What Fails a Homeowners Insurance Inspection
in Oregon and Washington
A few weeks after you close, someone from the insurance company may walk the outside of your house and take pictures. Here’s what they tend to flag, and what happens next.
Insurers often inspect a house shortly after the policy starts, usually a quick exterior visit or aerial photos. The conditions that come up most are roof condition and moss, trees over the house, missing handrails or loose deck guards, unfenced pools, deferred upkeep, and older electrical panels, wiring, or oil tanks. In Oregon, an insurer has 60 days to underwrite a new policy and can cancel within that window.
You close on the house, the policy starts, and a few weeks later there’s a car out front. Someone walks the property line, photographs the roof and the steps, and leaves. That’s an insurance inspection. It’s done for the insurer, not for you, and it decides whether the house fits the company’s rules for the policy it just wrote.
Most of these visits come back fine. When they don’t, it’s usually for a short list of conditions that show from the yard or from the air.
What insurers tend to flag
Every insurer has its own underwriting guidelines, so there’s no single pass-fail list. These are the conditions that come up most often in insurer letters and in consumer reporting on aerial-image nonrenewals:
- Roof condition. Missing or curling shingles, heavy moss, debris piled in valleys, tarps, or a roof the insurer thinks is near the end of its life. In the Portland area, moss on the roof is a common one.
- Trees over the house. Large limbs over the roof, or dead trees close to the structure. The trees near the house post covers what those do to roofs and foundations.
- Steps and railings. Missing handrails on exterior stairs, loose or missing deck guards, and broken walkways. These are liability items, and they show clearly in photos.
- Pools and trampolines. Some insurers want a fence and a self-closing gate around a pool. Some exclude trampolines or ask that they be removed.
- Deferred upkeep. Peeling paint, rotted trim, damaged siding, or a yard full of debris can read as a house that isn’t being maintained.
- Vacancy. A house that looks empty for a long stretch can be a problem under many policies.
Some flags come from the application, not the visit. Insurers often ask about the electrical panel, the wiring, the heating system, and oil tanks. Panels and wiring that turn up in these questions include Federal Pacific Stab-Lok panels, fuse boxes, and knob and tube wiring. Old heating oil tanks, buried or in the basement, are another common question, and the underground oil tank guide explains why. Wood stoves and inserts can bring their own questions about installation and clearances.
Real Inspection Photos
Insurer Flags From Russ's Inspections
These are the kinds of conditions that show from the yard or the air, photographed during Russ's inspections.
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Large branches over the roof. Russ noted that falling limbs can damage the roof. -
Exterior steps with no handrail. Missing railings show clearly in an insurer's photos. -
Deck handrails and guardrails that were loose and showed advanced wood rot.
When the insurer can cancel in Oregon
Oregon gives insurers a window. The Oregon Division of Financial Regulation’s homeowners bill of rights says an insurance company has 60 days to underwrite a new application, and it can cancel within that time if the house doesn’t meet its underwriting guidelines. That’s why the inspection usually happens in the first few weeks.
After a policy has been in force 60 days, the reasons an insurer can cancel mid-term get much narrower. Nonrenewal is different from cancellation. At renewal, an insurer can decide not to continue, but under ORS 746.687 it has to tell you in writing at least 30 days ahead. Oregon also bars an insurer from canceling or refusing to renew because of the first claim in five years (ORS 746.686).
If you think an insurer acted unfairly, DFR takes consumer complaints at 888-877-4894.
And in Washington
Washington insurers inspect too, and the same kinds of conditions get flagged. The cancellation and notice rules come from Washington law, not Oregon’s. The Washington Office of the Insurance Commissioner has a consumer line and can explain how they apply to your policy. Buying in Vancouver or Camas with a policy written in Washington? Those are the rules that count.
What a failed inspection usually means
A flag isn’t always a cancellation. Insurers handle it a few ways:
- A letter listing the condition and a deadline to correct it, often with a request for photos or a contractor’s invoice as proof.
- A higher premium or a policy change, like an exclusion for a pool or a roof.
- A cancellation notice, if it’s still inside the underwriting window, or a nonrenewal notice at the end of the term.
Read the letter closely. It should say which condition triggered it. If it doesn’t, ask. Some items, like a missing handrail, are a small fix. Others, like a panel replacement, take a licensed electrician and a permit. A panel replacement in the Portland area commonly runs $2,000 to $5,000.
How the home inspection helps
The home inspection happens before you own the house. Its report describes the visible condition of the roof, the electrical panel, the heating system, the exterior, and much more, with photos. It isn’t written for the insurer, and it doesn’t predict what an insurer will decide. But it puts most of the things insurers ask about in front of you while you can still ask questions.
It also helps at application. When the insurer asks what kind of panel the house has or how old the roof looks, the report gives you something to answer from. Russ can point to the panel brand, the type of wiring he saw where it was visible, the approximate age of the roof covering, and whether an oil tank fill pipe or vent showed up on the exterior.
Insurance questions are easier to sort out while the inspection contingency is still open, so it helps to line up quotes the same week as the inspection.
An insurance inspection is the insurer checking the house against its own rules. Roofs, trees, steps and railings, pools, and older electrical and oil systems are the usual flags. In Oregon, the first 60 days of a new policy are when an insurer can cancel for underwriting reasons.
Agents who want the transaction side can read how inspection findings affect homeowners insurance. To book an inspection, you can schedule online any day of the week.
Homeowners Insurance Inspection FAQ
