State Farm will not pay claim after 2 years? Anyone have this problem?

Boots

2009-07-18 12:33:22 UTC

Fighting Saints is correct.

With a replacement cost policy, they take out a hold back for depreciation. However, if you get the repairs done with in 180 days (which works out to be about 6 months) then you can apply to have the hold back paid to you.

If the prior claim paid to replace the roof....and you do not replace it. Then if a tornado comes through and rips the roof off...they will not pay to replace it again. That's because they already paid to replace those shingles and you did not replace them. They don't pay to replace the same shingles 2 times. You don't get to file a claim to replace the roof....not replace the roof but pocket the money instead....then get paid again for the same roof.

Now...if they paid to replace the roof. And you replaced it. You can provide an invoice showing where you replaced. Then the tornado comes through and rips the new roof off....they will pay to replace that. That's because these are not the same shingles they paid to replace once before.

In the end, State Farm did not do anything wrong here. They honored the contract you have with them. The policy. The policy is very clear on the point and at some time after you took out your insurance policy, you were given a copy of it. And the provision they are talking about is not "fine print". It's in the exact same typeset as the rest of the policy.

The adjuster may have told you about the 180 day time limit. But with all that you had going on, you just did not catch it or remember it. Following a claim, the adjuster is going to go over a lot of information with you. Contractors/roofers are going to go over a lot of information with you. It's easy for 1 point to get lost in the volume of communication. That does not mean you or State Farm did anything wrong.

And there is no time limit to get the work done. You can have your roof replaced anytime you want to. However, there is a time limit to apply for the hold back - that's 180 days. So...did you ask your agent "Is there a time limit to get the work done?" If so, his answer of no time limit is correct. Or did you ask "So, is there a time limit to get the work done and apply for the deprecation to be paid back to me?" In which case his answer should be "180 days" or "I don't know...check with the adjuster".

And rates don't go up just because you cash a check.

You could have lost a "no claims" bonus.

They could have raised the rates on every one at that time.

" I didn't have time to get the work done". In the end, you're in the spot you are in....because you did not get the work done when the claim was paid....not because State Farm is doing anything wrong.

You can call and speak to a claims manager and see if they can work something out with you. But that's a long shot. They really can't start making exceptions to the policy and any exception they make for you....they have to make for every one. This can become a very tricky legal problem that can have wide reaching consequences. They probably won't make an exception for your, but it only costs you time to speak to a manager in the claims department.

Along with the 180 day provision - the other problem caused by waiting 2 years.....the cost for materials/labor is higher now than it was 2 years ago. You will have to see if State Farm is willing to write a supplement for the increase in materials/labor prices.

I know it's not much....but that provision about 180 days is standard. It's in every homeowners policy.

fighting saints

2009-07-18 11:41:57 UTC

You obviously had replacement cost coverage on your house. This coverage comes with a catch which is explained in the policy and also SHOULD be explained to you by the State Farm adjuster. The catch is that you have to have the repairs done within 180 days of the first payment.

Depending on the circumstances you can sometimes get an extension to the 180 days. (but certainly not 2 yrs)

Your rates did not go up because you cashed the check, they went up because you had a claim.

And yes, they will only pay for a partial roof if a tornado takes the whole thing off. That is because you only have a partial roof now.

You might want to try contacting the claims mgr and talk to he or she about still getting the rest of the money. However, I don't think they legally have to since the insurance policy is a legal contract and you didn't abide by it's terms. It might suck but that is how it works.

Good Luck

car253

2009-07-18 11:14:54 UTC

You rate does go up after you have a claim because you loose a claims free bonus. It seems like your frustrated but you know you have some responsible in causing this situation.

Sounds like the agent may or may not have done anything wrong. But why even talk to the agent? At this point you should only be speaking to the claims department that is handling your claim. Agents are not experts on the claims, the claims reps are. So, call your claim representative for help. And, if you think State Farm is not doing something right you can file a complaint with your state's Insurance Commissioner. But it sounds like to me that State Farm did do everything right.

DMC1 probly does not know all the facts on why their friends claim was not paid. I would be curious to know all the facts. Insurance companies usually pay what they are suppose to pay.

Anonymous

2009-07-18 12:51:28 UTC

There is a time limit, written into your policy, about how long you have to make repairs. Usually, it's 180 days, but can vary by state.

Rates don't go up when you CASH the check, the claim counts against you when the check is ISSUED. Then, the actual rate increase hits the next policy renewal.

The past few years have had tremendous natural disaster claims, EVERYONES homeowners rates are higher.

I have no idea what advice you heard, regarding postponing the cashing of the check for a year. I can tell you, legally, banks don't usually cash checks once they are over six month sold - they become invalid.

