Home Inspection

Status
Not open for further replies.
Joined
Dec 8, 2006
Messages
3,058
Location
Columbus, Ohio
Our insurance co, USAA, has decided after 25 years and no claims, to send someone out to inspect our house. Anybody know what kind of inspection this is? Is it just to check the condition of the house, or are they gonna be nitpicking about extension cords and fire hazards and stuff like that?
 
When we recently bought our house, the insurance company did an inspection. They just did a quick visual inspection of the outside and reported back via mail. We had some debris on the side of the house they wanted picked up and thought we had a fire stove. I picked up the debris and sent them a photo. I let them know they were welcome to come in and check out the non existent wood stove.
 
When we switch insurance companies they send an insurance jockey out during the day while we are at work.

They take a few photos of the house, and go on their way.

I believe around here they are most concerned about roof condition, or anything else that could cause water penetration into the house (rotten wood, etc).

On a ten year old house there isn't much to see, so it is fairly painless.
 
For the land of the free, you seem to have a lot of intrusions into your personal space by businesses that you pay for service.

Edit, don't get me wrong...here I have to allow the gendarme in every two years to inspect my safe storage, and they'll close down a highway for a week to RBT every single driver that crosses the mountains.
 
Last edited:
Where I live in an area of S. California they are concerned about fire safety and clearing brush and tree branches near the house.

I cleared area based on advice from the local fire department including some improvements to the access road for fire trucks. The insurance people do more frequent inspections because this is a fire hazard area.

This stuff is not as easy as you might think because of regulations and dealing sometimes with the EPA and the BLM. I lost a home in the 2003 Cedar fire that burned down a large part of San Diego County. I was stopped from clearing brush recommended by the fire department because I could not get a permit. My request was in process for three years before the fire hit. That clearing would have saved the house based on nearby houses that were saved with the area cleared in a similar manner. Then I was fined when I started to clean up the debris after the fire without another permit for the cleanup. You have to hurry because a homeowners policy requires that you start the rebuilding within 12 calendar months from the declared loss and everyone is trying to rebuild at the same time. I was told that if I hired a licensed contractor instead of doing the cleanup work myself the permit process would have been taken care of.

If an inspection is required find out what they want to be done if anything and do it right away.
 
They want to access the value of your house. They want to make sure that they're not placing a higher value on your house than it's worth--so that if the time comes for them to pay out on a claim, they're not paying out more than they should.
 
They will check for fall hazards, especially around areas which might require a banister and make you install one if it isn't already there. They'll check sidewalks, and if tree roots lifted a slab they will make you fix the slab/slabs. If there is supposed to be a fire barrier over or behind the heating system in the basement and it isn't there they'll make you put one in. They might even check the circuit breaker panel, fireplaces, wood stoves, etc. Bottom line is they are there to protect themselves from a possible loss. They might also check the house to determine if the property is worth more than the coverage is allowing for, and adjust the premium up if it isn't. OTOH if you're over covered they may keep quiet about it.....
 
state farm inspected my house b4 they insured it 20 years ago.

Ford motor company in its early days had home inspectors that inspected the employees homes and yards . Today that would not be allowed by employees.
 
Nothing to really sweat. They are looking for obvious problems. They are usually not nit picky and if they point something out it is usually to your advantage to correct it. When they came to my place they just took a couple pics and notes, did not even ask to come in. Probably took 5 minutes.
 
I have been with USAA since about the mid 90's and have been generally happy with them as far as banking, Auto insurance and no fee ATM and the like. I also have a mutual fund ROTH IRA as well that does better than the old TSP we used to have. However a couple of years back our home had hail damage to the shingle and they USAA sent out a claim adjuster and they low balled the damage figure. We have never filed a claim before on the house. WE had basement wall bowing and had to get wall anchors but of course USAA does not cover basement walls.. so that was 15K out of pocket for Thresher o come out and install wall anchors I talked to neighbors who also had damage and their damage assessments were at least 3K higher than USAA with the same type roof and shingles. I was getting the run around from USAA and getting now where appealing the claim estimate. We have a 3K deductible and our house would have been about 7K o tear off the old damaged shingles and replace..so it would have cost USAA 4K. That is about what our neighbors with similar damage were getting. Even people with Met Life and All State were being treated fairly. I ended up filing a formal complaint with the Nebraska insurance commissioner. The insurance commissioner forced them to re evaluate and pay the claim to re shingle our home. That circus made me lose some faith in USAA, at least the USAA home insurance division and we stayed with USAA for banking but dumped their house insurance and went with Erie and never looked back. We have never filed a claim and have paid USAA 130 a month for decades for home insurance and when we need them the LOW Ball the estimate. and they do not cover basement walls which is another story, I was quite disappointed with USAA and would never recommend their home insurance to anyone. So far Erie home insurance has not wanted an home inspection and I do not expect them too.
 
I use USAA for banking and that’s it.
Insurance is usually best through a local broker that can deal with the [censored] you had to with USAA.
 
