State Farm Home Insurance Reviews

State Farm is not "like a good neighbor...". It denied my claim for very extensive water damage caused by a shut-off ball valve leak. SF claimed the valve was old, failed because it probably was turned on and off too much and that it probably was installed incorrectly. All of these assumptions are inaccurate. Also, SF denied the claim because, according to their agents, in the fine print of its policy, it states SF does not cover most plumbing failure damages unless caused by freezing. It would cover, however, damage from a leaking old water heater, which is a case of inconsistent logic. Certainly many houses have plumbing that fails and causes damage, and obviously, owners buy insurance to cover such losses. Yet, when expected by trusting, naive clients -- this is not covered by SF. The agents refused the claim based on an analysis of the valve that SF had done by another company it hired. This was not exactly an independent analysis since State Farm hired and paid the company. And, not surprisingly, it received a report that benefited SF. The heavy duty brass ball shutoff valve in question was installed in the insulated attic of a house where it was protected from disturbances. The valve probably had never been turned off and on since installation about 10-13 years ago. It was not a particularly old valve; ball valves are very reliable and last a long time. It was installed correctly and did not leak at all. The leak probably began during the freezing cold winter when the valve froze enough to cause the valve seam to separate. Close examination of the valve reveals an uneven separation of part of the valve seal in the main body of the valve, below the handle system, that was probably caused by freezing water. The resulting very slow, drop by drop leak was not evident until a small portion of the ceiling drywall below the leak finally separated. By then, water had spread into walls. Nonetheless, State Farm did not seem to consider the uneven split valve seal seam at all and conveniently ignored this evidence to deny the claim. Bottom line, do not buy State Farm house insurance if you expect to be covered for common plumbing leak damages. There is clearly no point in buying expensive insurance if the insurer denies claims based on a policy that fine print excludes coverage of issues that consumers reasonably expect are covered. I plan to cancel my State Farm policies in the near future. I only wish I had done more research on the company and seen the numerous, well-deserved, one-star reviews. If I had, I never would have given them my money.

Jan 2015 my home had a water line break in our main floor bathroom toilet which flooded the partial main floor and leaked down the ceiling of the basement and walls and floor etc you can imagine and we had just finished a two year project of updating the main floor and basement. We called our State Farm insurance broker George R. and he called in the claim to State Farm and then the service master people came and removed the water, contents and did a remediation. We had to call State Farm back several times to have them send a adjuster to estimate the damage. We tried to communicate with the adjuster many times by phone and email but had no reply and then we waited approx 2-3 months before we heard from our adjuster and when we heard back she told us to go and find a contractor and submit some quotes to State Farm and they would review them. I must admit I was expecting State Farm to take care of the claim and not put these responsibilities on me since this was out of my ability but State Farm was adiment that they would do nothing to assist with contractors but would only see if the quotes were cheap enough to proceed eventually we found a contractor and this pissed service master off because they were expecting the work to be given to them. The work started in may due to these delays and the amount of work put on us to find a contractor and pick out replacement parts we had to do everything to get things started. The original estimate from State Farm came in around $20,000.00 which I knew was not correct so each time we moved into the project I had to spend several hours going over the quote from State Farm to make sure the amounts covered the cost, this went on until the job was completed, I was responsible for overseeing the entire project from start to finish as well as begging State Farm for money to pay the contractors I even tried to get help from our insurance broker George R. and he was of no help at all. Another problem we had was that the mortgage company held back 10% of every cheque that was sent to me and I had to carry the cost on my own. We submitted a bill to State Farm for my time and my families time for the past year and they did not care that we had done all this work as a general contractor to oversee, scrutinize, source out contractors for various parts of the work to be done, communicate with State Farm which they were very slow to respond, book and arrange the work schedules and to recheck and make sure the work was done with the money allowed. The total cost in the end has come to around 75,000.00 plus other cost for other items and personal effects and now we are being told our time and management was worthless by our claims people Brendon S. and his manager Allison. Please keep in mind with State Farm you must be ready to do all of this work and oversee every detail rite to the end and then wait and hope you did not miss anything because it is all on your shoulders right to the end. Reviews of this type do not contain the arrogance and ongoing abuse that was put on me and my family and expressed to me during many calls for help as a consumer and policy holder I hope this will help you be careful when looking towards State Farm for coverage and help. As the cost to you will be in the tens of thousands of dollars out of your pocket for time and money while trying to keep your own job and manage the rest. State Farm is a horrible insurance company to deal with and will not recommend them or work with them in the future.