Universal Property & Casualty Insurance Reviews 

I have had two run-ins with this company and I wish I could give them negative stars. After making my first insurance claim, I learned that UP&C only had my 2nd Floor fully insured and counted my first floor as an unfinished basement. It has a bedroom and a bonus room. It is not an unfinished basement.

When the flood happened, it was right before the pandemic. By the time the water damage was dried out and removed, we were in the full swing of the pandemic. I was told that because the company made their determination before the pandemic, they were not responsible for the increase of material prices, regardless of the timeline or circumstances. Leaving me enough to do maybe half the work that needed to be done. The rest was up to me to figure out. Never received a check for lost or damaged personal property or the cost of storing salvaged items while doing the repair work, either. Not to mention, it took from January to May for them to agree to put me in a habital dwelling.

Fast forward to another water issue two years later. (I honestly don't know why I haven't already changed companies. There won't be a third time.) I have called several times, checked the client portal, and emailed. No real help or information from anyone. All I'm told is that they're working on a determination and that someone will be in touch.

Here it is a month and a half later and I receive a letter stating that they're closing the claim because I have not responded to their "repeated attempts to contact" me. Seriously??

I am well aware that no one had a contingency plan in place for a pandemic. However, I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one to suffer being completely mishandled by this company.

Please look for better options before you do business with this Universal Property and Casualty. After two unfortunate happenings, I'm not waiting for the third time to be the charm.

UPDATE: I emailed the company from my email address attached to my claim only to find my email address blocked. I then emailed the requested information from a secondary email address. To date, I have yet to be contacted about the findings of their research. I stand by my previous statement. Go with another company, even if you have to pay a little more. The headaches that come with this company aren't worth the hassle.

UPDATE 2: So, after going back and forth with them supposedly trying to work with me towards a satisfactory conclusion, I'm exactly where I was before. Except, now they have all the invoices and and receipts for the work I've done out of pocket thus far. It's at least an extra $8,000. They're refusing to reimburse me until I've completed the rest of the work and submitted receipts and invoices for the final result. Again, I have a mortgage, two car notes, as well as all other incidentals related to being a responsible adult, and this is all on single salary. Hence, the time it has taken to get THIS far! They aren't paying me anything towards my salvaged items being in storage, because they paid approximately $28,000 to house me for nearly four months, while waiting for the check they sent to the mortgage company to get to me. (It was lost in the mail over a month.) Of course, if I'd had any clue that this is what I would have been dealing with, I would have rented a house in my neighborhood for a year, instead of having to keep sending requests for approvals on AirBnBs.

I had to send the link to the property before I could be approved for a place to stay. But that's why they aren't covering anything I have had to store.

If anyone tried getting a rental during the first half of the Covid19 countrywide shutdown, then they'd know how marked up the rates were. The places I requested were literally the least expensive I could find. One of them was in a neighborhood that had a regular police presence and gunshots just about every other night. But it had ceilings and floors, unlike my house.

Again, if you have to pay a little more for much better service, DO IT. This one is not where you want to "take one for the team." Pay the difference, I implore you.

Worse home insurance company! They paid $ 3000 for my total loss of personal property from Hurricane Michael and said they were not paying any more. I have fought them for 5 years.

ABSOLUTE WORST INSURANCE COMPANY EVER! WE HAVE BEEN TRYING TO SETTLE A CLAIM FOR ABOUT 5 YEARS NOW. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!

I've only called this company twice and both experiences were horrible. The WORST customer service I've ever seen in my life. These people have no clue who pays their salary. All I wanted to know was what my deductible was, a simple question. She wanted to know my policy # like they don't know it. She called me back and then asked my what my phone number is, duh? After several minutes she asked if I wanted to know my deductible - I said I told you that 5 minutes ago, do you understand English? Then she hung up on me. Next year I'm getting new insurance quotes. So I called my agent at Harris and all she asked for was my name and she told me my deductible. Somebody at Universal is training these people to be jerks, nobody does this on their own.

We have been with this company for several years and had never filed any homeowners claim ever in the 30 years we have lived in our home. We had a claim for water and wind damage in 2018 when Hurricane Florence came through NC. We had ceiling and wall damage in our master bedroom as well as damage to the roof. An adjustor came and out and looked in our bedroom and we received a check. We were never told this payment was to replace the roof and the interior repairs. During this time my husband was having major medical problems and had to leave his job and the money we received from Univeral was not enough to replace the roof and the interior. To this point we have no recollection of ever being told this was for a roof replacement. So after our out pocket deductible we used the money to repair our bedroom and repair the damaged section of the roof. We never had any information from the insurance company regarding the completion of the repairs or that there still one third payment we had not received.

