When you live in an area that has experienced heavy losses or file too many claims for the insurance company’s comfort, non-renewal of your home insurance may occur, even small claims can count against you. If your insurance policy in non-renewed, it means that the insurance company is dropping you and that you may need to find another home insurance provider. The insurance company will provide notice of your non-renewal ahead of time so you can find a new insurer, so you don’t have to panic when you’re policy wasn’t renewed.
Reasons for non-renewal
State laws vary in every state, however, there are many reasons why insurance companies issue non-renewals. One reason is that the insurance company has stopped writing insurance policies in your state. Usually, insurance companies decide not to write insurance policies because profitability is insufficient with either a business sector or a line of coverage, or due to regulatory issues. They even go out of business entirely, that’s why insurance policies are not renewed.
What to do next?
Once the insurance company denies the renewal of your insurance policy, you still have 30 to 60 days to find a new one. Start exploring your options to put alternate insurance in place when your non-renewed policy expires. Contact your current insurance company and ask the reason behind the non-renewal of your policy. This is necessary because maybe they just want to make a change and not provide specific coverage terms on renewal. Notifications are highly-regulated, which is why insurance companies routinely send out non-renewal notices. If they only wish to make some changes in your policy, and you think that the changes are fine with you, then you may end up getting a home insurance policy with the same insurance company, just with different terms of coverage.
On the other hand, you can’t waste time to find an insurer for a replacement if your current insurance company wishes to part ways upon your policy’s expiration. Here are some tips on what to do next:
- Get a free copy of your C.L.U.E or Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange report, which is a database shared by insurers. It contains claims history that includes coverage inquiries even if you’ve never filed a claim.
- Examine your C.L.U.E report carefully to know that if all the information written in it are accurate and true. If there is some inaccuracy in the report, file a dispute so the incorrect information can be removed.
- If you’ve already applied to other insurance companies and they also refuse to ensure you, compare the reasons why they denied your application to your current insurer. Do you have bad claims history in the past? Is your dwelling considered high-risk by insurers?
- Seek help from your state’s insurance commissioner and ask for recommendations. They will be able to provide you with a list of insurers that are still writing home insurance policies in your area.
- File a complaint against your current home insurance company if you feel that you’ve been unfairly denied. You can file this complaint to your state’s insurance commissioner. You can also file a complaint to the insurance company as well — ask them to review their decision and outline the reasons why you feel like you’ve been dropped unfairly.
Final Thoughts
If your home insurance is not renewed, you should consider it as a wake-up call to take action immediately. It’s not a reflection on you as a homeowner. So, get going and stop procrastinating. Start looking for new options so you can find a replacement once your current policy expires.
