AAA Homeowners Insurance

I just received my new Declaration Page which shows that my $1,000 deductible is now changed to 15% of the loss! I also received several disclaimers in regards to possible damage which they do not cover. Interestingly, also included is a letter noting: "The AAA Direct Repair Network of Home Repair Contractors" - is a law changing in re-disaster coverages. There is also a reference to "Hazard Reduction Premium Discount" of 65% (doesn't say percent of what amount), and references to dwelling tied or braced to the foundation using "approved anchor bolts, installed according to approved building code standards."

It also mentioned the bracing standards in approved building codes, and water heater secured to building frame. How vague is "approved building codes?" That is an escape of responsibility. AAA knows your address and these codes should be defined in accordance with or citation of a particular State, and/or any other applicable building code.

AAA is scamming homeowners. This document is extremely vague. It isn't informing the insurance-holder of anything specifically, but states an undefined "requirement." This looks more like the sales staff concocted it, particularly with the ad for the AAA-recommended building companies. The language is not legal language. What can be done? Has anyone else received a removal of their $1,000 deductible and replaced with 15% of damages deductible with various surprising disclaimers?

I followed all instructions from my AAA Insurance Claims person, and turned in a report about my stolen/damaged property. I made every attempt to resolve this matter with AAA, and the police/sheriff's department who refused to make an arrest or investigate the incident, even though I had called in a 911 report, and met with the police, who thereafter met me for a standby, to retrieve what I could of my stolen property.

AAA wrote to me to fill out an itemized list of my missing belongings and damages to my property. AAA stated they would be able to obtain the police report even months later, and failed to do so. I repeatedly called AAA to get this resolved. They changed agents, and gave me the runaround. I turned the other cheek, and I in turn, notified the court's hall of records in Redwood City, CA. The clerk told me the Sheriff's Dept. would issue a new report. They sent me to pick it up, and the Sheriff became uncooperative, and refused. AAA stated they cannot honor my claim, without the police report stating my property was stolen.

They wanted pictures. I sent in pictures of my horse trailer, the damages, and pictures of more than 11 horses I raised, and showed on the equestrian circuit. Thus, to prove I had equipment and farm/ranch supplies/horses for the past 40 years. I also have proof of my horse registration papers, equestrian club papers, family and friends who will verify my past/ownership of my property.

AAA stated they would be able to get the Police report, and thereafter failed to follow through. I went to the court filings of police reports records. They told me if they can't find the police report, they will make a new report for the insurance company and me. They sent me to the sheriff's dept., and they refused and gave me the runaround, wasting my time. They also stated that I might be doing insurance fraud, and they are not giving me a police report. I told them to arrest me for it then, and investigate the perpetrators, and search their property for my stolen items.

I went back to the court house records, and she gave me proof of incident, and AAA refused to pay my claim for loss and damages on my home/renter's owner's insurance claim. I attempted every way possible to get the police to do their job, but they refused. Now, AAA wants to interpret the unofficial incident report I retrieved from court records the way they want, and refused payment.

AAA is contradictive, and sent me on a wild goose chase to jump through their hoops, with no intentions of ever paying my claim. I have paid into my renter's insurance for approximately a half of a decade, or more. If you have attorneys that could help, I am in Palo Alto, CA. Please connect me to an attorney in my area to get this resolved with the Sheriff's Dept. and AAA insurance.

The house that I just brought had new water damage inside and out after I moved in. AAA said it would not cover attorney's fees or represent me in recovering my lost because they felt the prior owners were to blame. After an expensive trail, the court noted that only $30,000.00 for a law suit where I was sued for encroachment. The cost for attorney fees and repairs are in bankruptcy court and no further auction can take place until the bankruptcy has been settled. In the mean time I'm unable to pay over $44,000 in attorney expenses. Thus, I have no one acting on my behalf. AAA failed to cover me for the damage or for recovery of expenses. I have no more money to proceed due to their failure to cover me for this fraud. The prior owners were found guilty of fraud, breach of contract and misrepresentation.

On March 23, 2011, we had a tornado rip through Westmoreland Co, Pa. The town I live in had severe wind and hail damage. My house, porch, and garage roof were all damaged, as were all the other homes in my neighborhood. Well, apparently, I am the only one with AAA home owner insurance. Everyone on the 6 streets in my small town had their roofs replaced by their insurance companies. Well, not mine. I have been treated terrible, like a thief, like I wanted some thing I was not entitled to. It was just awful. They sent an inspector who they pay off to state. There was very little damage and that's it. Once they send him out, you have no recourse to get another estimate. His word is the only word they go by. Do not purchase their insurance--it's like having nothing!