Now skip to present day and due extensive rain and wind for several weeks unknown to us we had roof damage in another part of the roof which saturated the insulation which caused the ceiling to collapse dumping several gallons of water onto our floor. In addition, when the ceiling collapsed the sheet rock for all intensive purposes just exploded on to walls, floors and furniture. My husband was hit by some of the falling debris causing injuries to his arm. We spent hours cleaning the water and sheet rock. We contacted Universal and filed a claim. The adjustor came out and said majority of the ceiling would need to be replaced, floors refinished, and roof replaced. We finally received a response from the examiner denying out claim due to the 2018 claim that they said we did not complete. I explained that the amount received was insufficient to pay the overall repairs and I was then told that the payment received was only two thirds of the payment and we were supposed to send documentation of the completed project to receive the final third of the payment. We never had this conversation or any correspondence from the insurance company advising us of this. With their denial letter I received an eight-page estimate of the 2018 repair detailing the entire repair. Another piece of correspondence we did not receive. This detailed the additional money they said they would pay out when the job was complete. Another piece of correspondence we received was about recoverable depreciation which was also something that we were never told. I explained to the adjustor that my husband is disabled and has chronic COPD and the huge hole in our ceiling was causing him issues with breathing. We are retirement age and the amount of money to repair this out of pocket is impossible for us. The examiner said that we could submit an estimate using the 2018 claim to maybe get the additional third of the original claim and when I asked if that was realistic his response was "worth a try".

It is so difficult to know you have paid all of our insurance payments timely for years with only one small claim and now that we have this enormous issue for us, they are sorry, but you are still denied.

UNIVERSAL PROPERTY AND CASUALTY IS A SCAM BUT GOD FORBID THEIR PREMIUM NOT BEING PAID! YOU WILL REGRET IT!!!SCAM COMPANY!HOME INSURANCE COMPANY! 1 MILLION EXCUSES,
WORST HOME INSURANCE COMPANY ON PLANET EARTH!

I am writing this letter because I put in a claim in 07/28/2022 for water damage and mold.
I was informed by Ms Lourdes Mendoza (adjuster) that I needed to submit an invoice from the company that was completing the repairs at my home for reimbursement. I submitted the needed invoice however after numerous calls (voicemail) and emails to follow-up on the status however I have not received any form of communication from her or your company. The last communication I received from Ms Mendoza is when I left my home to stay somewhere else due to me having Cancer and going through Chemo treatment while my home was being treated for mold. I am on disability and had to use other sources to pay for repairs.
I recently received a letter 12/14/2022 stating that my policy is not being renewed: Two (2) water damage losses within 3 months.

My home suffered damage to the AC unit due to Hurricane Ian. I filed a claim on 10/03/2022 as soon as I could. I tracked my claim online as it went through each step. It went from 'Received' to 'Assigned' and I still hadn't received any communication from anyone yet. Not via mail, email, or phone. I assumed they were probably just busy handling a bunch of other claims from the Hurricane so I didn't think it was a big deal.

Then eventually the adjuster came with barely any notice at all. They called they day of saying they were in the area and wanted to come assess the damage and take pictures. I was already home anyways so it was fine but that should have been a red flag. It had already been over a month and this is the first time I had communicated with anyone regarding my claim. Not very professional. He was nice though and when he left I felt reassured and still thought maybe the company is just busy handling a lot of claims.

Over the course of the next few of weeks I watched the claim go from 'Inspection' to 'In Review' status online and thought things were fine until it finally updated to 'Concluded'. The website said my claim status was resolved and a coverage determination had been made. I had no idea what the resolution was though since the website doesn't provide any details. So once again I tell myself "maybe they can't display that info online so they'll communicate it to me another way". But I wait and wait and still hear nothing from them. No mail. No email. No phone call. I tried reaching out via email and the website but still haven't received a reply. So at this point I call to get some clarification on what's going on.

