. This would allow significant moral hazard to ensue, driving up insurance costs beyond the general rate of inflation. When people felt insurance was too expensive, they would vote in politicians promising to reduce rates, who would do so with borrowing from the central bank or from other state funds. We would eventually have to choose to deny claims on a massive basis, or suffer from hyperinflation.
As an example, the state run FL insurer Citizens have internal estimates suggesting rates need to increase around 60% this year. However, they've only filed for a 14% rate increase, because FL's homeowner's insurance market is coming under nationwide political scrutiny, due to figures like Trump making a big deal out of it for political reasons. Eventually, the state run insurer will need to borrow to pay claims, deny claims for no reason, or the FL government will need to move money from other agencies to help Citizen's pay its claims. There is no free lunch, but everyone seems to think there is.
Ok, so the solution, in your mind, is to socialize the insurance business? We just need good laws and good enforcement
I think most of the problems with insurance companies is the lack of transparency as to coverage. Contracts are often difficult to understand and often ambiguous to the layperson.
In this day of AI it would be very easy to simplify the process for the insured but this would of course greatly limit grey areas and insurance profits.
if you read up on insurance companies that isnt the problem. Some go to extremes to deby claims. There was one who denied ALL claims. When people fought the denials theyd come back and make lowball offers
Our home is now 20 years old, and has been insured by the same company ever since it was built. That insurance company also insured our previous home for almost 30 years. So I'm a long time customer who has paid a lot in premiums over the years, but I have never had a claim - until about 5-6 years ago. We noticed something peculiar happening on our front porch - a wrinkle appeared in a piece of aluminum fascia trim at one point along the front edge of the porch. I hired a contractor to do something else, but while he was there, I asked him about that wrinkle. Long story short, he found that the wooden beam along the front edge of the porch was rotted and was sagging, but the only evidence of the problem was that wrinkle in the aluminum sheathing over the beam. The rot was due to water incursion at the point where the edge of the porch roof abutted an adjacent brick facade. The contractor concluded that when the house was built, the builder attempted to seal the edge of the roof to the brick using caulk rather than installing flashing. His conclusion was that the rotted beam had to be replaced, but to get access to the beam, the entire superstructure of the porch had to be taken down and rebuilt. The insurance company denied the claim. I decided that it wasn't worth the hassle to me to pursue the matter, but it clearly illustrates the point you are making. (Not in Florida, by the way.)
You think you have home insurance that covers defective construction? Or wear and tear on your home? Not sure of that. Most home insurance covers accident and theft damage damage. Defective construction on new homes is usually covered by new home warranties that expire after a set number of years. Five or seven years is common, depending on your jurisdiction.
We have the same issue here in Australia. Its called 'Gradual damage' and its not covered on a lot of policies. If i was in your position, to make a claim it'd have to be a 'One off event' that caused the beam to fail, not drawn out over time.
@@mattxr6tand yet most modern Australian homes are built so badly that gradual damage is inevitable, even in the short term. Don't get me started on how stupid it is to use box gutters on residential homes...
This doesn’t sound like an insurable incident. This is bad construction and maybe insufficient maintenance, albeit somewhat hidden and hard to discover and remediate.
Jupiter, Florida in the mid 80s. We had a house fire that didn't destroy the house but a lot of damage. Allstate sent out an adjuster, he went through everything and we didn't argue with him at all. The check seemed fair to us. Allstate then dropped us with the excuse "the claim was excessive for the amount of damage done."
On a side note one of the firefighters said to me that I should have let it burn to the ground before I called the fire department because the insurance company is going to screw me. After that the only insurance I could find was 4k a year where we had been paying 400 a year.
Many years ago, I was dropped from ALLSTATE car insurance because I had gone five years without an accident, and they said statistically, I was due for another! When I pointed out that I was blameless for the accident five years prior, they said it didn’t matter. Allstate is a predatory company.
Would u go without after paying the house off? I live in ohio and is reasonable but still. What are the odds
Insurance companies black ball you once you get dropped or make a large claim. They collude.
wow interesting strategy.
As a construction worker who's had to do his share of going up on roofs to get HDR photos of damage that the insurance company claimed didn't exist I feel this.
We don't have any homeowners insurance. We can't afford it.
