Farmers Insurance

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As the complaints below indicate, Farmers is not always first in line when its policyholders need help. In Texas, a Farmers subsidiary was fined $20,000 for illegally demanding income-tax returns when processing claims.

Jerry of Cleburne, TX July 7, 2008

I have been with Farmers for 32 years and never filed a claim until May 2008. And evidentally that was the wrong thing to do. I waited till I had called a professional roofer and he told me I had a lot of old hail damage on my roof. It is going to cost 4700.00 dollars to fix my roof. The adjuster came and he took pictures all around my house. When he got off my roof he told me I did not have enough damage to even cover my deductible. I told him every roof in the neighborhood has been replaced for damage and how was mine not damaged. He preceded to tell me unforunatlly that his insurance company was not a saveings account for my home. I got upset and called my agent and Mary Ann Landmon my agent told me the same thing. I called my roofer back Dusty Bogart and I got on the roof myself and he showed me the hail damage.

I tried to call my agent Mary Ann Landmon several times after I saw my damage and she was always out of the office or was out of town every time I called and never returned my calls. I called the head office to complain and told them what was going on. I told them to send another adjuster. He came out to my house and after he looked around he said i do not see any hail damage. Then he stared lifting shingles up breaking the glue seal and takeing pictures and said you do have wind damage but we can not pay for the water damage on my sealing.Then he proceeded to tell me your roof is nineteen years old and we are going to give you the benefit of the doubt and depreciate it nineteen years.

I put the roof on in 1998 and they said it was 1989. He got down and wrot me a check for 875.00 dollars.I contacted the main office and asked for the depreciation clause in my policy. Four days later i was sent a cancellation notice in the mail.They said they would no longer cover my house because I had water damage. I paid this policy for 32 Years and I think this is the worst Insurance company in Texas. The damaged occured while my roof was covered. It is old damage and they do not have proof when it happened. It should be paid for.

I payed for this policy in good faith and thought I would be protected. And since this company is not a saveing account for my house I will have to borrow money to fix what is damaged.

Inderjeet Kaur Sandhu of New York, NY June 1, 2008

Insurance of my house in Virginia is paid by my Mortgage company not by me. I had changed my house Insurance from Farmers Insurance Group to other Insurance company and Farmers insuranc Group was notified about the change in January 2008.

My insurance expired with Farmers Insurance group in April 2008, So Farmers Insurance Group owed me refund for four months.Instead of paying me my refund money, i am beeing billed by farmers Insurance Group 99.25. I repeatedly spoken over the phone to Miss Diane and tried to correct their mistake. Farmers Insurance Group did not refund my money.Instead of refunding four months payment to me, my name has been given to credit Collection Services by Farmers Insurance Company. Please look in to this on going problem. Thanks for immediate action.

James of Hesperia, CA April 28, 2008

I repaired a home due to small kitchen fire and Farmers Insurance issued a check made out to the homeowner and Chase Bank. Its been over 45 days since weve completed the project and have not been paid. Ive called Farmers Ins. and Chase Bank and neither will help. Farmers say they have fulfilled their obligation and Chase Bank is just rude and will not answer any questions. The homeowner has not returned any of my phone calls in 3 weeks.

Being a small contractor in these tough times I stand to lose my home and business.

Jacob Gordon Neely of Mcminnvile, OR April 23, 2008

I went to Farmers and inquired about coverage for my property which included my recording studio equipment I use for work. Long story short, I told them very specifically what my needs were, was told what kind of policy I needed to cover my belongings, and purchased it.

Flash forward a year, my house gets burglarized, the bulk of my equipment stolen, and now apparently I have been paying for the wrong coverage and they aren't replacing ANY of the items stolen because I needed a business endorsement to cover the gear stolen. What? Well it only cost a pittance more than I was already paying, so why wasn't I told first of all, and second of all, why am I paying for insurance that doesn't cover me?

I built my studio piece by piece over the course of six years. Finally I had my own business. Now I go back in time six years, get a day job, and start all over again, six years older and way behind schedule.

Alana of Issaquah, WA February 4, 2008

Following a fire loss on May 1, 2006, we met with the agent and Farmers claims adjuster and were given a post fire claims packet. The Farmers adjuster told us he that public disclosure laws stated he had to tell us that we did not have to have him adjust the claim. We thought info on public adjusters came in this packet. But Farmers stated that it didn't. Anyway, a page with a local public adjuster and 2 page list of his clients appeared, and after calling many of the clients and hearing report after report of people who stated they could not repair with like kind and materials from what the insurance company offered, which can be half or less than they have coming, we hired a public adjuster.

The PA said his plans called for a total new roof. The Farmers Large Loss Claims adjuster flew in and collaborated with Belfor Construction Services, with building inspector, and man from an engineering firm, to arrive at a cheapened scope of loss to repair only a smaller grandfathered portion of the roof. The PA stated the insurance company had failed to insure the home 100% to value, and we'd be living in a tent in the backyard by winter. That the living expense fell far short of what we were entitled to during the repair process. He stated it would be necessary to have the home appraised. With this, he stated we were now entitled to the full Loss of Use portion of the policy, for apt rent and rental furniture. Farmers mailed an ACV check to the PA and we endorsed it in his presence.

On Nov. 3, 2006, the Belfor construction company wrote Farmers that they were in possession of this check, and cited the check number. They did not begin work or even tarp the fire loss as promised that year, or the entire next year. In the early part of the year they said they'd never been paid and placed a lien against the home which remained till Nov. 2007.

