Delaying insurance claim hurts chance of getting paid

Q: I had home insurance with a national company for one year. When it came time to renew, I switched to another company. Inspectors found that my roof needed to be repaired. I know a storm caused the damage last year. Is it possible to file a claim with the first company even though it is not my insurer anymore?

A: When this storm hit, especially if you knew it caused damage in your area, you should have inspected your home. If the damage happened only to your home, you may be in some trouble.

But let’s start with some good news. Your homeowners insurance policy should cover you and your home for the period that your policy was in place, assuming you had an occurrencebased policy. So if the storm hit in August, your insurance company at that time is obligated to cover the cost of repairs.

But you also have responsibilities under a typical insurance contract. One is to make a timely claim and not do anything that would worsen the damage. If you know of damage but fail to report it and your inaction causes the problem to compound, the insurance company won’t want to pay.

If you really didn’t know about the damage until the inspectors came, you should file a claim with last year’s insurance carrier. If it is clear to the company that the damage came from that storm, you should be in good shape.

The question will be: Have there been other storms that may have caused the damage since you switched insurers? If so, the insurance companies could wind up fighting each other, and reject your claim. Then you’d have to pay the bill yourself.

If the storm resulted in damage to all of your neighbors’ homes and they also had to be repaired, you’ll have a better chance of convincing your old insurer to pay.