My experience is that I have paid a small fortune in homeowners insurance premiums over the last 20 years… Somewhere around $18,000. My house is only worth $80,000 and the one time I filed a claim I got a check for $500. You do the math. It doesn’t add up… So yes 100% homeowners insurance is a scam
And the $500 was for roof damage. They wouldn’t cover a roof replacement and $500 wasn’t enough to cover repair charges. What does that mean?? It means I had to get on a ladder, climb onto my roof, and fix it myself. Lol. I’m just grateful I am healthy, knowledgeable, and able to do these repairs. The question is- If insurance dosen’t cover anything, why am I paying the premiums?? Makes no sense.
I have no insurance and live in Tampa Bay. The math is good I am not going to lie I lose sleep during hurricane season. Ian was heading directly for us before is veered south. God is good. He is also my wind damage underwriter.😂
@@DaveG-qd6ug Amen 🙏
@@DaveG-qd6ug I guess you don't have a mortgage. They require us to have insurance.
@Benjamin Brooks I also bought my small home outright and so also don't have to carry insurance. We looked up what we'd pay for it every month and then set that aside for major home repairs. We were just missed by about a mile by that tornado in December '21 that was on the ground through 3 states or something ridiculous. We're aware that a direct hit would have destroyed everything we own. But we bought the house that we needed and could afford to buy outright, and have been able to save up enough to buy a replacement should it come to that. And we sit on those funds because we don't need a bigger, more fancy home. We need security and to be able to take care of ourselves if it all goes pear shaped.
When we shopped for insurance on our old home (now about 120+ years old), the agents came out and looked around it first before offering a policy. This isn’t done on, say, well-known neighborhoods of later-built, tract homes.
Yeah, as an old-home owner in florida, I couldn't really relate to the part of the video where he was saying no inspections are done. I lost my first policy when they realized I had asbestos siding (which if they were trying to get out of paying claims, you would think they would rather keep me paying premiums and then surprise me with that if I filed a claim later), and the next company that took me did an inspection and gave me a laundry list of items I needed to fix within a couple months or they would drop me. I can't imagine any insurance company not requiring to know the age of your roof. That has certainly not been my experience.
What's interesting is they prefer to pay a ton on lawyers rather than pay toward the claim. Shows how effective it must be, and lawyers aren't cheap!
Same thing with car insurance. Instead of holding bad drivers in uninsured drivers accountable, they just lump everyone together in increase rates.
Insurance as a business model seems like it can't not be a scam outside of a few exceptions. It's a business that makes more money the fewer customers need its product, which of course incentivizes them to either only sell to people who don't need it or insist that customers that need its product actually don't. I don't see a problem when dealing with insurance for things like fine art or generic product warranties (not exactly the same, but similar idea), but when we're dealing with things fundamental to human life like shelter and healthcare it strikes me as the worst thing to subject to a for-profit insurance system.
The fraud is this thing of the insurance carriers forcing people to replace perfectly
good roofs. Everyone I know even in north central Florida is now being asked
to replace any roof that is over 10 years old. I can see this with these
crappy asphalt shingle roofs but a standing seam steel roof? Seriously?
A standing seam steel roof will outlast a stick built house. I see
houses that are 100 years old with original steel roofs that are
still in good shape. There is no reason to replace a steel roof every 10 years
but many insurance companies will actually expect you to replace such a roof.
In one case, my friend was also asked to replace his hot water heater by
an insurance company.
I live in Missouri and attempted to file a claim with my insurance company when a tree branch fell and poked a hole in our roof. The storm caused other damage to the roof and the contractor we called out to fix the hole pointed out all the damage to us. He said that he was pretty sure the insurance company would pay for a new roof. We called to file a claim and the company adjuster came out to look at the roof. Without even getting on the roof they said that each different spot of damage would have to be a different claim and would be subject to another deductible. She said there was no evidence that the damage happened during the same storm and that they wouldn't treat it as a single event. We would have had to pay a $2000 deductible several times if we wanted to file a claim. I got into a shouting match with my agent to the point where he yelled "who knows more about insurance, you or me?" Turns out he was full of crap and I knew more than him about it. We didn't contact that insurance company after that and paid to have the roof fixed ourselves. I can't imagine the premium increase we would have been subjected to had we filed a claim.
Another great video. I am a Canadian Consulting Engineer (who happens to be building a home in Port Charlotte) with over 40 years experience as an expert often being retained by Independent adjusters or lawyers to deal with the issues you have accurately described. Unfortunately the situation is not much better in Canada,. Insurance companies like to collect premium but not write cheques on property claims. Keep up the good work.
