I found out our homeowners insurance went up 18 percent from a piece of mail I almost recycled. It was a renewal declarations page, three pages of tiny type, sitting under a pizza coupon. The number at the bottom said $1,512. Last year's said $1,284.
That's $228 more a year, or about $19 a month, for the same house, the same coverage and the same $1,000 deductible. We hadn't filed a claim. We hadn't added anything or changed anything. The only thing different about us was that we'd owned the Cape for a year.
Why we almost didn't notice
Our premium is paid out of escrow, so the servicer sends the money to the insurer and we never write a check. That's convenient, and it's also how an 18 percent increase can sail right past two people who track their grocery spending. The renewal took effect April 19 and got paid automatically. I only opened the envelope weeks later because I was cleaning off the counter.
Since the money comes out of escrow, we won't feel this right away. My guess is that it shows up later, when the servicer reviews the account and adjusts our monthly payment. I've added a note to the house sheet to watch for that, because I don't fully understand how escrow math works yet and I'd like to before it surprises me.
The call with our agent
I called our agent on a Friday, which is my work-from-home day, with a list of questions on a legal pad. The agent was friendly and patient and didn't try to talk me out of being annoyed. The short version of the explanation was that rebuilding costs keep climbing, with materials and labor both up, and that storm losses across the state have pushed rates up for a lot of people. Nothing about our house or our history had triggered it.
I asked whether anything about the house could earn a better rate. The roof is from 2013, the electrical is mostly updated, and nobody's filed a claim on this address in years as far as we know. The agent said our rate already reflected the information in our file. The main lever offered was raising the deductible, which would lower the premium. We already bundle the house with both cars, $2,184 a year for the auto side, so that discount was already counted.
I also asked about something that had been bothering me since April, when the rain kept our sump pump running every few minutes for days. Our policy doesn't include water backup coverage. If the pump had quit during one of those nights, the agent explained, the resulting water in the basement wouldn't have been covered without that endorsement. That answer bothered me more than the price did.
What we decided
We didn't change anything on the phone. Instead, Tessa and I sat on the front steps that evening and talked it through. Her position was simple: "If it went up 18 percent and nobody can tell us why it's us, then somebody else should get a chance to quote it." Mine was the same, with more spreadsheet.
So in June we're going to shop it. Gary and Linda have used an independent agency for years, the kind that can quote several companies at once, and they were happy with how claims went when a storm took part of their fence. I've already gathered what an agent would need: the declarations page, the roof year, the furnace and water heater ages, our auto policy details and the list of questions about water backup and deductibles.
Why wait until June instead of switching tomorrow? Mostly because we have a list of house projects in May and I'd rather do this carefully than quickly. Our agent explained that if we do switch partway through the term, the unused part of the premium gets refunded, so waiting a few weeks doesn't lock us into anything. I'm going to confirm how that refund moves through escrow before we sign anything new.
I'm not assuming we'll leave. Maybe the quotes come back and the current policy turns out to be fair for what it covers, and we stay. That would be fine. What isn't fine is me finding an 18 percent increase under a pizza coupon a month after it took effect.
The house sheet now has a reminder set for March of next year, a full month before the policy renews, with one word in the cell: "READ."