The first person I spoke to sounded like they had no interest in being on the phone when I called. They told me my claim was denied and the correspondence was sent via mail because that's what my primary form of communication is set to. I know stuff gets lost in the mail from time to time, but I never received anything from UPCIC regarding this claim. You'd think they would send out a mail communication whenever the claim is submitted or at other points in the process. So what's the likelihood that I just didn't receive any of the mail communications that were sent? I tried to get clarification on why my claim was denied and how it should have been submitted properly but they kept telling me that they couldn't tell me how I should submit a claim. So eventually I gave up and decided to call back in hopes that I would get someone that could actually help explain the situation.

The second person I spoke to at least tried to help. They gave me more information and said that my claim was only partially denied and that a check was sent via mail. So now I'm thinking why didn't the person I spoke to before share this information? They eventually tried to transfer me to someone else but it went straight to voicemail. So here I am now confused and not sure why this process is so convoluted. I really don't know what to do at this point.

I'm perfectly fine with my claim getting denied if the reasoning makes sense. But at the moment there's no way for me to see why I got denied. I ended up having to call and I'm still not sure why I got denied because I got two different stories from the people I called. I just don't understand the lack of communication. It's not even about the money. Luckily I can afford it because if not I would still be without a working AC for over two months. I can't imagine what people who can't pay outright or get financing have to go through when dealing with these situations.

This is the third Google review I've ever given in my life. I'm usually able to just deal with it if I get bad service but I've never experienced something this bad. I'm just tired of dealing with Homeowner's Insurance. Earlier this year I got dropped by my previous insurer because my roof was too old so I had to spend 10K out of pocket to replace that. Now I've replaced my AC for 10K and am dealing with a company that won't reimburse me for damage due to a literal natural disaster.

Professionalism kindness and got what I was looking for

reI have uploaded documents to substantiate monies that i spent on services covered by my insurance policy, I myself have not received any monies personally from the claim or otherwise, i have not been re-imbursed for the monies that i am due ,

if i could give 0 stars i would. My mom had to open a claim for my elderly grandfather in 2020 due to major leak in the roof which caused the ceiling in the room to cave in. A year ago i had to replace the roof with my own money because waiting for them wasn't going to make anything better. We are now in 2022 and the claim is still OPEN. You call, they take forever to answer and when they do answer they say they will have someone call you back and they do NOT. I emailed the universal attorney that is working on this case with the power of attorney and also my grandmothers death certificate and they have yet to reply. As an insurance agent myself this is probably one of the WORST home insurance companies to insure your home with. STAY WAY !!

I called Universal and had a few questions about my policy coverages, amendments to my policy and payment information. I spoke to Derwin McCarthy, and he was able to answer all of my question about coverages and changes to my policy, payment options, and some questions about flooding scenarios. Great agent, very personable, and professional!

In December we discovered a slow leak - originating from piping under the slab and coming up between the walls - it evidently had been going on undetected for a while because we had black mold - affected two bedrooms, a bathroom, hallway, closets and part of the kitchen. The first adjuster estimated about $14K in damages - and we got a check for $7K - the estimates we got from three contractors to just repair the home ranged from $90K to $120K - After two months of trying to get an update from the adjuster, the claim was assigned to another adjuster (they use third party adjusters) another 7 weeks went by with better communication but no resolution. We were able to get the work done for less than the lowest bid - yet no reimbursement from Universal so far. In fact per customer service, no new information has been updated in the file. We are out nearly $70K just to rebuild our home and no response from Universal's upper management to my call. Avoid this company like the plague!