The home inspection I’ve had was basically to double check the construction materials in the description of the house and any basic hazards. It was a 5 minute inspection.
 
our home insurance is through a local non profit company, they have inspected both homes that I have purchased and both times required that we install some steel braided hoses to the washing machine.
 
if the insurance pays they will just take a few pictures of the roof and stuff, when we bought our house last summer we did the home inspection which included termite inspection, three point inspection and wind mitigation. We did go after the cheapest quote we got because I haven't had to file a claim ever, but the insurance co we got decided to send someone on their part right after the hurricane and decided that we needed to cut the trees back otherwise they would not renew it the following year.
 
I've been a USAA member for 31 years. I use their homeowners on a second home but not on my primary home. That's because we live in a hurricane prone area, and about eight years ago they tried to raise our homeowners premium to about $4,800 a year. I dumped them because they like to cherry pick--accept risks only in low to medium risk areas.

There are really two reasons that USAA does a home inspection or analysis. One is to make sure it's not on the hook for a claim if you have an outdated roof, furnace, plumbing system or electrical system that could fail and cost them money or if you have another safety or fire hazard. Second they want to update your replacement cost coverage (estimate to rebuild or replace the home) so they can collect the largest premium they can. They are known to use a very aggressive construction cost estimator tool.

But if they redo the replacement cost and you think it's too high, you can appeal. And you can keep replacement cost coverage so long as the home is insured for at least 80% of USAA's estimated replacement cost.

USAA is known for its above average service. But they have lots of bean counters.
 
Originally Posted By: BJD78
I have been with USAA since about the mid 90's and have been generally happy with them as far as banking, Auto insurance and no fee ATM and the like. I also have a mutual fund ROTH IRA as well that does better than the old TSP we used to have. However a couple of years back our home had hail damage to the shingle and they USAA sent out a claim adjuster and they low balled the damage figure. We have never filed a claim before on the house. WE had basement wall bowing and had to get wall anchors but of course USAA does not cover basement walls.. so that was 15K out of pocket for Thresher o come out and install wall anchors I talked to neighbors who also had damage and their damage assessments were at least 3K higher than USAA with the same type roof and shingles. I was getting the run around from USAA and getting now where appealing the claim estimate. We have a 3K deductible and our house would have been about 7K o tear off the old damaged shingles and replace..so it would have cost USAA 4K. That is about what our neighbors with similar damage were getting. Even people with Met Life and All State were being treated fairly. I ended up filing a formal complaint with the Nebraska insurance commissioner. The insurance commissioner forced them to re evaluate and pay the claim to re shingle our home. That circus made me lose some faith in USAA, at least the USAA home insurance division and we stayed with USAA for banking but dumped their house insurance and went with Erie and never looked back. We have never filed a claim and have paid USAA 130 a month for decades for home insurance and when we need them the LOW Ball the estimate. and they do not cover basement walls which is another story, I was quite disappointed with USAA and would never recommend their home insurance to anyone. So far Erie home insurance has not wanted an home inspection and I do not expect them too.


I have not been that impressed with USAA. We have Erie for everything else and I like them much better. Like someone said local agent, etc. Thanks for everybody's input.
 
Perhaps some people have had good luck with USAA for home insurance, but I did not. I did keep them for banking and only had to use 1 auto claim and had no issues even though my vehicle was hit by someone with no insurance. I will drop USAA like a bad habit if I ever have bank issues with them. I would probably go with Navy credit union, since around here there are lots of Wells Fargo banks and I certainly would never trust the Wells Fargo crooks. I am surprised Wells Fargo CEO was not jailed and the bank was not shut down for being frauds
 
Originally Posted By: OneEyeJack
I was stopped from clearing brush recommended by the fire department because I could not get a permit. My request was in process for three years before the fire hit. That clearing would have saved the house .....

Then I was fined.....


Reason # 37,872 to NOT live in Kalifornia
 
Originally Posted By: John_K
Our insurance co, USAA, has decided after 25 years and no claims, to send someone out to inspect our house. Anybody know what kind of inspection this is? Is it just to check the condition of the house, or are they gonna be nitpicking about extension cords and fire hazards and stuff like that?


Standard stuff as far as inspections, its all arbitrary when companies do them. They do not enter the home as far as any inspections we have ever had, in fact we were never home, they just let us know when its taking place.
I will say one thing, if you have been with the same company for 25 years, chances are you have been paying way to much since year 5.

Most every case (but not all, yet) the more loyal you are to an insurance company, the more you will pay because they know, you will not leave, yet they make it look like you are getting all these loyalty discounts which you are not, well you are but its based on a 'Retail" price that no one pays, much like a Macys sale, they show a retail price and a sale, though they never sold any at the retail price. :eek:)

In most cases, but not all, you should be switching ins companies ever couple years at most for the best price and at the least, check prices every time a renewal comes up.
 
Last edited:
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top