All it takes is one claim.

We had an issue where our chimney was leaking water into our home inside the sheet rock. Didn't realize it until we got home for a holiday vacation.

called USAA and they came out and inspected it. While looking at the leak they noticed the window was warped and the hard wood floor had some water damage. Both were there when we purchased the home and were not part of this issue (unless it was done when the previous owner had it and tried to cover up the original issue).

Either way they said they would replace both the floor and windows. The hard woods needed to be refinished and the grain all ran the same way so they had to do the entire level (2800 SQ Ft). And the windows could not be matched so they replaced all the windows in that room to match up. All the trim around the windows is a custom 4 level trim finish that needed to be replaced.

With the floors being refinished we had to move the entire level of the house out and be out of the home for 10 days. So they paid for movers to move all our stuff from the main level to the basement.

Because we were out of the house for so long in the summer we asked if they would pay for a hotel in FL instead of Bama and they said sure as long as it's the same costs per night. So they paid for half our FL vacation and to kennel our pet for the same time.

All in all, the costs to replace the floors and windows and complete the project was about $40K. If they just replaced the leak..$2K. My premiums didn't go up $1.

I spoke with a guy in our ward who works as a claim agent for another large, popular insurance company. He said not only would they have not covered the floors and window they would have challenged the issue was pre-existing and not covered anything.