Recently Blue lake Builders told us the entire roof, not the grandfathered portion Farmers wanted to repair, none of which is repaired, is stressed and visibly sagging. We are left with an expensive set of Farmers cheap and manipulated plans, that it took two engineering companies to come up with. When we tried to repair the home with them using like kind and materials as the Farmers policy promises, this was not possible. The plans call for various synthetic materials, we'd not okayed for our historic home on the Register of Historic Places in our city. We were given the insurance file based on public disclosure laws and were amazed to see these guys thanking each other in emails for this collaboration to cheapen the repairs.

We've contacted the insurance commission twice but this has not proved successful. Farmers writes letters stating that the public adjuster and themselves have resolved all differences. This is the PA we paid 10% of the structure settlement to help us after the loss, and whose building plans Farmers overturned. They state numbers on paper regarding the house contents that they state they have paid out dollar amounts, such as 65,000.00 for Service masters cleaning and transporting to their warehouse, where they held contents which amounted to 5/6 of house contents. This was boxed or packaged at times while still damp and boxed or wrapped in plastic, so that it molded in storage, and we could not been able to have it serviced, such as photo or art work restoration. Our public adjuster fired the Service masters and told them NOT to clean, because he heard them state they would clean items that could not be cleaned. The historic cottage has now had four different engineers, but to date the roof has not been repaired. The homes 100,000 in original lathe and three coat Venetian lime plaster was gutted by Belfor Construction company and we did not want it replaced with blueboard. So to date this also is unrepaired. The additional water damage the Farmers coalition has helped to cause has also damaged first growth fir floors.

We told Farmers they sold us a policy which could not repair the home with like kind and materials as promised and that the two years of insurance company fraud has caused our family much pain, injury and suffering. The house that plays a vital role in the community, and has been listed on tours and such, but we have not been able to be the host for these celebrations, which are educational for tourists, locals and especially school children. As an artist, I have spent hundreds of hours typing letters to the insurance company and others, conducting inventory, doing research on smoke and fire damage, instead of painting as I once did before the fire. My husband has had to do work that the construction company failed to do. We aren't quite sure why the insurance company has behaved this way. Little rascals that they are, it's not that they haven't done anything nice, but for all practical purposes, it seems their intent was to bring the house down, and not to rebuild it. It's in far worse shape now after two years of Farmers intervention, than it was following the fire loss.

Barbara of Afton, TN December 11, 2007

I canceled my umbrella policy and all my insurance with Farmers as it was triple the price of other insurance. My problem is with Danny Shaw as I canceled in January in writing as requested. I did this 2 times and never got a refund of 9 months of the premiums. I have now called and written many times. He and his wife told me it was taken care of. I've never gotten my refund. They are hardly ever in the office, and when they are they selectively screen their calls. So most of the time you must go down there. I would like to receive my refund as it has been 11 mos. now, with one excuse after another. Their answer is that the company has not sent it, and they are still waiting. Because of them I had to go 30 miles to get insurance from an honest agent. They also owe me for another refund on mobile home insurance that I bought from them.

My insurance tripled right after my husband died 6 years ago. I did have a water claim, but my insurance sky rocketed then. They basically stole my refund. I think I've waited long enough. 

Alexis of Atlanta, GA October 3, 2007

I had a house fire on 1/27/2007- I contacted Farmers Insurance the next day. I was given guidelines for submitting claims and thats when I began to get the run a round. First I was told that I must make contact with 2 different adjusters. I made contact with a structure person and a contents person. The structure person came out on Feb 28,07 and I was issued my first check for the rebuilding of my home in late March. I understood because there were investigations (Farmers) and contractor bids to be accepted. I was told that my coverage did include a place to rent while my primary was being completed. I did get compensation after two to three weeks for that. I had contacted the contents person at the same time Jan 28. I waited until April for a partial check (1/10). I was told since all of my files had burned with ALL th rest of my contents that I would have to take depreciation cost instead of actual cash value (I paid for enhancement with Homeowners policy).I made my third submission on July 16,2007, I am still waiting today Oct 3,get a check finally in

I work from home using telephone services and computer etc. I waited so long for my contents that I lost 3 months pay aprox another 6,000.00

Carl of Suffolk, VA September 25, 2007

While waiting for the fire department to arrive. I used 3 of my fire extinguishers worth a total of 50 to try and put out a fire on my neighbors deck. The flames were 4 ft high and about 5 ft from the house before I used the fire extinguishers. My neighbor who has Farmers Insurance tried to include my fire extinguishers in his claim but they refused to cover them. I e-mailed Farmers 4 days ago and have not heard from them. To me its the more the principle of the thing than the money. If I had not used my fire extinguishers the flames might have reached the house and the amount of the claim would have been much higher.

Nakia of Spring, TX July 2, 2007

Someone broke into my home on 4/24/07 and i filed my claim on 4/25/07 with my homeowners insurance. Since then my claim has been reassigned i have done recorded investigation in which i was asked personal questions regarding my criminal history, items on my credit report etc. On 5/25/07 i had to do an INTERROGATION under oath in which i was interrogated for 6 1/2 hrs. I was questioned about credit, background employement history. it was the worst experience in my life.

On 6/29/07 i recieved a package from this attorney requesting bank statement from 2006, phone records from 2006 authotization to release payment history from previos and past employment, authorization to diffent creditors to release information on my credit report, autorizion to release tax information on my home, authorization to release loan info on my vehicle from 2006-present, copy of my work calendar for the month of april authorization to release my electric and water records. authorization to release my parking garage pass card records for work. This has been a complete nightmare, and has literally made me sick Farmers insurance is making me feel like a criminal.

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