Try filing for workers compensation! Nightmare!
Thank you for the guts to do this video. I'll admit not a super surprise to me. I'd absolutely love to talk with you about what people don't see or know about the auto insurance industry. And what they do to shops. The people who repair the vehicle and most importantly the owner of the vehicle that not only doesn't know but is actively deceived by the insurance company they have paid for years to protect them.
My rate with Olympus went from about $3,000 a few years ago to about $6,000 the next year to about $13,000 last year. Insane. Fortunately I got a much cheaper rate with another company.
This was enlightening for me. Admittedly, I had (mostly) bought into the narrative put out by the insurers because when I thought about it using incomplete information, I thought that they would almost always be in the negative with the number of natural disasters that happen here in Florida. Looking forward to your next video on this. I have been curious as to what's happening with all the insurance legislation that's passed recently. Thank you for putting these videos out there.
I wish I'd see this video earlier. I got a great story for you from, Dunedin Florida in 2013. The homeowner noticed his house tilting and hired a inspector to investigate. They discovered a sinkhole developing under his house. He filed a claim with his Homeowners insurance company to address this problem. His insurance company denied his claim , so he took them to court. The court ruled against him and for the insurance Co. 5 days after the court ruling , his house totally collapsed into a giant sink hole taking down the adjacent house as well. it took over 500 dump truck loads of fill to plug the sink hole and the property to this day is barred from any development. The city of Dunedin billed the insurance company 12.7 million
Wow! ❤
If I were that homeowner I would take them back to court.
Hopefully more People like you start sharing this Insurance Scam.
Wow. That adjuster has such a high-opinion of his position. It's time for him to become a one-day helper to this roofer and see just how hard the reality of true work is.
If you wanna get rich start an insurance company. I’m sure they all suck but my experience with a small homeowners claim with The Hartford was a near total nightmare. Beware.
I had purchased home insurance, for a house I just bought, signed all the papers etc, started the first month of the insurance. a few days later a large snow storm rolls in, covers the house in snow, roof and everything is holding up just fine, a week later the insurance company contacts me, wanting me to sign a paper that says the roof will not be covered, their reason given "we inspected the roof and it's not covered under our coverage" I had already been living in the home, no one ever came to inspect the roof, not to mention it was covered in snow the entire time.
I told them I wasn't going to sign anything, so they canceled my insurance and refunded me for the other months. Total liars.
I've never had a claim on my homeowner's insurance, but I am well aware that they don't cover many things that actually happen.
I don't own a house yet but my coworker was just telling me an adjuster came to look at his car someone damaged, proceeded to cancel his home insurance until he got the roof replaced. The roof a had a few shingles missing from the last hurricane but he wasn't gonna file a claim, just repair it himself. Been a customer for 9 years. He told them to gtfo and cancel all his policies.
This is great information from a professional on the ground. Please keep this series going.
Bought my first house last year. Paid $1886 for insurance, mine jumped 40% to $2647 after ONE YEAR. On top of multiple counties in the DFW area not writing new policies because of "storms"
I fired the homeowners insurance companies way back in 1988 after two bad experiences with them. My last 2 homes have been paid for up front with cash, and I've been self-insured ever since. I have saved somewhere around $35,000, which will fix a lot of damage.
I have been thinking about cancelling my home insurance. my house has no mortgage or liens, so why am I paying $2,500 a year and haven't had a claim in the 30 years I have lived here.
Wow.
@@char23c Dunno about over there, but here in Canada if someone hurts themselves slipping on ice in front of your house, you'll want that home insurance if they sue.
@@callak_9974 I think it's insane!
@@char23c You should talk with your agent about raising your deductible to as high as possible. It will lower your rates substantially and protect you from a total loss or a lawsuit from a 3rd party.
God forbid you live in hurricane prone places like Louisiana and Florida….then you really get screwed.
We moved to Soviet MD around 2002. We bought a home in Anne Arundel County and got insurance from an insurance agency in Bowie MD associated with "A" HUGE insurance company. Hurricane Isabel was coming in 2003, so being new to the area, 200 feet from the Chesapeake Bay, decided to leave for WV to get away from the storm. We called the insurance agent in Bowie to assure we had coverage. She said "yes". When we got back, the giant tree we were worried about had not fallen, BUT our house was flooded with brackish water. An 85 Thunderbird had water up to the side windows.The floor of the house had water around six inches deep and a porch was one step lower so it flooded deeper. Since the Furnace was in the porch, all the ducting went through the crawl space under the house. The furnace and ducting was destroyed.
