Not a good neighbor, if there's a dispute.
Written: Mar 22 '09 (Updated Mar 22 '09)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Solid company, easy to select insurance (after some effort).
Cons: Unwilling to pay claims.
The Bottom Line: Avoid, if you expect to have claims which require documentation.
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| Arthur.Rubin's Full Review: State Farm Group - Home |
Some of you may remember my earlier review of their auto insurance. This one is not as favorable.
This review is based on our experience with their homeowners' and renters policies in California since 1999. This covers two policies, one on our main home, and one on a condo (2002-2007) we bought for my late mother-in-law, Norma.
Policies
Policy selection was fairly easy, except for some confusion as to whether the condo was to be considered owner-occupied for the purpose of insurance. Norma was the intended resident, but my wife was the owner of the condo because Norma had no credit. Eventually, State Farm decided that the policy was to be written as an owner-occupied policy, changing their earlier decision that it should be separate non-resident owner policy for my wife and a renters policy for Norma. They sent the refund check for the policy they had initially issued hidden among the papers for the new policy. They were quick to reissue the check after we told them we couldn't find it.
Earthquake insurance
See my essay on why we opted to have earthquake insurance. We had no trouble getting earthquake insurance on the condo, even though there was an unexpected rate increase when they asked whether the condo association master policy had earthquake insurance, and we had difficulty obtaining a copy of the master policy and, after we did, determining whether it had earthquake insurance.
Every year, they offer us earthquake insurance on the home, but it seems to be higher-priced than the non-owner-occupied earthquake insurance we obtained during the time we were living in Arizona.
Claims
They were prompt paying for the water damage caused by a leak through the ceiling, even though we never determined whether one of the upstairs neighbors or the condo association was responsible. We also never got the deductible back, as State Farm apparently couldn't figure it out, either.
However, they haven't paid for the losses caused by burglers in August 2007. A short description of the break-in follows, although I don't want to go into too much detail.
As best as we can reconstruct it, the burglars broke in through a door, not visible from the street, which opens into the garage. (They didn't pcik the lock; they actually broke in through the door.) They then came into the house, did what they were going to do, and left through the sliding glass doors in the back. The only structural damage was to the door, and the items taken were a medical device case (but not the medical device), a laptop computer and case (and miscellaneous photo CDs and software), and an antique diamond watch. All four cats were still present.
We filed a police report; even though a gang of thieves using the same MO was captured in a nearby city, the particular items were never recovered, because we couldn't produce serial numbers. I'm not really complaining about that, just pointing it out.
However, the State Farm claims agent kept asking for more information about proof of damages, items, and valuations, and eventually declared the case closed because they claimed we hadn't replied to their requests. It's possible that we missed a deadline for appealing that decision because of medical problems, but they did deny receiving some materials for which we had a certified mail receipt, so I'm not convinced that anything we did would have helped.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
Arthur.Rubin
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 in Personal Finance |
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Member: Arthur Rubin
Location: Brea, CA, USA
Reviews written: 97
Trusted by: 109 members
About Me:
Expert in mathematics, computers, income tax, with a wide variety of interests.
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