Personal Finance (Not Investing) • Can inaccurate information affect future homeowners claims?

My homeowner's insurance is up for renewal after having it for a year. I was reading over the description of my house, and saw that there are a few inaccuracies:

• We have metal windows, not wood
• We have a flat roof, not a gabled roof
• The roof is constructed with tar, not shingles
• The roof is 10 years old, not 2 years old

I brought these up with our agent in an email (along with a few other clerical things). He replied:

Please note that the requested changes will increase your price or make the policy ineligible as it might increase the replacement cost beyond what we allow. I’ll quote the changes and keep you posted.

I said that's fine. He got back to me yesterday and said:

[clerical things have been done]. As for the other changes, I don’t recommend that we alter the features because it will trigger larger issues. The home specs determine the dwelling amount, and you are more than sufficiently covered according to the calculator.

What he says makes sense—the insurance company underwriters just use the house description not as some kind of itemized list, but as criteria that help them calculate the dwelling protection limit. In my case, that limit is already on the high end for my house's size and type, which is fine.

Still, I always worry about insurance companies when it comes time to make a claim. Obviously, nobody will know the age of my house's roof when it burns down, but it'll be obvious that it was a flat roof and not a gabled one. Could they point to that inaccurate information and deny a claim?

I'm following up with my agent today. I'm inclined to trust him if he confirms that it won't be an issue, especially because it's in writing, but I wanted to see if anyone has direct experience or industry knowledge.

Statistics: Posted by vileparle — Thu Aug 22, 2024 7:23 am — Replies 3 — Views 317

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