I took pictures of all the damage to turn into my insurance. They turned it down because I homeowners was not flood insurance. I ask why, when I bought the insurance, contents coverage was sold to me but they didn't offer contents coverage for flood? The LIAR said " I am sure I offered it to you". I hung up because I didn't want to name call. When buying a home and buying home owners insurance, the contents would be covered but not on flood. It would not be a concern because of the higher price. Had the LIAR offered it to me I would have accepted it as the cost of insurance.
I was eventually told that FEMA would cover the flood damage. I was told that I didn't have contents coverage on my FEMA. I lost thousands of dollars. My neighbor told me contents coverage was automatically included on FEMA, but I never found this out to be true or not.
The shallow well was flooded. And "I" had to pays a few thousand dollars to gave a new well put in. I never recovered from the losses.
So, my being scammed was to get home owners insurance and being scammed out of the proper coverage. Last I knew, a couple years ago, FEMA cost $6,000 per year. I believe FEMA paid about $300 for a 300 gallon furnace oil drum.
Insurance once meant to cover me from catastrophic damage. But corrupt governments getting involve requires me to cover other people. That was not the intention. Now they force auto, health, mortgage, FEMA and other insurances to assure CRONY insurance companies get plenty of money to BUY corrupt politicians. If we stop going into debt, we could afford to buy stuff because we would not pay hundreds of dollars to bankers. If we only bought insurance for coverage we wanted the prices would be lower.
Governments are instituted to secure unalienable rights (see the Declaration).
You comment about contractor defrauding insurance companies - Some contractor like some insurance agents and companies are crooked. Both can be true.
You comment about profits, ski resorts in Maine claimed losses around 1969 having no snow til spring. It bothered me that they were allowed to keep all their profits from other years, but did not save up for a winter with no snow. Declaring an emergency and STEALING tax dollars for poor planning is cronyism. Read Walter E. Williams and Madison, "We cannot blame politicians for the spending that places our nation in peril. Politicians are doing precisely what the American people elect them to office to do - namely, use the power of their office to take the rightful property of other Americans and deliver it to them. It would be political suicide for a president or a congressman to argue as Madison did that Congress has no right to expend “on objects of benevolence” the money of its constituents and that “charity is no part of the legislative duty of the government.” It’s unreasonable of us to expect any politician to sabotage his career by living up to his oath of office to uphold and defend our Constitution. That means that if we are to save our nation from the economic and social chaos that awaits us, we the people must have a moral reawakening and eschew what is no less than legalized theft, the taking from one American for the benefit of another."
In my state you can't switch companies for 5 years after a claim. I was told this is so the company can recoup their losses. 5 years of ungodly rate increases. Mine jumped 4X
Hello Josh. Thanks for a fascinating and educational video. It made me think of a comment on life insurance that I once saw in the B.C. newspaper cartoon. One character asks another to explain life insurance. The second says ‘We are betting that you will live long enough to pay us more money than you will ever get in return’. First character, ‘and if I die early’? Second character, ‘You win’. Keep up the good work.
My HOI tried to say my roof didn't need replaced after I filed a claim for storm damage and they sent their own adjuster. I got an actual roofer to look and he showed me shingles with light shining through holes in it. Then he magically got it all approved, even with the fancy architecture shingles and I didn't pay anything. For something to go that smoothly, I am assuming there is some greasing of wheels in the background. It took like 8 months to work through it all though so thank God I didn't have any leaks some how.
I delt with insurance companies to repair tree damage a couple times. Both times it was a battle to get them to cover the actual repair cost. It was a different insurance company each time. Both companies used the deflect and deny. It actually known as the three D's. Delay, deny and defend. Another example of "deny" is them telling you they don't cover something in in repair quote, such as supervision which is a lie. I often heard "I can ask my supervisor, but I am sure they will not approve it". Delay is very common. It took over a year for me to reach a final settlement. They train their adjustors just enough to work Xactimate estimating software, so they end up leaving out many of the construction cost. It not uncommon they miss construction permits or electrical. You can almost guarantee their first check they send you will cover less than half of the actual repair cost.
