How A Phone Call Can Get You Dropped From Your Insurance Company

Having homeowners insurance should make you feel secure – but sometimes houses aren't actually very safe. External dangers in the form of climate change, weather disaster, and intentional, violent crime have always posed questions of potential claim denial under standard coverage. But could a call that could cancel your homeowners insurance be coming from inside the house?

The grim, chilling, and incredibly brief answer is: yes. Making a phone call to your homeowners insurance provider can not only result in losing your current homeowners insurance, but also make other potential providers shun you in the future. In a world where unprecedented extreme weather events are becoming increasingly common, where homes and businesses are in a heightened state of peril regarding unpaid insurance claims or underinsured coverage, the potential of losing homeowners insurance for asking coverage questions seems outright cruel. However, just like expensive-to-battle wildfires, the loss is possible — and possibly probable.

Asking a simple question about what is or is not covered by your homeowners insurance to the wrong person at your provider (or honestly, even the right person) can make you essentially uninsurable. The reasons why are incredibly unfair and deeply alarming, but good to know — so you don't fall prey to this facet of the zero-paid claim game any time soon.

Consider the last time a terrible storm hit your home or the most recent leak that sprung in your basement. Maybe there's a weird water spot forming on your wall, or something funky is going on under the half-finished basement's carpeting. Whatever your home and whatever your home-related worry might be, it's perfectly understandable that you might want to reach out to your homeowners insurance provider right way to check if something is covered.

Homeowners insurance is expensive and sometimes difficult to attain for new homeowners, let alone longstanding homeowners and renters. It's so essential, that homeowners insurance absolutely affects the housing market. So it only makes sense that investors in said homes and purchasers of said insurance might have questions for their service providers. However, these innocent communications, as well as urgent ones, could cost homeowners a world of pain.

One phone call to your homeowners insurance provider could result in a claim on your file, even if you aren't calling to file a claim. Sometimes, a claim inquiry kickstarts the claim process. Even if an official claim is not requested, and no money is paid out for this non-claim, the inquiry call can be logged as a claim by an insurance adjuster. Too many claims on your contract can mean already-pricey premiums could go up, make your insurer cease service, and can shut you out from other providers.

In 2025, Joe Rosso from Prairieville, Louisiana, appeared on a local news program to warn others against making his own mistakes. Rosso has owned the same home for over 35 years. In a segment of WBRZ Channel 2's "2 On Your Side," Rosso says that a call he made directly to his insurance carrier in 2023 to ask if a ceiling water leak might be covered by insurance ultimately made him uninsurable, except for a pricey last-resort carrier. His ceiling leak call was logged as a claim, and he was quoted with the price of repair. 

Rosso told the carrier he didn't want to file a claim, and forgot about the issue until years later, when he was shopping for new insurance after his long-time provider planned to leave the state. He found he could not get anyone carrier to cover him, due to the fact that multiple claims were on his file, with two within the same year. 

Two covered and paid flooding claims had been paid out to him over his home ownership, but the call about the ceiling leak was also logged as a claim on the C.L.U.E. database, referenced by insurance companies: the Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange. Rosso advises homeowners speak only to their insurance agent about general questions to avoid accidentally initiating claims. "Just be sure you know what you're doing," Rosso urges on the segment. Review your insurance policy to determine if you have enough homeowners insurance and understand your own coverage before picking up the phone, consider if you can handle the cost of repairs on your own, before a phone call could end up costing you, big time.