ATLANTA — Bruce Seamans got a letter in the mail saying his homeowner’s insurance policy was being canceled.
The letter from Travelers Insurance said the trees around his Sandy Springs home were the reason for the cancelation but gave no option to fix anything.
“We live in Atlanta. I don’t think there’s a house in Atlanta that doesn’t have a tree hanging over it,” Seamans said.
“They didn’t even say, if you take these trees down, we’re going to renew your policy?” Channel 2 consumer investigator Justin Gray asked Seamans.
“They didn’t give me an option. They just said you’re done,” Seamans said.
Lillie Echols received a letter in the mail from Nationwide Insurance.
Her letter told her the roof, chimney and driveway of her Southwest Atlanta home needed to be replaced or risk her policy being canceled.
“They are talking about $30,000 and they wanted it done within a three to four-week timeframe,” Echols said.
The warning letter from Nationwide contained no pictures or any other kind of evidence of the damage it alleged with the home.
“I wanted to cry, but I knew if I cried, it wasn’t going to help,” Echols said.
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Georgia Insurance Commissioner John King told Gray that his office is seeing an increase in cancelation letters to Georgia homeowners.
“When I’m having these negotiations with the insurance companies, they feel that they’re overextended and they’re trying to pull back,” King said.
But King said insurance companies need to give homeowners the opportunity to make repairs.
“We’re putting notices out to insurance companies that you have to let the consumer take action to deal with the risk mitigation,” King said.
Even though Travelers gave Bruce Seamans no option in writing or on the phone to keep his coverage, he spent $3,000 to prune and trim trees anyway and sent the evidence to Travelers.
That is when he also reached out to Channel 2 Action News through the Consumer Action Center.
“I told them that you were coming out to do this. And about two hours later, they sent me an email saying they had reinstated my policy,” Seamans told Gray.
Seamans showed us the message Travelers sent him by email agreeing to reinstate the policy.
A Travelers spokesperson told Channel 2 Action News that “the renewal decision was based solely on the customer’s remediation of the risk exposure that was identified during our underwriting review.”
The reinstatement came just days before his policy was set to expire. Now Seamans said he expects to be canceled again next year or the year after.
“I’m just waiting for the next shoe to drop,” he said.
The Travelers spokesperson says “We remain committed to the Georgia insurance market. Retention is always our goal, but it’s balanced with thoughtful and disciplined underwriting. We routinely evaluate our risk exposure and make adjustments as necessary.”
As for Lillie Echols, roofers had recently inspected her roof and said it did not need replacing.
But Nationwide said otherwise. So, the retired senior citizen is cobbling together money for repairs.
“It puts you in a bind, especially as a retiree, because you can’t make up for that bill that’s going to be coming. But you got to do something,” Echols said.
Nationwide told Channel 2 Action News that “this letter came after an in-person inspection.”
A Nationwide spokesperson said they “continually assess and balance our portfolio based on the level of risk in our books of business.”
Channel 2 consumer adviser Clark Howard said homeowners need to shop around.
“Not every company evaluates you the same,” Howard said.
He said if you have received one of the warning or cancellation letters, you will probably need to make the repairs even if you switch insurers.
“If they’ve said there is something wrong at your house, you fix it before you shop around because other companies may object the same way. But it’s always a good idea to re-shop your homeowner’s insurance even if your company hasn’t put you on the chopping block,” Howard said.
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