This sounds very weird to me as someone from the Netherlands. Here insurances clearly state that huge disasters like earthquakes or floods are not insured, which makes insurances less expensive and insurance companies more stable. The state covers the expenses when big disasters occur. For other things the insurance companies do excellent work in my opinion.
My mom had a frozen pipe which flooded parts of all 3 levels of the house. Insurance covered it, but because my mom had been moving out of the area closer to me, we were unable to manage the repairs to the house from a distance. She ended up selling the house unrepaired, and probably lost about $30,000-$40,000 off what her house would have sold for if undamaged. But, if she was using a newer policy, they would have only covered 80% of the repair costs if she sold it before fixing it.
One major problem with HOI is they are not prepared for wide spread disasters caused by hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes etc. They seem to handle one offs fine but suddenly when there are thousands of homes damaged they cannot afford the payouts and go crying to the government and/or declare bankruptcy. I suspect this is because everyone's monthly payments are going into investments with risk to make the company or subsidiary more money instead of going into a stable pool of liquidity for major events like this. Pretty shady for sure.
Exactly if they properly manage the money they have coming in and set it aside they could absolutely be ready for issues like that
You have a good point about major disasters and sudden liabilities. But, they have to invest the money or they lose to inflation. Additionally, when you have an area hit with a hurricane the prices for new roofs go up suddenly, as do tree services, windshield repairs, etc.. The invested money is not in speculative investments. They aren't "invested" in Bitcoin.
If you seek a company with the highest possible ratings for financial security (see AMBest and Moody’s for ratings), you can see how well funded against disaster your company is. I would not insure a home with a low rated company-it’s just too much of a risk that some huge event would occur and they would be unable to pay your claim.
In CA, HOI does not cover earthquake damage. Earthquake coverage is provided separately by the California Earthquake Authority (CEA). The CEA is a not-for-profit entity
@@davesmith5656 They still invest in things with risk and the customers have no visibility or say into what they are investing in. I get the business model requires it, but its pretty obvious many companies are taking on too much risk because "it's not my money" where there are safer investments with smaller, returns but far less risky.
As a project manager for a roofing and construction contractor who deals with insurance carriers on 90% of my projects, it is encouraging and refreshing to hear this kind of content. Thank you.
Here's a good one.
I had a mobile home with home owners ins.
I had a fire start under the floor caused by a faulty heat tape on the water line.
When the adjuster came out they denied my claim because of a wood stove in the opposite end of home.
I got nothing, had to fix everything myself, and couldn't get re insured when i was done because of claim i filed.
My uncle built his home in the early 1970s. He lived there until his passing last year. The entire time he paid his homeowners insurance. He was lucky and never needed to file a claim. I would hate to see how much above the replacement cost of the home he sent his insurance company over that half a century. If things were fair in this world, they would have sent him a letter at some point that just said "We got you" and never sent him a bill again.
My hometown was hit with a major hurricane a few years ago. This is a relatively uncommon event, but everyone's home insurance rates went up afterward. Even though the actual amount of damage was pretty small. Think roof patch jobs and fence damage, this storm wasn't wrecking buildings or anything. But my rates still went up 50% at the next renewal period, and the smallest price increase was a "mere" 33%.
insurance companies love to cash the checks but never want to pay out. Thanks for calling out the insurance industries manipulating. It's the only industry where your price is called a "premium".
Oregon here... We had a tree fall from a neighbors yard that destroyed my deck and its steel frame cover, a very expensive hot tub I need to treat a chronic spinal injury, and a load of furniture and other contents. We are still in the middle of it.. they want to cover only 20% of actual damages. This is a criminal kabal. They extort full amount premiums every month for over 2 decades, and tell us to bend over and get screwed.
I worked for one of the larger insurance companies in Florida. The owner of the company was a former Florida senator. During my employment the owner put on multiple high end events that pushed not only his company but tried to make convincing arguments to guests for changes in insurance policies that would benefit the business. Most of the guests invited and attending these events were senators and legislation members. Security first had a team of attorneys that would figure out not how to pay claims. I find it preposterous that an insurance policy can be sold to another company even after paying the full yearly premium for that company. Unfortunately the racket that is the insurance industry will never be brought to justice. Our leaders are already in the pockets of the company
They need to have penalties for insurance company’s that fraudulently don’t pay the claims. They need to pay the full claim, all lawyer fees, and a penalty for emotional damages, loss of work, etc. that would teach them to play around with other peoples lives.
