The price of coverage is continuing to rise, while coverage grows ever smaller.
According to Consumer Reports, the premiums for homeowners insurance are on the rise, showing no indication of stopping in the near future, but at the same time, the coverage being offered is maintaining its slow degradation.
Many people are wondering how protected they will be if disaster actually strikes.
The Consumer Reports data says that there is a notable discrepancy between the coverage that an insurer provides and what consumers 
are expecting from their homeowners insurance. However, The National Research Center for that organization also says that this trend is not abnormal, and that it has been the case for many years. Its study was based on the responses of over 11,000 subscribers who have made claims on their policies within the last few years.
Typically, the larger the homeowners insurance claim, the less the insurer met expectations.
Amanda Walker from Consumer Reports explained that “We found for large claims — when the damage was $25,000 or more — 19% of the people we polled did not agree with the amount their insurers wanted to pay.”
Among the insurers that received the lowest ratings in this sense are some of the companies that are the largest in the country, such as Allstate and Farmers Insurance. Walker went on to explain that while the aforementioned situation was true, “we also found most people were very satisfied with their insurer.”
Equally, there were some homeowners insurance companies that received top marks from the Consumer Reports survey. These were USAA and Amica. The former of those insurers is one that serves families linked to the military in some way, for the most part.
Walker stated that if a customer has a large homeowners insurance claim and is not satisfied with the size of the payment that the insurer is offering, it may be worthwhile to attempt to dispute it. On average, the people who participated in the survey and who disputed large claims received an additional $6,000 over those who did not take that extra step.
When a homeowners insurance claim is being disputed, there are three primary steps to be taken. The first is to request the opportunity for a line by line review of the estimate. The second is to request the specific language of the contract, if the customer has been informed that a certain type of damage is not covered, and finally, a public adjuster can be contacted.
