I decided to get some quotes for homeowners and auto insurance. Our homeowners policy is up this month, and I felt we were paying too high a rate. I got a much lower quote from a new company, so they sent it to the underwriter to confirm everything. Well, I get a call back saying they can't cover us because we have 2 recent claims! We have never made a claim on our homeowners. Before dh and I got married, he lived and owned a house with his brother. We called to take his name off the policy, and set up our own, when we got married and moved into our own house. We turned the house over to his brother. The insurance company never took his name off, and his brother never took it off. So, dh's name has been on his policy for over 10 years. He filed the claims on his house! We never even knew about the claims(dh no longer has a close relationship with his brother) So, we thought no problem, we will call and get it taken off. This is the same insurance company that we have had our own policy with for over 10 years. Well, the agent says that he won't take it off because they have no record that we called in to remove his name. Well, of course they don't, then it would have been taken care of. We have used this company for 10 years. I guess I don't get how they didn't know that dh had 2 policies in his name. They are saying that it is because we used different agents. So, does anyone know what we need to do. Dh has a good friend that works for the company, but he is on vacation right now. We are going to hire a lawyer if we have to. The problem is that dh's brother must have forged his signature on the claim checks to deposit them. They were made out in both names. We really don't want to take legal action against him, even though we are furious. So, does anyone know what steps we need to take to get our claim history cleared. There must be a way.

Going anonymous to protect dh's brother, even though I would like to strangle him.

By Cocoabutter on Wednesday, August 15, 2007 - 11:10 pm:

I don't know how to help you, but I think it ridiculous that insurance companies won't insure anyone who has ever made a claim. It makes no sense to me that you absolutely have to carry homeowners insurance but you can't use it because if you do you get penalized and blacklisted forever. Stuff happens, and after all, that is why we have insurance.

I mean really, if car insurance companies did business like that then no one would ever be able to buy car insurance.

Off my soapbox....

Best of luck getting this cleared up.

By Ginny~moderator on Thursday, August 16, 2007 - 02:43 pm:

The only thing I can think of is to contact the state agency in your state (or the state where you were insured) that oversees insurance. In Pennsylvania it is the Pennsylvania Insurance Commission.

The only other option I can suggest - which worked for me once - is to write a letter to the CEO of the insurance company. You can probably get the name and the address off the web site. I did that, by certified mail, when I was getting a runaround on a burglary loss claim and - voila - in 5 days my problem was solved.

The problem is, if your dh's brother forged dh's signature on the check, once you complain about dh still being on the policy after all this time, someone is going to figure it out and may go after the brother.