I had a roof leak, and the only smart thing to do was re-roof. I thought about metal, but I have a lot of trees close to the house, and our bedroom is right under the roof, no floor to cut down on the noise of heavy rain on it. So we went with 30 year architectual shingles.
My installer made his estimate for the roof, and also he arranged for the work inside to be done. I filed with the insurance company (Concord Group= great service.) They paid for a company to come in and assess the amount of water damage, who removed damaged sheetrock and paneling that would have mildewed due to its saturated nature. My estimate for the interior work included redoing one wall, the entire dining room ceiling (ceiling tiles of three different widths no longer in production) with sheetrock, and painting the dining room. All told was over $3000. The roofer, in his estimate attributed approximately ten percent of the roof area would have had to have been replaced to repair the damage, and the company also paid me over $1100. Total claim was over $4000 less my $1000 deductible, all with no hassle, and I renewed this summer with no problem.
Diver1111, first I am sorry for your loss, and in my prior life I was a personal lines underwriter for a P & C company. I suspect the main reason the policy on your parent's home was cancelled was not because of the claim, but rather the house was unoccupied and the claim brought this information to the attention of the company. Those are tough (really, underwriters do have a heart, contrary to popular opinion) decisions to make, because in most states, you can only cancel a policy at the renewal date, and with a specific number of days notice. To continue a homeowner policy beyond a renewal, when the home is unoccupied, would cause the insurance company to violate at least one condition of issuing a homeowner policy, that being issuing it on a dwelling that is not owner occupied.
One thing that I (we) always looked at in evaluating claims was asking the question: Is the homeowner using the policy as a maintenance contract, that is making a bunch of small claims. If the answer was yes, it was good bye to that claim. We had numerous occasions where an insured would have a total fire loss, hundreds of thousands of dollars, and we would write the new policy. Why? Because the insured had a good record and the only loss was catastrophic.
From my end, if you have a loss and feel you need to file a claim, make sure it is substantial and that you are not appearing to be rebuilding your home a room at a time
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