I have a friend who works in the analytics department for an insurance company. He's the one who raises everyone's rates but he is very straightforward with it. If the math warrants a rate increase, it goes up. If it doesn't, then rates stay the same. But they also don't insure losses in high-loss areas like along the coast.
Fuq you and your friend!(*_*)You are part of Team Evil.
Let me guess: the math never says to decrease rates.
@@bbgun061 Actually it does. It goes up and down all the time. It just takes one underwriter to start lowering rates and everyone starts to use them... the others follow suit. Here in the gulf coast, if this years hurricane season is mild, rates will drop. Still a massive scam, but nonetheless it does happen.
@@Ranchpig67 Then I guess we can thank God for the 15 year hurricane cycle...
Read your list of insurance policy endorsements. If HO RSPS is there beware. It stands for Roof Surfacing Payment Schedule. It’s a discount insurers have added recently. It does lower your premium a good bit but what it is is a way of them depreciating your roof therefor paying less than the actual replacement cost. This can leave you with paying a big bill if your roof is damaged by some weather event.
Somewhat true, and why I paid off my house and canceled the insurance, but don't tell me for a moment that people aren't trying to scam the insurance companies. Almost everybody cheats if they think they can get away with it.
I normally avoid videos like this -- it's really easy to be inflammatory on RUclips. Having followed your channel since Champlain Towers, though, up 'til now everything you've said has been data driven. As someone who worked two jobs in health care dealing with insurance, you didn't present anything surprising to me here, and that's a good thing. Looking forward to the next video. 👍
home owners insurance is something else. they just straight up lie to you.
Thank you Josh for all that you do.... I am a GC here in SWFL and unfortunately this happens on all clams big and small, the insurance Carrier always undervalues the claim. I will give you one example, we use estimating software approved and recognized by all insurance carriers, the price list for Lee county is the same for the entire county, The Sanibel price list is the same as Cape Coral.
BTW same thing happens in Collier also.
This is how they undervalue the claim.
Mass has a 10% penalty for unfair and deceptive insurance practices and double or tripple damages plus legal and other costs for unfair and deceptive business practices. I am not aware of insurance claim problems here.
It took 1 and a half years for my contractor to get my insurance company to replace my roof. It totaled $32,000 for architectural shingles. It blows my mind that people in tornado especially cancel insurance that not only replace a entire home and the contents inside, but to deal with hiring reputable contractors. Not only that, but the many other structures that need resources that a home owner aren't able to find.
HOI premiums are outrageous here in California and the insurance companies always want off the hook if there is a widespread problem, like a big fire or storm. With all the billions they collect from us homeowners, why will paying a lot of claims at once “bankrupt them”? HOI doesn’t even cover the main risks where I live, flood and earthquake. When they demanded $5,000/year for flood insurance, I couldn’t afford it and it doesn’t even give good coverage, no interior belongings or home finishes like carpets or floors, for example. Earthquake insurance is about five times that and it only covers 75% of damages or loss. Who can afford $30K a year on full insurance for a modest single-family home? I’m retired, there’s just no way I can.
This video serves as a textbook example of the Dunning-Kruger effect.
One bad nor'easter my parents lost a number of shingles off the roof and it started leaking, and of course, filed a claim. The ins co told them something like, "you've been with us for 12 years and there's no proof the damage was from one storm, so we're pro-rating your damage over 12 years and since your deductible is $xx, 12 years of that covers the damage so no check. And by the way, since you filed a claim, your premium will go up."
Actually, i explored getting a new policy recently and the ins co did send someone out to evaluate the house and found a bunch of nit-picking things, like the kind of trees, roof isn't brand new, etc.
Well. in my case it was no scam. My home in California burned as the result of a burglary and arson while I was on a business trip. it was declared a total loss by the insurance company. My attorney suggested I hire a "public adjuster" to represent my claim. They offered me $192 to rebuild the house and he got me $250.They offered me $55 for the contents and he got me $75. I got a new house and replaced my stuff.
