'We do not have insurance. We have an insurance bill': Condos hit with 563% rate increase

[CaptainTruth]

16. Our homeowner's insurance situation is similar to yours, but our insurance company went bankrupt last year.

I paid cash for my house, so no mortgage. After our insurer went bankrupt & was taken over by the state I gave up, we don't have homeowner's insurance.

We paid our insurer about $50,000 in premiums over 10 years, with no claims. I'm a contractor so I could do a LOT with $50k. I would have been much better off if I had invested that money with a 30%-40% return (that's my minimum target range).

Insurance is just not worth it. I have SO many customers I work for who have had their claims denied by insurance. One customer had a new roof installed a few years ago (50 year roofing) & the combination of Nicole & Ian last year tore off a bunch of their ridge caps, at least a few hundred feet. The insurance company sent out an inspector, who agreed the damage was due to the hurricanes, but the company refused to pay for repairs. So, WTF are the homeowners paying for???

In another recent case a customer had hail damage to their roof. Their insurance company sent an inspector who documented the damage & agreed the roof needed to be replaced. Their insurance company agreed & paid for replacement of the roof.

HOWEVER, one thing that most homeowners don't seem to realize is that even if their insurance company honors a claim & pays for repair work, 99% of the time (in my experience) they HAVE to use the "contractor" the insurance company specifies & it will be the worst lame-ass low-quality cheapest "contractor" the insurance company can find. The work will be crap.

In this case the insurance company's lowest-bid "contractor" removed the roof the day before a major storm was expected & did a half-assed job tarping the roof. When the storm came, water poured into their house. Drywall fell off the ceiling. All their fabric furniture was soaked & ruined. Their beautiful hardwood floors, which were just a few years old, were ruined & had to be torn out. And of course, they couldn't live in their house for weeks.

But oh yea... "The insurance company honored the claim!" Please, freaking spare me!!! As a contractor who bases my business reputation on high-quality work, it truly pains me to see crap work in the field & I have yet to see any "insurance company work" that I would accept on my own home, or my customers' homes. None of it meets my standards of quality... so WTF are they (& I) paying for???