So Much Fear Around Insurance Claims: Is a rate raise automatic?

[Jonathan Pflueger]

Many believe and advocate that filing a homeowners insurance claim will lead to higher rates, discouraging claims altogether. This subjective and heavily pushed idea seems driven by a real sense of fear. I mean, why pay for a service and not utilize it when you need it? Filing insurance claims is the cost of doing business in real estate and if you can’t afford a rate raise maybe the investment you own is not really a true investment…

What have been your experiences with this? At what cost threshold do you decide to file a claim? If you did file a claim was your insurance automatically raised astronomical amounts?

I have filed multiple claims across several properties and some have more than one claim (all within 1-2 years) and I have not had any rate adjustments. Is my experience normal?