Is this insurance company inspection legit?

I have never heard of an insurance company doing an inspection of a house. This sounds like one of those routine things no one has ever heard of a la Air America. Sounds like a setup to me.

The question is, Is there any clause in your home owner's policy that requires you to do this? I've lived in my house for 8 years and had 2 claims, one over 5K... never been axed for an inspection. Sounds fishy...

it's becoming more common. they have been known to cancel based on old plumbing..etc

I've been with them for over 3 years, no claims. Should I be worried? Probably. If you haven't had any claims, that means you haven't given them any reason to increase your rates, which means you're a deadbeat. Kind of like credit card companies getting rid of customers who always pay their bills on time. Unless you've got some clause in your contract, I wouldn't let them in. No good can come of this.

Seems a bit strange to me as well. I think I would just call your insurance agent and find out what the deal is.

In South Africa it is not uncommon for such inspections. In part, they want to make sure you're not under insured, perhaps also over insured. But here, they have fabulous insurance that even covers accidental damage to important things like computers and other electroncis. Yet, my current insurer required no inspection, and wasn't even interested when I semi-requested it (I was answering questions about things I was uncertain). Mind, I only get renters insurance, I move too often to own, and owning wasn't an option here for a couple reasons (like, 50% down for foreignors and a high rand against a low dollar).

When I worked for an insurance company in college, it was quite common for the underwriting department to send an inspector out to older homes to take pictures of the roof, dwelling, etc. This was pretty common and triggered by the underwriting system when the policy was getting ready to renew. Usually, nothing came of them. Sometimes, though, the inspectors found things that hadn't been disclosed when the policy was written, like swimming pools without fences, certain breeds of "dangerous dogs", and unoccupied residences. At this particular company, it was common and usually didn't result in anything but a note on their files that said something like "dwelling as insured reported". I would guess that the inspection clause is somewhere in the wording of your original policy.

Mine did an inspection when I moved in and gave me a list of stuff to fix. When my sister refinanced her house, they came by to do an inspection. At least in the New England area, it seems fairly routine. Mostly they are looking for fire hazards, unsafe things that could hurt people [stair railings, rotten porches], and structural stuff like checking the roof and foundation. My understanding of this based on my limited experience is that they are making sure you haven't changed your house in a way that makes it unsafe, and that the place is still holding up pretty well. I had to fix some minor stuff on my place [cut down grass near barn, install stair railing, get another fire extinguisher] and my sister needed to replace some rotting porch wood in a specified amount of time [six months? somethign pretty reasonable] and that was it.

Mine (Nationwide) just came by to do an inspection about 6 months ago. I have lived in the house since 1997 and have been with them the entire time -- this was the first time they did it. They did not ask for access inside the house nor did they tell me when they were going to do it, just that they planned to do it and then they left a note saying they'd stopped by the day it happened. I was kind of a bit creeped out by it as well -- but since I didn't have to physically do anything, I ignored it (was very busy at work at the time). No recommendations were made, my premium did not change. So, not really sure what happened. maybe I keep my house in decent enough shape?