As a former independent catastrophe adjuster everything you have said is 100% spot on. I left the business because I got sick of having my claims sent back by the third party administrator to be re-written and always to reduce the payout. There is nothing Independent about this any longer. We were trusted in the old days to write the claim, payout and retain the insured. Most folks did not understand that we were paid on commission so we were encouraged to write all of the covered loss which gave us the the incentive to find all the damages from the event. Also, the TPA’s are beholding to the insurance companies and would accept lower and lower fee schedules. Understand to be away from home for months at a time is very expensive. Anyway, I could go on about this bullshit but you covered it. This should tell you something, I live at the beach and do not carry HI. Ill just pay out of pocket with all the cash i have saved and have received a return on as well.
I'm glad that SOMEONE is FINALLY address this at last!
thousands are NOW REALIZING THIS!
Josh, I'm from the UK. I have a long held maxim that insurance is very often nothing more than legalised fraud. It is so refreshing to see a professional make a stand on this. Good luck to you and the Florida recovery from the hurricane(s). Hope to see honest people who pay their insurance bills get the recovery they are entitled to. Really enjoy your work!. Looking forward to the next Episode of the Millenium tower but I know it is a long way off, you have much, much work to do no doubt. All the very best.
I did roofing in florida for 20+ years, the last 5 doing leak detection and repairs. In the video I can clearly see that those shingles are beyond their life expectancy (except the previously repaired area directly above the roofer) my guess would be was about 10 -15 years ago.
Not just homeowner insurance, auto as well. There's a reason Co-part has so many vehicles, while having one of mine checked over after it was hit while parked, they tried to prepare a caller for a rental and for them to clear out their belongings from the vehicle. They didn't even know what the damage was yet, but were preparing them to Co-Part it.
A second call came in and it would appear they sent someone's vehicle to Co-part so fast it still had their plate on it. They then had to make a bunch of calls trying to track it down.
Then they tried to Co-part our truck, no deal. This is the company that was supposed to be working for us, (not at fault). Instead they lowballed and tried to auction a very repairable truck.
Many years ago in a conversation with a friend who had inside knowledge....another way insurance companies increase profits is by purchasing the most expensive of everything for their corporate buildings thereby allowing them to increase their profits artificially by increasing their costs
excellent as always, you can tell you dug deep into this matter! thank you!
Fantastic video. Really could see this developing into a series looking at other cases.
I hope so
I literally had my State Farm agent tell me, years ago, that if I ever made a claim, they'd drop me! Shocking! "Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there", my azz, lol.
Love the quality of this channel, great coverage of institutional problems in your industry with this one. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Porter. I's very difficult to watch and listen to this without getting a spike in blood pressure. The question is - what is the solution to defunding the corrupt insurance corporations and make them accountable?
Accountability has to start with our law makers. You'll see in part 2 how the government is allowing and emboldening insurers to behave this way. Nothing will change if the public continues to let law makers collude with insurers.
@@BuildingIntegrity ---- I fear that your wishes would result in "insurance unavailable". The big problem is not in the business model, but in dishonesty all across the board.
E.g. the propensity of people to sue "wherever the money is", and the propensity of juries to award millions if not billions as if it were play money. Look up the Sherwin Williams battle with the government over lead paint cleanup costs. Sherwin Williams stopped producing lead paint ten years before the government wised up to the liabilities of it, but the government insisted the company pay for lead paint removal (the government lost, but it cost millions to defend against their predation). Now we have warning labels on everything, no matter how very obvious a hazard might be, and proposals to ban "non-electric vehicles", due to "global warming". Government is not immune from corruption.
@@davesmith5656 corruption is government's middle name.
Excellent presentation(s) starting with the condo collapse in South Florida. As a Florida native myself, glad I live out in the western desert to where this type of event simply does not happen. Florida as we all know has been a swamp of corruption from the outset and ancestors came to Florida in the 1830's. The current government in Tallahassee is particularly corrupt but yet again the voters of Florida keep voting for that. The insurance industry is ripe for the critique that you give and this is simply the tip of the iceberg. Maybe the state government can focus on true insurance reform rather than social wedge issues.
I remember seeing that video of the roofer and the insurance adjuster a few years ago. It was so absurd I thought it was fake.
Yes and no. Look at the homes here in southwest Florida. Hardly anyone remodels; hardly anyone does home maintenance. This causes insurance problems.
