We purchased this new home and our closing date was 08/16. We made a military move from NC to FL and did not get settled in the home until 09/11. Between those dates a representative / inspector for FL Peninsula asked to inspect the home. I explained I was still up in NC, this was a military move and would not be avail until after mid Sept. He told me that was ok and would contact me then. I did receive a call and msg from the inspector... Between my return calls (to a general ofc #, not a number enabling me to get in touch with him directly to schedule a visit to the home, we probably made anywhere from 7-10 calls back and forth... He would call me at night, after 8-9pm and I would call during normal business hrs.
Just recently we received a letter stating that we were not in compliance with the underwriting requirements and our policy would be cxl effective 11/20. I called Steven M. Marcus, Inc/Allstate Insurance, whom we originally had the home insured through. They attempted to get this corrected and get another inspector out (who would actually get in touch during reg. Business hrs by phone, text, email etc), since the other inspector did not. Apparently, according to FL Peninsula procedure, since we did not have the home inspected in an appropriate amt of time/per a supervisor named Yutica, pls excuse the incorrect spelling if any, in their underwriting dept, we are now unable to keep our policy? They chose the inspector and because the inspector did not try another form of contact/we did not have his contact info to comply on our end and had to count on msgs being relayed to him through his ofc d/t no other means to directly speak to him to comply they are cxl our policy? And we have to find another insurance carrier? This is a newly purchased home and we just moved. This problem would have been avoided if the inspector was pro-active and attempted to schedule an appt. Other than by phone.
During our move it was hectic and yes voicemail was full at times, but in today's age of texting and email it seems unrealistic to say he could not get in touch with us. If FL Peninsula and their inspector had attempted even to get ahold of our agent she would have relayed a msg... She was able to get ahold of us.in fact, she even called the inspector at one point to let him know we were still up in NC. I believe this is bad business practice... D/t the fact that FL Peninsula was counting on the inspector to do his job for compliance of the policy and if we were under time constraints he certainly did not relay those during an initial conversation when I told him we were still in NC and would not be in FL until mid Sept. Plus, he did not try very hard to get ahold of me during the t ime frame of mid Sept.- 10/26 (the date of the cxl letter from FL Peninsula). I have a copy of the letter and it states: "If you have any question or wish to dispute this cancellation, please contact your agent. For your convenience your agent's contact info is listed above. If a refund is due to you, it will be sent under separate cover within 15 business days of the effective date of this cancellation. If you owe an amt. On your policy, please remit payment using the payment stub located at the bottom of this notice." The stub says $0.00 owed, so they owe us money.
I did contact my agent to dispute this and get resolution by attempting to get an inspector out her asap... Possibly by getting another inspector to follow through. Their underwriting supervisor told my agent that too much time had passed and their procedures stated they had to cxl. Besides the inspector, FL Peninsula did not attempt to get ahold of us prior to this cancellation notice. At the end of the day if this is how they conduct business, our thoughts on this are... How would Florida Peninsula conduct themselves if there was ever a need to recover from a disaster in the future? Should policy holders be concerned that their procedures are not customer friendly?
0 comments