you should see what American family did about my home

This looks like a happy ending. But here's the real question: Would Farmers Insurance have paid for the repairs if negative publicity (this Strib story) had not loomed over them? I mean these folks had to call -- what, somebody in California??? -- before Farmers would step up and meet their contractual obligation. Nicely done by the Strib reporter. But I'm gonna go out on a limb here and suggest most folks don't get a square deal from Farmers -- or other insurance firms -- unless they really let loose the dogs of war. -- Dave in Apple Valley

This may be an unpopular opinion, but should insurance even cover ice dams. Some of this is on the homeowner to do maintenance and work on removing snow. I know on my home I haev probably spent 30 to 40 hours of hard work removing snow from the roof and breaking up ice dams. Plus spent a couple of hundred dollars on roof cables and the electric to run them. Here I could have saved myself the trouble and let a contractor do this on the insurance companies dime.

"FrankL" is right, and I will even go a step further - in addition to the exterior maintenance, it is a homeowner's responsibility to do preventative property upkeep as well, such as checking the condition of the home's insulation. Had that been done, this problem might have been prevented. It's no different than someone having preventative work done on their car, their teeth, eyes and/or getting the annual physical.

I don't know what should or shouldn't be covered in cases like this; it's a tough one. There are things that a homeowner can do to prevent ice dams, or at least minimize the damage. That said, this has been one hellacious winter for ice dams. I've had some damage myself, and I'm not sure I could have avoided it. I'm not filing a claim because I can fix the damage myself and my roof is worn out already so I was going to replace it this spring anyway. I'd rather eat the small loss than risk a major bump in insurance premium, or even cancellation. But that's easy for me to say, since I was already prepared to have the roof done, and I can do some of the repair work myself; not everyone has the finances, resources or physical ability I do.

then why bother to have insurance? thats like saying if your roof leaks maybe you should have tarped it before it started. yard you frankl are wrong here. we pay premiums month in and month out to "insure" us against having to have to pay out of pocket for damage. if the insurance company says they will pay it then they dam well better. who should decide at what point any maintenance should be done? you two probably work for insurance companies. i think the state should come down even harder on these companies so that customers shouldnt have to jump thru the hoops to get what is agreed to.

Several years ago, I had a house fire. Farmers was my carrier at that time, and while the insurance company as a whole was really good, the adjuster and contractor were NOT. I would be interested in knowing the name of this adjuster.

MOVING TO FARMERS i had large ice dams on four corners of my victorian in st. paul and my ice dam and snow removal bill was $1800 (6 hrs. at $300/hr.). my insurance is with am fam and they only would pay $500 of the bill. meanwhile, my neighbor two doors down has state farm and they would only pay for the damage inside, not the ice dam removal, so she was stuck for the bill of $750. farmers really takes care of their customers from everything i hear. but paying out $16k for damage from an ice dam seems outrageous to me. i'd like to see the name of the contractor. i'm sure the work could've been done for $10k or $12k, but as soon as they found out an insurance company was involved, the price jumped to $16k. that's why premiums are so high.

This may be an unpopular opinion, but should insurance even cover ice dams. Some of this is on the homeowner to do maintenance and work on removing snow. I know on my home I haev probably spent 30 to 40 hours of hard work removing snow from the roof and breaking up ice dams. Plus spent a couple of hundred dollars on roof cables and the electric to run them. Here I could have saved myself the trouble and let a contractor do this on the insurance companies dime. posted by FrankL on Feb. 26, 11 at 7:51 PM = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = The reason the second ice dam formed is because the insurance company contractors pulled out the insulation in the attic and left it that way. (as stated in the article)

No, no, no folks - you've got it all wrong. Insurance exists for the benefit of SHARE holders, not P0LICY holders. We have little choice but to have insurance, but it's the nearest thing to legal racketeering yet invented.