Your home insurance policy is a financial safety net should something happen to your home or personal property. But what happens if your home insurance carrier notifies you that your policy is being canceled? Don’t panic and get moving. Let’s review why your home insurance policy gets canceled and what to do next.
What Does it Mean if My Home Insurance Policy Gets Canceled?
A canceled home insurance policy means the insurance carrier opted to terminate your home insurance coverage before the expiration date on your policy.
Why Did My Home Insurance Carrier Cancel My Policy?
The two most common reasons why a home insurance policy may be canceled: the carrier suspects fraud or the premium wasn’t paid. A policy can also be canceled (or non-renewed) because:
- Aggressive dog breed
- Coverage is no longer available in your area (Most likely to happen with a non-renewed policy)
- Criminal record
- New trampoline or pool
- Poor credit score
- Too many claims
- Vacant property
Keep in mind, insurance carriers use risk assessment when determining not only the cost of insuring you but the risk of insuring you. If you’ve filed too many claims, you’re considered high-risk to the insurance carrier therefore they’ll either raise your premium or opt to not insure you entirely. The same logic applies to someone with less than stellar credit. Remember, insurance is all about risk. High risk = high premium, and vice versa. Or in the case of a policy cancelation, too high of a risk to insure, if that’s the case.
What’s The Difference Between a Non-Renew and a Canceled Insurance Policy?
A canceled policy means the insurance carrier terminated the policy before the policy’s expiration date. A non-renewed policy means the insurance carrier has decided to not renew your home insurance policy after the policy’s expiration date. This could be because the carrier no longer covers your area, or insuring your home no longer meets its underwriting requirements. But both result in the same outcome: you need new coverage.
It’s important to remember that an insurance carrier outright canceling you in the middle of your policy outside of fraud or non-payment is rare. If you lie on your insurance application to get more coverage for home or personal property that’s not valued as high or make fraudulent claims- all of these things are considered insurance fraud therefore could result in a canceled policy. Basically, if you lie at all on your home insurance application that’s grounds for an insurance carrier to cancel your policy.
TGSI Tidbit: Your insurance carrier has to give you notice of up to 20 days for a canceled policy, and 45 days for a non-renewal.
What Do I Do If My Homeowners Insurance Policy Gets Canceled?
Whether you receive a non-renew or cancelation notice, you need to act quickly.
- First, contact your insurance carrier immediately. It could be a simple mistake that can be resolved quickly. Ex. non-payment.
- If you’re no longer living in your home, you may be able to purchase a landlord insurance policy to keep coverage.
- You may be able to remedy the reason for a non-renewal and keep your policy. Ex. your insurance carrier wants you to add a fence to your new pool to keep attractive nuisances out.
If your insurance carrier doesn’t offer you any options to keep your policy, it’s important to shop around and get a policy in place quickly. If your policy is canceled or non-renewed, the clock is ticking because most mortgages are tied to insurance coverage. And if your lender sees you don’t have insurance coverage, that’s considered a violation of your mortgage contract, and depending on the terms of your policy, you may face immediate foreclosure or default on your loan.
Shop For Home Insurance With TGS Insurance
At TGS Insurance, we make getting home insurance coverage easy and can find an insurance policy for just about any situation. We shop every customer’s homeowners insurance policy through our bank of 35+ A-rated (or better) carriers to get the most affordable coverage the market has to offer.
We don’t just stop at a great home insurance policy. We’ll monitor your policy year after year to ensure you’re always getting the best coverage available. If you receive a non-renew or cancelation notice, we’ll get notified too and our agents will immediately shop and find you a new policy. At TGS Insurance, we take the headache out of homeowners insurance for a seamless, stress-free experience!
Get your hassle-free quote today and see why over 15,000 Texans trust TGS Insurance with all of their home insurance needs. All we need is your address, no gimmicks, or lead traps, to give you a real, bindable home insurance quote in just 15 seconds or less.