Sixteen feet of fence, one dented gutter and one tree crew came to $1,960. Our deductible was $1,000. On paper that looks like a claim worth filing, and the day after the storm I called our Allstate agent fully expecting to file one.
The first question was "What's the total, roughly?" I said maybe two thousand. What followed was a careful, unhurried explanation of how our particular policy would treat a limb on a fence, and by the end of the call I had a pretty good idea we wouldn't be filing. Now the receipts are all in, and the number held.
What the damage cost
- Tree service: $950 to lower the limb, cut it back cleanly and haul it away, done on Friday, July 18.
- Gutter repair: $340 for the dented section on the back of the house, fixed on Wednesday.
- Fence materials: $670 for two 8-foot stockade panels, posts, concrete and hardware. Nate and our neighbor Sal did the work themselves last weekend, so there was no labor bill.
Our homeowners policy has been with Allstate since we bought the house in June 2019. The deductible is $1,000, and this year's premium is $1,684.
What our agent told us about our policy
I want to be careful here, because this is what we were told about our own policy, with our insurer, in our state. Yours could work very differently. But here's roughly how it was explained to me.
First, the deductible comes off the top. With $1,960 in damage and a $1,000 deductible, the most we could ever have received was $960.
Second, not all of the $1,960 would necessarily count. On our policy, removing a fallen tree or limb is covered only in certain situations and has its own limit, separate from the fence and the gutter, and labor we did ourselves isn't treated like a contractor's invoice. Put together, the net payout after the deductible and those limits would have been under $1,000 no matter what, and possibly well short of the $960 ceiling. Nobody could give me an exact figure without opening a claim.
Third, and this was the part I hadn't thought about at all: our premium currently includes a claims-free credit. A claim, even a small paid one, could cost us that credit at renewal. Claims are also recorded in a shared history that other insurers check when you shop for a new policy, so a small claim can follow a house for years. The agent couldn't promise what a claim would do to our premium, only that it wouldn't help.
The way it was put to me: insurance is for the things you can't absorb. A $1,960 surprise hurts, but we could absorb it.
How we decided
Nate and I sat on the porch Tuesday night with the notebook and wrote it out in two columns. On one side, a payout of somewhere under $960. On the other, the chance of a higher premium for a few renewals, plus a claim already on our record if something truly big ever happens, like a tree through the roof instead of the fence.
We paid it ourselves, out of the savings account we call the house fund. It took a real bite out of it. But the math, as well as we could do it with what we knew, pointed one way.
I'm not saying this is the right call for anyone else. A bigger loss, a different deductible or a different policy could change the whole picture. What I'd repeat is the order we did things in: get the real numbers first, then call your own agent and ask how your specific policy handles it before deciding anything.
What I'm doing differently
This whole thing made me read our declarations page for the first time since closing. I found our dwelling coverage ($412,000) and our deductible, and realized I didn't really understand either one. I'd been treating homeowners insurance like a utility bill: it arrives, we pay it.
Our renewal comes up November 1. This year I'm going to read it before I pay it, and I've started a list of questions in the back of the garden notebook, between the tomato log and the bean count. I also kept every photo and receipt from the storm in one folder, in case anything else turns up later.
Out back, the new section of fence is the color of a manila folder next to the old gray boards. Sal says two winters and you won't be able to tell the difference. The hardware cloth is pinned back down along all 40 feet, and Gus has gone back to eating clover two doors down, which is all I really wanted from this week.