I decided to switch my homeowner's and auto insurer to AAA on October 24, 2011. All went smoothly, and I was given a very competitive combined rate. On December 2, 2011, I was sent a "Confirmation of Policy Cancellation" of my homeowner's policy by AAA. The two reasons given were the lack of a safety rail around the rear balcony, and because "the chimney is crumbling". The safety rail issue was a quick and easy fix, and being a former building code official for the city of Grand Rapids, I knew the chimney was structurally sound. Still, I contacted a chimney repair contractor, who confirmed my opinion.

The AAA agent who handled my policy change said he was sympathetic, but it was out of his hands, so I subsequently asked if I could at least get an extension to have the chimney rebuilt, until the outside temperature was high enough to allow the mortar to set. The agent ignored my request, and because the expiration date that AAA had given me (1/06/2012) was so close, I found another insurer. My suspicion is that this was an instance of redlining by AAA, since I was willing to comply with their demand, and only requested additional time to do so.

I found another insurer, who agreed with my assessment of my chimney, and did not require any repair to it. Still, since I hope to sell the house this year, and because the cost to rebuild it was less than $500.00, I paid to have it rebuilt within 2 weeks of the expiration date AAA had given me. I can't understand where this could be anything other than redlining.

I recently had an ADT security system installed. I spoke with an AAA rep prior, and was told my premium would be $50-$60 less per year. When the ADT person installed the system, he told me that the premium could be lessened by about $200 if the fire monitoring feature was installed, and that his AAA homeowner's insurance had been, in fact. At greater expense, I had that feature included.

I spoke with an AAA rep Phil ** at AAA San Bernardino office, and gave him the appropriate papers to confirm the installation of the system, including the fire monitoring feature, and was told I would be receiving a check refund to my year-long prepaid premium. I expected around $200. The check was for $38.00, and I'm more than a little disappointed. I thought I'd just let you know.

My homeowners insurance is automatically extracted from my checking for decades. It has always been $65/month, so my $72.00 in the account should have been fine. Nope, the insurance increased to $85 with no warning. It sent me into lack of funds with a $30 fee! My credit union reversed that (thanks). AAA said that the rate increase was because of all of the insurance needs across the U.S. from floods, drought, etc., and a credit report change only they knew about.

For several weeks, I have been calling the AAA insurance services. I have spoken to 2 representatives and 2 supervisors. I requested my homeowner policy and excess policy jackets. They have never sent them to me. All I got were duplicate bills. Is there someone at the AAA who can respond to my simple request? This is extremely poor service and lack of knowledge by AAA people.

We had water damage to our kitchen and bath. Dave came out to see the damage to our home and he was negative from the start. We felt like victims in our own home. We were treated like we were criminals. He always give us a hard time when it comes to our money and our adjustments. We felt we had to beg for our money every time we needed a draw. The contractors repairing our house could not believe what was happening. They said they never had problems with any other insurance before.

Now, we are halfway done and we are still begging for the rest of the money. We have been lied about when the money was mailed and sent out. We are still waiting for a response from him on that. He never called us back about anything, we are so disappointed. We are never going to recommend this company to anyone.

I am an AAA member for the last seven years but this is my last time because they sent me five different bills. They keep charging here and there. First $0 balance and the suddenly $117 balance without any reason. When I called, the guy has no idea so he will check and call me Monday. It is a total crap and they have big glitches. They need to hire pros and fix their computer system.

Regarding California Earthquake Insurance, I received a bill from CSAA for earthquake insurance. I wanted to check on my payment and was told that it was $1 short. The invoice clearly stated that the amount was $652.25 and I was told that the correct amount was $1 more. CSAA does not allow you to talk directly to an earthquake insurance representative and I had to have another rep be a go-between. They couldn't care less that my bill was incorrect, and they care less about sending me correct bills. I won't be getting statements or correct bills in the future.

During a period while I was going through a bad divorce, my home was broken into. The back door was forced. Hundreds of tools, personal property, furniture, etc. were stolen. The house was vandalized extensively. I had been insured by AAA for several years. At first AAA agreed to their responsibility and paid to replace the back door, locks, and repair the damaged furnace.

Then, AAA started stalling, repeatedly claiming not to have received required forms (a number of which I had personally hand delivered to the AAA office!). They stalled for two years then denied the claim. When I tried to hire a lawyer to sue for damages, I was told that AAA had too much legal power to bother going after no matter how much proof there was. I have not been able to find an attorney willing to challenge AAA. It really gripes me that AAA can cheat me out of thousands of dollars just by intimidation. I want to warn everyone not to expect honesty or responsibility from AAA.

There was a slab leak in my condo. AAA covered the cost of the initial damage until we discovered that there was coverage under the HOA's insurance, which required a $2,500 deductible. AAA sent a letter indicating that they would be sending me a check to cover the $2,500 deductible. It's been 8 months and I keep getting the runaround. Still no check has been received.

