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Sorry for the double post here as I just posted this in the "Homeowners Insurance" forum however I feel it correctly should be here.
Unfortunately my home was broken into TWICE within a 90 day time period late last year.
The first occurence happened between 8 & 10 am, it was discovered by my cleaning lady around 11am, and she immediately called me and the police. I left the office and came to the house to meet the officer and had the report filed. The only two items that were taken were 2 lcd flatscreen tv's, but there was also a decent amount of damage to the back-door of my home which they apparently used a crow-bar to enter. I called my agent who opened up a claim and he had his adjuster call me the next day. The adjuster first stated that I had a $2500 deductable and that I needed to provide either pictures or receipts for the tv's....I had neither of these. He then proceeded to tell me that we could go through the claim process if I choose but it would be a waste of time because since the tv's were both 2 years old the adjusted value plus the repair of the door would come around to the $2500 ded amount. So i bit the bullet and didn't proceed with filling out the large claim packet that he gave me.
Not quite three months later, again in the morning hours the house was broken into again, and the thieves entered through the same door, which had been fixed, but they busted open again! This time they literally went through the entire house, emptying drawers, flipping over mattress's....literally just casing the whole place. Again I called the police and filed a report, then called my agent who had the adjuster call me. I informed the adjuster that although they went through everything in my home the two items that were missing this time was a DVD camcorder and a small fire-proof safe that included a very large childhood collection of old baseball and football cards and a few pieces of jewerly. I estimate that conservatively the safe had $5000 of valuables in it. The adjuster again came back with "do you have receipts or pictures"....and very frustrately admitted that no I did not.
Now shame on me for not taking pictures of everthing in my entire house after the first break-in. Because of this the claims agent again told me that this is a separate occurence and the $2500 deductable would have to be exceeded on the contents taken during this second break-in to validate a claim. Because I had no proof of owning these items, and based on what the adjuster stated, I did not proceed with a claim on this second occurence either.
Fast forward to this past week where I found out that these two "zero dollar claims" on my property are now showing up on the database that all property and casualty companies use to quote coverage. Several agents from various companies have told me that I will be unable to evaluate a different insurance carrier on this property for like 2-3 years or something until I am through this window.
How can this show up on my "claim record" if I didn't proceed through the claim process?? I feel frustrated here on so many levels! Not only did I lose in total 8k plus of my property but now I am being black-balled in from my carrier when they didn't pay a nickel and I didn't even file either claim.
I have also found out this month that one of the construction workers that was at my property during renovations I had done a few months prior to the first break-in was arrested for several theft charges only weeks after the second break-in occurred at my property. This individual is now in a state pen for the next two years. I obviously can't prove anything other than he was in my house, however I am wondering if I should go to the authorities anyway.
You guys are the experts with Home Insurance so I thought I would start here for help. I appreciate any knowledge or thoughts you could share on any of the above. Thank you.
Unfortunately my home was broken into TWICE within a 90 day time period late last year.
The first occurence happened between 8 & 10 am, it was discovered by my cleaning lady around 11am, and she immediately called me and the police. I left the office and came to the house to meet the officer and had the report filed. The only two items that were taken were 2 lcd flatscreen tv's, but there was also a decent amount of damage to the back-door of my home which they apparently used a crow-bar to enter. I called my agent who opened up a claim and he had his adjuster call me the next day. The adjuster first stated that I had a $2500 deductable and that I needed to provide either pictures or receipts for the tv's....I had neither of these. He then proceeded to tell me that we could go through the claim process if I choose but it would be a waste of time because since the tv's were both 2 years old the adjusted value plus the repair of the door would come around to the $2500 ded amount. So i bit the bullet and didn't proceed with filling out the large claim packet that he gave me.
Not quite three months later, again in the morning hours the house was broken into again, and the thieves entered through the same door, which had been fixed, but they busted open again! This time they literally went through the entire house, emptying drawers, flipping over mattress's....literally just casing the whole place. Again I called the police and filed a report, then called my agent who had the adjuster call me. I informed the adjuster that although they went through everything in my home the two items that were missing this time was a DVD camcorder and a small fire-proof safe that included a very large childhood collection of old baseball and football cards and a few pieces of jewerly. I estimate that conservatively the safe had $5000 of valuables in it. The adjuster again came back with "do you have receipts or pictures"....and very frustrately admitted that no I did not.
Now shame on me for not taking pictures of everthing in my entire house after the first break-in. Because of this the claims agent again told me that this is a separate occurence and the $2500 deductable would have to be exceeded on the contents taken during this second break-in to validate a claim. Because I had no proof of owning these items, and based on what the adjuster stated, I did not proceed with a claim on this second occurence either.
Fast forward to this past week where I found out that these two "zero dollar claims" on my property are now showing up on the database that all property and casualty companies use to quote coverage. Several agents from various companies have told me that I will be unable to evaluate a different insurance carrier on this property for like 2-3 years or something until I am through this window.
How can this show up on my "claim record" if I didn't proceed through the claim process?? I feel frustrated here on so many levels! Not only did I lose in total 8k plus of my property but now I am being black-balled in from my carrier when they didn't pay a nickel and I didn't even file either claim.
I have also found out this month that one of the construction workers that was at my property during renovations I had done a few months prior to the first break-in was arrested for several theft charges only weeks after the second break-in occurred at my property. This individual is now in a state pen for the next two years. I obviously can't prove anything other than he was in my house, however I am wondering if I should go to the authorities anyway.
You guys are the experts with Home Insurance so I thought I would start here for help. I appreciate any knowledge or thoughts you could share on any of the above. Thank you.
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