I live in a large deed-restricted community and had neighbors brag about getting a new kitchen after hurricane Ian. This wasn't because the hurricane blew a wall off the house, but because the roof hadn't been replaced for 19 years (since the insurance paid after hurricane Charlie in 2005), then it leaked during Ian and rain came in and damaged the cabinetry and floors. The roof had been leaking and had needed to be replaced before Ian. The 80s had been calling and wanted their kitchen back a decade ago.
Another neighbor had a broken window before Ian but filed a claim afterward to get it fixed.
These are just a couple of examples of how the insurance companies pay and pay, when they probably shouldn't. Some people down here brag about not remodeling, saying that's what they do, compliments of the insurance, every 15 to 20 years when their houses get hit by a hurricane.
Wake up. This isn't what insurance is for. Maintain your house; it's not cheap of easy to do so.
I have learned that a 'named storm' means your deductible shifts upward. I guess they are working with the Weather Channel. Notice that every snowstorm or strong wind seems to get a name.
Did not know this. Thank you!
Weather manipulation .. they create weather now days. And not God. They do it via satellite
Wow- that argument on the roof! Surely it's clear to anyone that those tiles are shot. What are they made of though? Roofing felt? I've never seen anything like them in Britain, except on a garden shed. Here we use either thatch, slate, or clay tiles, or modern thick plastic slates, on houses- at worst, concrete tiles- I guess you may not be able to get slate there, but surely you can get better materials than that stuff?😟Or do you perhaps have to use it for safety in case of hurricanes taking tiles off? (I have slate, and though it is the finest material for roofs in our damp cold climate over here, it certainly can be lethal when a slate(s) comes down). TBH, I doubt an insurer here would insure a house with that sort of roof- or even that Building Regs would allow it; it would surprise me if it did. Regs here are getting stricter and stricter- we have to have increasingly high insulation levels for any new or replacement roof too.
In Australia, they'll deny a claim for bushfire damage because you have termites! Australian termites aren't arsonists ...
I live in Florida and in 2012 ish I had to file a claim when pipe that goes to the upstairs toilet burst, flooded down into in between floor space then flooded entire first floor. I fought with insurance company tooth and nail.... they were trying to defraud me on everything. Literally every single thing. They tried to sell me laminate replacement that was 1/3rd the price I paid to put it in. They refused to pay for hotel and for ginormous electric bill that came with their own damage mitigation company choice to come out and put all the equipment in to dry things out etc etc. In the end after fighting them for almost 5 months I got $6,400 check for $18,000 worth of repairs. I ended up fixing as much as I could myself and fit into $9,600 budget.
There is a very good reason why there is so much opposition and lobbying in USA to prevent people from living in RVs and in tiny homes. Small spaces require less fixes. Less fixes = people have no reason for insurance companies and when there is no reason, they do not get to make bazillions fleecing people.
My current insurance policy went from $1,800 go $3550 in 8 years with ZERO claims to this house. And they forced me to spend $750 to fix shingles during 5 year review.
Wow Josh. Amazing video. Can not wait for part 2. Thank you for fighting for us....!
Brother, you got that right! I've been a homeowner for 27 years now, and have had legitimate claims denied. The biggest companies are the worst offenders! It would be nice if there were more regulations that favored the "customer", not the insurance companies. But, they have politicians in their back pocket, so that will never happen.
My First Experience with Universal Property and Casualty was when a Lady upstairs had bed bugs and had to have Pest Control Heat Treat her place -some how her Liquor cabinet exploded - their adjuster came out and gave me a check for new floors - which I did -
Great to see you again, Josh. V interesting, clear and enlightening video, as always, and I look forward to part two. Cheers from the uk.
Thanks for this series. Insurance is absolutely appalling as an industry and I only wish people would limit how much they pay these conglomerations. They portray an image of insuring what you own yet when it comes time to actually pay you when you need it, it's not easy. I have a neighbor that had their home burned down due to faulty equipment, it's been over 5 years now that the home has been sitting, untouched. I assume the insurance company has someone on payroll who's determined it's cheaper to fight the case for a decade in litigation than to pay out the repairs/rebuild. Disgusting.
There's so many people that have legitimate claims for insurance payout who just pay out of pocket. As though insurance exists as a means of fulfilling a requirement rather than using it as a service for repairs to property. Many times the insurance company, once they actually pay out your claim, will just slowly increase rates to mitigate losses, insanity.
Hard-hitting and courageous truth-telling! This is fantastic. We need a lot more of this in the world. The Emperor wears no clothes.