Im leaving this review on 2/2/2022 for Universal Ins.Co. due to a claim opened on 09/09/2020 for water damage to my home. That’s almost 2yrs ago and it still isn’t settled! Universal are COMPLETE CROOKS! Their business practices reek of corruption. You can read hundreds and hundreds of BBB complaints on them; hundreds of complaints with review sites like this and even with the states Insurance Regulatory Department in all the states they cover.
For reference on my claim- A water line to my refrigerator ruptured causing significant water damage to our home. It damaged all the flooring in 4 rooms; Our Kitchen, Dining Area, Living Room and Bakers Pantry (a 12x12 room with large baking tables), it also damaged the baseboards in those same 4 rooms, it warped the door leading out to our garage, all the rugs in those 4 rooms and it shorted out my kitchen range/oven. And since the water damage has not been repaired now there is black mold through out our house! In our cabinets, A/C, walls and pantry shelves. The mold report states our home is “unlivable.” 2 weeks after the claim was opened Universal sent out an adjuster that was *extremely* inexperienced. He over looked or blatantly ignored 90% of the damage and sent us a check for $9,000 just 4 days later. He also immediately closed the claim hoping I was just a clueless retiree and ignorant about Insurance & Insurance Law. Fortunately, I’m a retired Claims Adjuster and knew the repairs couldn’t be made for 10 times the amount they offered. And that doesn’t even factor in the cost of moving, storage & temporary housing while the repairs are being done. All those costs are covered though homeowners policies. But again, they tried to con me thinking I didn’t know better. But I did! So after months & months of going back & forth with many different adjusters and never getting a call back I contacted my states Department of Insurance. To which they blatantly lied to and said it was now being handled properly by a Supervisor and would be “properly settled”
in a matter of days. Needless to say— it wasn’t. After I didnt receive a follow up call from the “Supervisor” or a check after 2 weeks I them contacted an Attorney to file suit! And thats where we are. Do, If your home is insured with Universal or you’re considering using them, PLEASE read all the reviews available online before doing so! If you’re already insured by Universal and you’re in Florida and having a problem with them, call the Florida Department of Insurance to file a complaint and get help with mediation. If you’re still unsatisfied… SUE THEM!! In Florida it doesn’t cost you a penny. Florida law is that If you don’t recover there are no Attorney fees and if you do recover Universal is responsible for the attorney fees!

I put in a claim on 9/1/2021. We had torrential rain in my area from Hurricane Ida. My basement filled with water so quickly my sump pump could not pump all the water out as quickly as it was coming in, eventually my pump did expel all of the water , but we did have damages to the basement, including a damaged oil boiler. I called Universal they assured me someone will be in contact with me within 24 to 48 hrs. Didn't happed. The adjuster did not come to 14 days later. Wrote up the hurricane damage and submitted it. Some man Robert Smith called my home to tell me my limit on my policy is 5,000, but they will pay for the gutters and deck repair. I looked at my policy and the only 5,000 limit was sump pump failure. I called back and sure enough the representative did say I had water back up due to a broken sump pump. That was changed to that because my sump pump was not broken and still is not broken. The rep on the phone put me on hold to speak to Mr. Smith or a supervisor and could not get either. I have a report mailed to me from the insurance company that says loss due to Hurricane, They have some explaining to do and if it is not to my satisfactory ,I will be obtaining an attorney!

For Universal Property do not pick this Insurance Company with Warning,this is about to Shayla Jackson,I sent her a Dispute letter 1 and a Dispute Letter 2 inside the Universal Property website Danial Dobbs that lied about, I had a sewage backup because he got mad, because I told his Supervisior Mr. Zimmerman on him, he was not during his job, he was not setting up appointment for Inspection for over a month, when I called him, it should not have taken 2 months to set up an appointment, but Mr. Zimmerman was not right either, he is crockett too. Shayla Jackson the Supervisior 3/9/21 said, after she lied in told me to send in to get a Certified Mold Mitigation Man to tell what cause the Mold and Ap Property about what cause the Mold and Proof of Sewage Backup and I did and sent it to her and into the Universal Property website, then Shayla Jackson the Supervisior is going to ask ,the concern which Danial Dobbs, why it took him so long to come out their to inspect my house?.I had already sent that in the Rebuttal letter and Dispute, she was trying to play like she did not know, because she did not want to pay me any money and didn’t. The Adjusters Danial Dobbs and Sandrayl Apointe terrible they lied, and I sent them Documents and Pictures of that already in the past a months 3 ago for a Dispute Universal Property and with Office of Commission I filed a Complaint Against Universal Property 3/15/21 a terrible Insurance Company, who takes your money every month and then when something happens, they don’t pay you, the only little check I got was $1,656.00 from the first Claim, that don’t cover Mold, which the owe me $6,467.00 for that, they did not pay me. Because I need to get the Mold out of my house first and off of the wall that is in the back of my Water Heater and also on my Stand that the Water Heater sits on and order to put a New Water Heater, the Mold will have to be removed from my place and a stand to be removed and rebuilt, so I can put my Water Heater on. And everything else I sent them already in the past 3 months ago for a Dispute and the Mold Mitigation man Dwayne did too and I sent them the information they sent me and when Danial Dobbs the terrible inspector came and everybody else came, there was no Water in both tubs and when I ran the water, it went straight down very easily and all the people who came here to my house, I ran the water for them and they saw it too out, because I sent Shayla Jackson the terrible Supervisior and her Manager Mr. Garby he terrible too and want pay you, the proof 3/4/21 from a Plummer that exactly what I sent what she needed and she got it, there was no Sewage Backup. It is for Shayla Jackson, the Supervisior to pay me, for both Claims GA20-0105842 and GA19-0101762 for Mold Mitiagation $6,467.00 to get the Mold out of my house, she never paid me, which she owe me and also for AP Property from Contractor $6,200.00 for GA20-0105842, she never paid me for, which she owe me for that .And additional Supplements for both Claims if needed. And also the terrible Adjusters Mr. Sterling and Denise William they try to play like they will help you, they are not trying to help you at all and they all will lie. Mold is still on my back Wall and the back of my Water Heater in my Garage and Stand it is Mold and they expect me to put a Hot water heater on top of it and also their is a Mold in my Bathrooms where the wall, up under my sink and in the back and on my Walls and Floors and Universal Property has not fixed it yet, I called a Plummer man out here and he said, your Insurance Company suppose to handle this, you have Mold in your house, it has been 2 year for the 1st Claim and that happen June 2019 and the 2nd Claim and that happen the end of October of 2020, it has been 8 months of Mold in my house. And I filed a Complaint against Universal Property with Office of Commission and Universal Property Christina Hanley they are still trying to make up lies, now they are lying and saying I had a damage pipe which I never had a damage pipe. And all those lies they are telling, all of this is going to hunt them, because when they lie God see’s everything and whatever they do to someone else someone is going to turn around and do it to them, they have not seen nothing yet and they are going down, they will weep, weep dearly what they have sown all of them and it will be a much greater pain, then what they did to me and other people as well do not pick this Insurance Company with Warning.

