GREENVILLE, S.C. (FOX Carolina) -An insurance company is now reversing a decision to cancel a woman’s homeowner’s policy after she brought her concerns to FOX Carolina Investigates.
Laura Morris said she got a letter back in October saying her homeowner’s insurance would be abruptly canceled within months. The letter came not long after Hurricane Helene tore through parts of Greenville. Morris considers herself one of the lucky ones following the aftermath of Helene. Her home was mostly spared by the powerful storm but in the weeks that followed, she has been weathering a different storm– the fight to keep her homeowner’s insurance. Morris has lived in her Greenville home for close to a decade and she has had the same insurance policy through Safeco the entire time. She says she has only filed one claim with the policy when a tree came down in her backyard back in 2020 but she reached out to the company after Helene blew through to ask some questions about some electrical damage at the home. She never ended up filing a claim from the storm but was caught off guard when the letter showed up at her door telling her she was being dropped.
“Oh yeah, I didn’t expect it at all,” said Morris. “I actually put the envelope on my side table and thought oh I’ll open that later. It looked like nothing at all. And I thought, ‘nope this is just nothing’ and it took me a week to even open it.”
When she finally did open the letter, Morris says she was shocked.
“They were canceling the insurance on my house,” said Morris. “They gave me no reasons. They just said as of January 19th, which was eight years after I started the policy after buying my house, they were suddenly canceling it with no warning, no reason, no anything.”
Morris says it wasn’t until she reached out to the company that she got any answers about why her policy was being terminated. In an additional letter, the company explained they were choosing to cancel the policy for what they say are issues with debris and mildew on the roof and tree branches hanging over the home. The company also attached Google images to the report, citing them in their decision to cancel the policy. Morris had concerns about the images used in the report because they appear to be dated from September 2024, January 2024 and August 2022 for a policy decision that was made in October 2024.
“I suddenly thought well, what is the reason for this or kind of where do you get off,” said Morris. “Like, what’s the reason and why are you suddenly doing this now beyond the hurricane?”
FOX Carolina Investigates reviewed the inspection report from Safeco and, according to their own document, it appears the inspection of the property did not even happen until after the cancellation decision was already made. The letter about the cancellation was sent to Morris on October 16, 2024 but the inspection was not completed until October 29, 2024– more than a week later.
“Oh it was totally suspicious. Suddenly, right after a hurricane where a lot of trees fell in Greenville, but not at my house, they suddenly canceled the policy over what might happen,” said Morris. “They’re not saying that, of course, but it just seems really fishy.”
FOX Carolina Investigates reached out to Safeco to ask direct questions about the timing of the decision and the inspection, as well as the old Google images cited in the report. FOX Carolina Investigates also questioned the company about what was being done to help Morris find a policy with a different insurer, which is something the company said it would do in the letter they sent to Morris. The homeowner said not only did they not help her find a new policy with a different insurer, but she says the company never reached out to her at all except for the initial cancellation notice and the response to her e-mail about the decision.
“I’ve never heard a word from them at all,” said Morris. “I’ve never received an email. I’ve never received a phone call. This is the only information I’ve received.”
After FOX Carolina Investigates started asking questions, a spokesman for the company responded with an e-mail saying they could not comment on a specific policy but that they had made the decision to reverse the cancellation.
The homeowner says even after FOX Carolina was told the cancellation was rescinded, she was never notified about the decision. It wasn’t until FOX Carolina reached back out to the company asking when the homeowner would be notified that she received a notification e-mail. Morris says based on how this situation was handled, she is not sure if she will stay with the same insurance company and is already shopping around for coverage from a different company.
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