My former carrier sent a notice of non-renewal so I went shopping for homeowner's.
Among the quotes I got was from State Farm who I currently have my auto policies with. I got the quote last Wednesday 2/27, as it happened I discovered they were going to cease writing homeowner's policies in Florida as of close of business Friday 2/29. They said if I wanted to go with them they had to get it in by close of business Friday.
They at first quoted me a rate that was on the high end, but later on the phone the agent quoted a rate that was substantially lower, by about $500. Obviously I wondered why the difference. She attributed it to "the way their quoting system works" implying that quotes sometimes are higher than what the policy comes in at due to some quirk.
I told her I'd evaluate all the quotes and various elements and call her by Friday noon. The amount she quoted was lower than any other quote I got so I called her and told her to go ahead.
I got the binder in the mail on Monday with the same amount she had quoted me so I figured I'm all set.
Not so fast. I called today just to see if they needed contact information for my Mortgage Co. to send proof of insurance, but she asked me if I was calling about the policy difference. I had no idea what she was talking about. She said when I got my policy from corporate it would be around $1500 rather than the $978 she quoted me and which the binder I got reflected. The reason is she quoted based on having a hip roof. At the time she asked me about this I advised I don't have a hip roof if my understanding is accurate of what a hip roof is - where the roof sits on the house like a hat and ledge runs around horizontally with no upward angles. AFAIK mine is a gable roof
- it has points where the roof is shaped like an "A". This is what I told her to begin with and when I described it she agreed I had a gable roof. When she came back with the lower quote, at no time did she advise me it was due to quoting for a hip roof.
She said after looking at pictures, she thought it would qualify as a "partial hip"roof and said she's still trying to get corporate to give me "somewhat of a discount".
This is the roof in question:
Since the binder reflects the amended amount she quoted me over the phone, do I have any basis to hold the company to this since the lower quote was based on the information this agent submitted?
Thanks for all input