Orwellian

In May a satellite flew over our house and took photos.  On 11 June we received a notice – with photos above and below – that our homeowners insurance would be cancelled, due to a “safety hazard on your property…[which] increases the chance for injury or damage to your property.”  I contacted our broker and inquired whether some “Desk Sergeant” had scanned the photos and made such a call?

The Broker wrote back, “As for a live officer in the back, I would assume it’s more akin to a machine learning/AI algorithm scanning pictures and flagging unusual things, although that is pure speculation on my part.  To the best of my knowledge, the only issue is the gravel at the end of the driveway, confirmed. I had to speak with an underwriter at Nationwide yesterday to even ascertain what the problem was.”  

We were told we had until 30 August to cure the problem, but in late June we received notice, and were given 22 July as a cease and desist date.

We recently visited family in Western Massachusetts, and standing upon their driveway, we talked about the asphalt.  One section is newer, another older, with swales and cracks.  “My Homeowner’s Policy has been cancelled” she said, “because of . . . picky stuff like these cracks.  The company cited a number of issues, but all of them were picky…”  An agent had walked the property looking for issues, which found, then moved her into the high-risk pool, at a substantial cost increase.   

In the 10-year period from 2014 to 2023 extreme weather has caused disaster events at a cost of $183 Billion Dollars.  The underwriters’ rational self-interest – unlike a good neighbor – argues they cut losses by moving homeowners out of their coverage into the high-risk pool.  Gravel at the end of our driveway put us in that category.  Caveat emptor.  

Thankfully I work in the trades, and our friend Jim has spent decades doing site work, building roads deep in the Maine Woods for loggers.  In fact, Jim is both the solution and cause of our problem, having dumped – at my request – the gravel here in our yard, left overs from a tiny house job we did together.  We need to expand our driveway, and free material helps.

Time now is of the essence, and given the heavy equipment this is a mere trifle.  Jim has arrived and we have removed 9 cubic yards of rubble, 3 cubic yards of tree stumps. We will remove approximately 15 tons of soil, and then move the gravel into that space.

Our soil is infested with knotweed, the highly invasive plant, and very few dumps will take soil with knotweed. I found one yard which will incinerate it, at a very high cost of $145 per ton. I will not be sneaky and lie. So we hauled 4 tons off, and will spread the rest in our side yard, then plant grass seed. A compromise lower cost solution.

We will meet the deadline. We will then give notice we are changing carriers, having improved our coverage at no additional cost.  A larger parking area makes sense as my daughter will soon get her driver’s license. My son this week had a summer camp of site work with heavy equipment.  So life goes restoring a 200-year old New England farmhouse