From the Minnesota Department of Commerce
The number of claims you make can result in your policy being renewed…There are exceptions, however:
claims cannot be counted if they were caused by natural causes such as wind, hail, or lightning.
Questions, call the Department of Commerce Consumer Response Team at 651-296-2488 or 1-800-657-3602
I would say you need to check with your insurance company and see what your policy says is considered an “ACT OF GOD” Normally insurance company’s will not cover acts of God like lightning and hail.
Due to the nature of the claim they should not. the only way they would try to drop you if your claims are to frequent and chances are they are going to increase your premium or deductible
Your policy is your contract…You need to read the policy coverage and exclusions…Many people think they are covered, until disaster. …I have had clients that had insurance coverage dropped after a claim, especially when the contractor gets involved or the claim is turned over to him. Best to find a contractor who uses Xactimate Insurance Estimator. I represented a client that the ins. co., only wanted to put out almost 1/5 for damages. Even though the damages were under the coverage, once they knew they were dealing directly with the construction company, who now had the rights of damages / repair----they cancelled my client after completion…There are good insurance Co. and there are some who are sued constantly…Best to check on who is insuring you.
In most cases you are protected from being dropped based on a claim from storm damages. Policy language is key. If you have had previous claims for items outside of “Acts of God” within a 1 or 2 year period, the possibility certainly exists. One exception is if the zone in which you live was declared a disaster area. In this case by law you cannot be dropped or have your individual rates increased for making a claim. If you have made claims in the past two years, definitely check with your Agent.
All insurance companies are not the same. Not only can an insurer drop you after a single claim, they can drop you before you make any claims at all. Insurance companies are in for profit. Most likely you may see your policy rate go up instead of losing the policy.
But homeowners who think that their policies may have been illegally terminated can contact their state insurance department, which is also the place to file a complaint. If the department finds that the practice is particularly pervasive, they can file an enforcement action or lawsuit against the insurance company for improper cancellation practices.
The most important point for homeowners to understand is that their policies cannot be canceled in retaliation for filing a claim. It’s a fine line to draw because they can cancel for a poor claims history over multiple claims and they can cancel for reasons such as the home being too damaged to insure, but it is illegal to cancel for pure retaliation for filing a claim and homeowners need to be aware of that.
Frequent claims could get you dropped but a storm is an “act of god” out of our control. If something mechanical goes wrong or if a fire starts, that would be considered to get dropped by your insurance company.
One claim will not get you dropped!
Two claims will raise your rates!
Three claims will get you dropped pretty quickly!
It doesn’t matter which company!