I have a letter from AAA acknowledging they owe me this amount but now they don't want to pay. This numerous delays in the repair due to lack of payment of the deductible has cause emotional and financial distress over trying to get a resolution/payment from AAA so that my condo could be restored to a livable and safe conditions, still no resolution. I've opted not to renew my policy with them.

Recently, the local AAA Insurance office sent out a person who surveyed our home. This person went through the home, mostly making notes on anything she perceived to be designer upgrades. Despite the fact that our home has not changed substantially since we first changed our coverage to AAA, we were shocked to see a 32.5% increase in our homeowner's premium. We were told that it was because of all the designer upgrades we had made (note that most of these, such as crown moulding, we did ourselves for very little money) and the cost of rebuilding our home.

We checked with some local contractors on the projected sq. ft cost to rebuild our home, and there is a $25 - $30/sq. ft difference in their estimates versus what AAA says it would cost. Their estimate is $258/sq ft. We feel as if we are being gouged in order to help AAA rebuild their reserves.

We're a great customer and have all our insurance coverage with AAA (cars, home, earthquake and umbrella policy), take excellent care of our property so low risk and have had no claims. We asked for a re-survey with a chance to see what they thought was so incredibly different, but they denied it. The impact of this value re-assessment affects both our homeowners and earthquake coverage.

For homeowners, it is a 32.5% increase and for earthquake, it is a 28.5% increase. In these economic times, that kind of increase is a significant hardship and appears arbitrary on who gets it and who doesn't. While expected increases (eg. our car insurance with AAA went up 4.7% yty, which we find reasonable), increases in this range do not track to current market conditions, not the least of which is the cost of available labor, which is plentiful.

March 07, 2009. We had a kitchen fire. We submitted a claim. The AAA of Texas Adjuster Kathy ** never set foot in our house to inspect the damage. She argued with us every step of the way through the quoting process and treated us as if we were criminals. We had been with AAA for 35 years and did not deserve the treatment we received from Kathy ** and AAA.

We hired a contractor to repair the damage. However, Kathy ** was giving us road blocks every step of the way. One big issue was the heating (A/C unit). We submitted 4 different contractor quotes for each one stating that the HVAC unit needed to be cleaned and/or replaced, as well as the duct system. Kathy ** refused to take this into consideration during the claim process. She made us take the HVAC system cleaning and duct out of the quote as she would not reimburse us for this. Kathy ** felt it was not necessary. We argued this point for over five weeks. We finally gave up and moved on, because after 6 weeks, we needed to get our house repaired.

8 months later, our HVAC system has failed. We called a repair service Air Repair, and they found grease, dirt, and smoke residue on the inside of the system causing the failure due to the fire in March. We called AAA. Kathy ** explained the situation on December 10, 2009. She sent one of her own A/C repair service people out to inspect as well on December 16, 2009. The tech agreed that the unit was indeed dirty, greasy, and in need of cleaning or replaced due to the fire.

Today is January 4. We still have a heating system that is not functioning properly. 30 days have passed, and the weather is not getting warm anytime soon! We were told today by Kathy ** they would not be fixing the AC heating unit, just as she did 8 months ago. She said our AC Heating unit was in the attic and not affected.

Now, if Kathy ** from AAA had done her job as an agent and inspected our damage, she would have seen our unit is not in the attic but next to the kitchen with one intake vent in the kitchen.

The unit has smoke, grease, and fire damage; and AAA continues to refuse to fix it. I have been paying on my home insurance policy for 10 years. We are entitled to all damage be repaired. Since Kathy ** never stepped foot in our house to inspect the damage, how can she determine what did not need to be repaired? AAA did not do their job neither did Kathy **. They used unfair business practices and processes in handling this claim.

Stacy of Quincy IL (02/04/09)Feb. 09, I called to check on my insurance premium for my home owners policy for 2009. I was told it was going up to 875/yr. This is the 3rd year of this policy- 1st yr-475, 2nd yr-624, 3rd yr- 875. I was told that as of 2-1-09, AAA increased Illinois home owners policies by 18% based on their current credit reports. Now is not the time for companies to adhere to these types of practices. My payment is pulled out of escrow yearly & I was never notified by AAA of the increase. I would not have know until the payment was made & the bank would send me a notice stating my house payment is going up. This is a very unfair practice & very unethical of AAA.It's hard enough to afford my mortgage payment these days without insurance companies pulling this crap. How am I suppose to afford these types of premiums along with yearly property tax increases? I've owned the home for 3 years & I'm not sure how much longer I will last in it with these types of increases.