You have no leg to stand on, here, EVERY company requires repairs in a reasonable time - and two years isn't reasonable, by ANYONES guide.

lucy

2009-07-20 10:03:29 UTC

everyone is correct. the reason for the time limit is to force the person to get work done. another reason would be that the insurance company would have hundreds of thousands of claims still open and would never be able to close them. insurance companies have to put money in reserves for claims. (claims filed and expected claims)

another consideration is that prices can go up. so if the cost to repair your roof and/or the cost of the shingles go up in price 2 years from now, it costs more to fix. when you get an estimate, it is the price to repair now, not 2 years from now.

there is only one exception i can think of. that is when you cant get someone to do the job in the time frame. when i was looking for a contractor to do a roof for us (our expense), a lot of the contractors were so busy doing hail damage claims that they were booked almost a year in advance to get to it due to the backlog. once they realized it was not an insurance claim, they found the time to do our roof since they had so much trouble collecting from insurance companies.

savannahkae

2013-09-24 13:06:24 UTC

MY FRIEND IN TULSA AREA HAD HER HOUSE BURN DOWN, 1 1/2 YEARS AGO AND THEY HAVE CONTINUALLY KEPT FROM PAYING HER. UNDER THE TERMS OF POLICY SHE GAVE THEM ALL HER LOST ITEM., IT IS THE AGENTS IN THE OFFICE ASKING FOR SOMETHING NEW WHEN SHE GETS ONE REQUEST DONE, NOW THEY WANT HER BANKING INFORMATION. HER HUSBAND PASSED AWAY SHORTLY AFTER BECAUSE OF THE STRESS THEY HAVE CAUSED.

FUNNY YOU CAN'T GET YOUR MONEY WHEN YOU HAVE BEEN PAYING THEM FOR YEARS. MY SUGGESTION , DON'T USE THEM THEY ARE RATED NO.( 4 )FOR NOT PAYING ON CLAIMS. AND DRAGGING IT OUT.. BUT, IF YOU WERE LATE ON A PAYMENT THEY WOULD BE ON IT LIKE VULTURES. YOU DON'T NEED THE HEAD ACHES FROM A COMPANY LIKE THIS. IF PEOPLE WOULD BLOG THIS AND GET THE WORD OUT, PUT IT ANYWHERE ON THE NET. GLAD I DON'T HAVE THEIR INSURANCE..

2016-02-27 00:06:40 UTC

They will not be able to touch your mortgage. It's a fixed contract that cannot be changed without written agreement. However, if you collected insurance proceeds to fix the roof and you did not, that's known as insurance fraud, and you could very well have serious legal problems from it. Fix the roof.

Birk

2017-03-25 04:36:58 UTC

I recommend that you try this site where onel can get quotes from different companies: http://COVERAGE-FINDER.NET/index.html?src=5YAawK55OiT3nsB1

RE :State Farm will not pay claim after 2 years? Anyone have this problem?

I had a claim with State Farm on my home and because I didn't have the time to get the work done and it has been longer than 2 years since I filed the claim, they are telling me now that they are not going to pay the remainder (they had given me half when I filed). They said to read the fine print of my policy (it's there). I was almost sure my agent had told me there was no time limit and that is why it was always on the back burner. He swears now he never told me that. He could be right about that (or not) but if I had known there was a time limit I would have acted faster. Seems he wasn't looking out for me (he also told me my rates wouldn't go up when I asked about cashing the first check and if they would... they went up immediately when I cashed it). I am just wondering if anyone else has had this happen? The amount was in the thousands and now that I don't have the money to fix the roof, what happens if a tornado comes and rips it off? I heard they won't pay at all for it because of the previous claim and it not being repaired before...

Update: It's 2 years. It says it in the claim papers. You are right that they should have been more clear on the time. Convienient for them that they were not clear on that point. My agent even told me that there are numerious other people that had the same situation and if it was even 1 day over, they would not pay, period.

Update 2: I held the check for a year because I was afraid to cash it thinking my rates would go up. I finally called my agent and he told me that they would not go up because I was a responsible customer and I could cash it and not worry about my rates. That is the same time that he told me there was no time limit on the repairs. They went up as soon as I cashed it. I should have checked on the time limit after that happened, but I was upset at the agent and I didn't want to talk to him again.

Follow 10 answers

dmc1

2009-07-18 11:16:13 UTC

Not personally, but i know someone pulled from this company there house caught on fire and they were fully insured but somehow State Farm would not cut them a check so they can rebuild so they had to go to court.be careful of these insurance companies they will try to stick it to you good.

2016-08-03 16:59:59 UTC

That's a good point

?

2016-09-25 01:36:37 UTC

I would be interested to find out more on this too