Swindled?

As you know homeowners insurance is one of those must have’s when you finance a home. When we purchased our new home we called various insurance agencies to compare rates and coverage. We chose a well-known company with what we thought were competitive rates. We also set it up so our insurance payment was included in our house payment.

Shortly after we purchased the home we were notified by our lender that they had not received proof of insurance even though we had a binder and the insurance agent had been paid. I contacted the agent who apologized and said it would be taken care of immediately. Assuming she would handle the matter quickly we contacted our lender a couple of days later to verify they had what they needed. Yes they were satisfied that we had insurance.

Fast forward a year later, our lender again notifies us that they did not receive the documentation needed to show the renewal of proof of insurance on the home. The better half was furious with the insurance agent we chose. She was not doing her job. He went to her office, he told her we no longer would be requiring her services and would be going to another agent (same company) in town.

The new agent was happy to assist (he would get the commission not her) and set about changing things over. He asked that we request our old agent to send our file to him. She said she would, but never did. The new agent searched the company database in an attempt to find our information. He contacted his supervisor and asked for assistance. To our (and his) surprise there was no file…apparently we did not have insurance through this company.

The new agent attempted to set things straight. He came out to look at the home, take photographs, get info, etc. Not sure if it was due to the situation created by the original agent but that company could not insure us. According to the second agent we were too rural (come on we are a farm for pity sake) and some other odd ball reason like the size of our access road. Funny those things did not come up when she originally insured us.

They ask that we not contact the original agent again, they brought in an ‘investigator" from their company and the craziness began. It has taken us 3 months to collect and provide information for the investigator. We have had to contact each and every company and person involved in the purchase and closing of our home for information and to locate a copy of the original check written by the actual closing agent to the original insurance agent.

We have had to purchase insurance through a new company.

When it comes down to it…the original insurance agent took our money, wrote out a false binder, never created a policy and sent the lending company false documentation. Do you think this would be considered Insurance Fraud?

Oh and yes ... since we could provide a copy of the original check we do get our money back for the year of insurance we paid for but never received.