We have lived in our first home for less than 2 years. Our home was built in 1926 but has been maintained in excellent condition with appropriate upgrades to the roof, electrical wiring, and floor. Our home was inspected upon purchase, and we were told that we have an exceptional home with minimal problems. We were insured by AAA for property insurance, car insurance, and through the CEA Earthquake insurance. We recently experienced several rainstorms in January. The first rain storms were associated with fast/hard winds that caused our phone wires to drop. With the second rains we experienced roof leaks in our second bedroom and kitchen. After filing our claim, a restoration specialist came to our house promptly and performed a thorough interior/exterior inspection. He told me that AAA would cover interior damage, and may cover damage to the roof contingent upon the inspection report of a roof specialist. The same day, shortly after the restoration specialist left, the roof inspector came. He spent minimal time inspecting the interior/exterior, and left my home without communicating to me his conclusions. The restoration specialist told me on the day of inspection that fans needed to be placed in our home ASAP to dry out the walls due to the degree of humidity and the urgency of the issue. After not hearing from anyone by the 3rd day, we called AAA. This was the first time was were introduced to our claim adjuster, Brian. He neglected to contact us to tell us that our claim was denied, and the fans were our responsibility to order and pay. Upon questioning why our claim was denied, we were told that the roof inspector relayed to Brian that leakage was due to lack of maintenance and that the rain gutters were clogged.

We argued the following facts: 1) The night of the leaking, we called an emergency service out to place a tarp on the roof to prevent leaking. They observed proper drainage without obstruction of the gutters; 2) There was no rain on the day of the inspections, and the roof inspector did not test the gutters; 3) Significant wind occurred with the first rain storm, and we have experienced no leakage from any rainstorms prior to the most recent storm when wind had preceded the event. It now has been 3 weeks, and we still are trying to get an answer while our walls continue to maintain humidity, facilitate mold growth, and propogate further structural damage. We have to call AAA daily and get shuffled around without any resolution. Brian has neglected to provide us with any definitive answer as to whether our damage will be covered by AAA and no direction in how to go about resolving the problem. He states that he still is waiting for the roof inspector report...

The consequences economically and structurally remain undetermined.

An arson fire destroyed the inside of our house on April 16, 1997. The contents were severely damaged.

The insurance company denied access to my wife when we were trying to inventory the contents of our house. She arrived at the storage warehouse to finish the inventory and Class A Cleaners (the warehouse operators) told her the insurance company had closed it to her because they were going to do their own inventory.

The insurance company hired people to do the inventory and they mixed up the boxes to the point where we could not do a complete inventory without doing the whole job over. The insurance company has never provided us with a complete inventory from thier records.

The adjustor delivered a final check to the contractor without my authorization. After I had specifically told them in person and in writing that no check was to be issued without my express authorization. They did this with both the contractor and the storage firm.

Our policy has a clause that says I can sue them according to state law. I filed a complaint against them with the Oklahoma State Department of Insurance. I have since found that according to insurance law, I had to sue them within one year of the date of the loss instead of within three years of the date of the loss. The insurer never told me about the provision. Because they issued payment to the builder, I had no leverage to force him to repair items that were poorly done.

The builder's subcontractors installed warped doors, painted hardware on the doors, drew pictures on the wall in the garage, made holes in the walls and ceiieling in the garge to run wiring, left the cold air return vent out of the heating system for the downstairs (which starved my heating system and made our heating and cooling bill go up approximately 20%), installed drywall so poorly that you can see the outline of the ceiling drywall joints and on the walls in several places. I had to sue the builder to recover the cost of repairing the damage. If the insurer had not been so unprofessional, I could have had the work repaired by withholding final payment until it was satisfactory. The heating and air conditioning part will require another law suit to recoup cost of repairing their poor work.

The adjustor come to our house to try to finalize the loss. He insulted my wife, and left without finishing the adjusting because she reacted to him immediately. He then sent a check for the amount he arbitrarily set. Several items were not agreed to by me, and some were not discussed at all. He is offering a final settlement of about $3500. There is about $11,000 to $13,000 left to be settled.

His people estimated a cost of $1 each for Kodak slide tray boxes (the actual cost was between $5 and $6 per box. We feel there were at least twenty boxes of contents that we never inventoried due to the insurance company's interference. They have refused to pay for replacement of items such as drum rack clamps that were custom built to my son's specifications, they have refused to pay for replacement of a custom-built weight lifting rack (they call it homemade). They have refused to pay for electronic equipment that has never been returned to us, or has been damaged by water and smoke. We now have estimates for the repair and replacement. We intend to make one more try before going to arbitration.

The claim is not settled yet. And it has been over two years.

If we had been poor people without funds to weather this situation, I am confident the adjustor would have forced us to lose money on everything and that he would have been a very happy individual. He appears to enjoy making people feel uncomfortable and taking advantage of them. He seems to be very upset because I would not capitulate.

He has had to pay much more that I offered to settle for and it seems to make him harder to deal with. We thought we could trust these people and we feel we have suckers, that we have been tricked, that we have been taken advantage of, and that the insurance company took our money under false pretenses. We thought the purpose of insurance was to make one whole again after the loss, not to browbeat, intimidate and in general harass the insured after the loss.