My claim experience with this company has been the worst of any insurance company I have ever dealt with and I was in Loss Control for my company for 20+ years, so I know a little bit about the subject...
I wouldn't say the claim value was significant enough to warrant the delays in payments that I have experienced since I first filed in October of 2020.
It is hard to get anyone on the phone who can tell you anything more than it is still "in progress" or
"it's under review". Unfortunately with insurance, you never really know what you have until you go to use it. This company has acknowledge their claim responsibility, made a partial payment (less depreciation), which they say is recoverable with proof of repairs. Initial claim adjuster's estimate was off by enough that I had to file for supplemental loss reimbursement. All of this adds up to a painfully slow process. I needed to get my home put back together, so went ahead with repairs and hoping for the best.
I feel bad for anyone who doesn't have the financial resources to do this (without prompt payment from Universal), as it seems to be their method of operation. God forbid Florida has another major Hurricane, I'm not so sure this place would be financially strong enough to handle the claims.
Or, even if it didn't put them out of business, they could easily drag settlements out for years.

In fairness, I will say that this claim finally was paid nearly 10 months after the loss event, for the actual expenses incurred (less my deductible).
It did take my insurance agent, the owner of the insurance agency and my own additional efforts to make this happen.

Homeowners - please learn from these reviews and seek better insurance elsewhere.

I had a flooding at the end of August this year. They said a check was cut on September 7th. I am still waiting for it. Three months without kitchen cabinets, and the unit below totally thrashed is not as bad as dealing with this company which will bring a substantial amount of aggravation during the process that will make think that your incident it was not that bad after all.
Terrible communications, procrastinators, (they even sent the adjuster exactly 7 days after the incident! I could have had everything fixed in 7 days!).
I owned my first property at 21, I am 65, I have dealt with several insurance companies during 44 yrs., this is one of the worse I ever seen.
The BBB publishes 153 reviews (154 with mine). NONE IS GOOD. NOT A SINGLE ONE. THE HAVE A ROCK SOLID 1 (one ) STAR....that's telling you something.

If I could give NEGATIVE stars I would!
This company is by far the worst company to work with in regards to a claim.
They take their time, low ball you and then force you to sign for a final settlement WITHOUT them providing you a breakdown of what they are paying. It has been MONTHs and we are still waiting.
TAKE MY ADVICE - get another company for your homeowners insurance.

Horrible customer experience, little to no communication. Very slow to respond and no proactive updates on their part. I am in area that was hit by a severe hail storm, visible damage via the tar pebbles now covering my patio and the company said there was zero evidence of any storm event in my area. We have video evidence of 1" + hail coming down?