After a person’s home is damaged, especially by a natural disaster, they’re often eager to get things repaired so they can go back to living in their home. While insurance agencies don’t have the best reputation for keeping a claimant’s best interest at heart, one contractor on TikTok said State Farm is “one of the worst.”
In his viral video, Josh Collins (@oyasumisushi) explains that while he doesn’t personally have State Farm insurance, he’s a contractor for a roofing and siding company that works with weather-damaged homes and sees firsthand how they handle insurance claims.
Collins, who’s based in Indiana, said he’s recently worked with homeowners who were hit by tornadoes and hailstorms. As part of his job, he’d help the homeowners file the claims and get money from insurance companies so he could repair the damage.
“Every single time somebody has State Farm, doesn’t matter if they’re in the direct path of a tornado, they will always argue about what they’re gonna pay for and what they’re not gonna pay,” Collins says. “Every single time.”
@oyasumisushi When someone with state farm asks me “what should I do then”? I always tell them to find better insurance. #insurance #statefarm #roofing ♬ original sound – Oyasumisushi shop
Not only do they argue about what repairs are needed, but they’ll also take months on end to respond and will continually switch insurance adjusters, forcing contractors and homeowners to constantly be bringing a new person up to speed and having to deal with someone who isn’t familiar with the case.
“It’s never consistent and it’s always the biggest headache,” Collins says.
Collins has also noticed one thing State Farm does across homes with roof damage. They’ll get a claim for a damaged roof and will agree to cover most of the roof damage, but will leave out one side of the roof from the repair.
For example, if a roof has four sides, they’ll see that sides A, B, C, and D are damaged, but will leave out side D because it’s “not damaged enough.”
If a homeowner ends up having to pay for even one side of the roof out of pocket, he says, it could run them $2,000 to $10,000.
Collins went on to share a situation in which he was working with a homeowner for about five months who had State Farm insurance. The company he works for fully replaced or repaired the roofs of several of the person’s neighbors and their insurance approved it, but State Farm dragged their feet and several of their adjusters said they’d approve a partial roof repair but claimed one side wasn’t damaged enough.
They ended up getting caught in their own lie after Collins accidentally sent them a mislabeled image and they agreed that the side they initially said wasn’t damaged enough did need a repair. Despite being called out for the blunder, they still refused to pay for the full roof.
“Allstate is pretty bad, right. I’ve run into a lot of issues with Allstate. State Farm though, it’s like the devil himself runs State Farm,” Collins concludes.
The video has more than 420,000 views and about 2,250 comments as of Thursday morning.
“When someone with state farm asks me ‘what should I do then’? I always tell them to find better insurance,” Collins wrote in the caption.
Commenters were divided.
“Maybe if roofers didn’t inflate prices on insurance claims, it wouldn’t be like this,” one person said.
“I have had State Farm for over 15 years. They have always taken good care of me. I’ve had both auto & home/ weather claims. Never a problem,” another wrote.
“Honestly, all insurance (health, home, car) is trash in the US. Idk how it is in other countries,” a commenter added.
The Daily Dot reached out to Collins and State Farm for comment via email.