Imagine that you are mowing the lawn, and your lawn mower pitches a stone into one of your windows, cracking the glass. So you put a little piece of wood in front of the glass to cover the breakage, and go back about your business. You'll get the window fixed later.

One week later, you receive a letter from your homeowner's insurance carrier, stating that your coverage is going to be dropped. The letter cites your unkempt landscape and the boarded up window as the reasons for your loss of coverage.

Don't laugh, this could happen to you!

According to a report from ABC7.com News, that is almost exactly what has happened to one homeowner in Florida.The difference between that story and my hypothetical one is that it was a golf ball which cracked that homeowner's window. The story indicates that the home in question is well kept, and that the homeowner hasn't filed a loss claim in 20 years.


What's even worse, is that the insurance company, First Home Insurance, is apparently unwilling to discuss the matter. The homeowner, Deborah Kearney of Cape Coral, is quoted by the article as stating: "They were flat out refusing, really to even speak to me or give me any more information than what was on (the letter of termination of coverage)."

I'm curious to know how the insurance carrier even knew about the cracked window so quickly. Does it send out people to prowl around its insured properties on a weekly basis? If so, that's one awful paranoid insurance carrier, if you ask me.

The only time I myself ever had to file a damage claim with my homeowner's insurance carrier, It went just the way it's supposed to. My agent, who was a good neighbor, came around to view the damage that a fallen willow tree had done to my fence. I obtained one estimate, from the company which installed the fence, to repair the damage. I sent the estimate to my agent, and in a couple days I had a check. Additionally, my insurance premium never increased one tiny bit.

I guess they do homeowner's insurance just a little bit different in Florida.