nonCEP XP: if you've claimed water damage on your home ins.

[fuckyourcouch]

what was the aftermath?

after our basement flood bullshit last week, landscaper's insurance is saying his coverage is actual cash value only, not replacement cost. this is basically worthless because nothing in the basement was brand new, and depreciated cost isn't going to do shit to replace anything (i assume). they said we could do the claim on our insurance, which should cover replacement, and then his insurance would pay our insurance the ACV portion of the cost, as well as pay for our deductible. i also assume our insurance would go after him and the builder legally as they already mentioned it the first time we called.
this was also our realtor's advice.

HOWEVER. everything i read online says never make a water damage claim on your house because even if it's not your fault your rates will increase big time, and it's a huge red flag that can make your house uninsurable (and therefore unsellable later) due to concerns over mold, etc.
if capital gains tax under 2 years in a house was not a thing, i would sell and move tomorrow because i am so tired of this builder and their bullshit throughout everything, and i don't want to be stuck here in another year when that 2 years is up because of their negligence.
when i was in middle school, our house flooded in a tropical storm and it definitely sold later, but there was also no claim because insurance wouldn't cover it. and that was a long time ago so i have no idea if things have changed since then.

so. if you have made a similar claim or bought a house with a claim or anything like that, wtf happened later?
i don't want jacked up rates, i don't want to get stuck with an uninsurable house, or anything else, but i need more than depreciated value to replace my ruined shit, and some of it was antique wood furniture we borrowed from my parents that needs repaired, not replaced.

help


Read more: pandce.proboards.com/thread/476373/claimed-water-damage-homeowners-policy#ixzz3lNg3jrQq

[Deleted]

My DH has worked in insurance for over 10yrs (property & casualty, life and health; both personal and commercial lines) He has never heard of this concern. We live in upstate NY rather than areas where mold can be a major concern (compared to say New Orleans). We also had a pipe burst while we were sleeping in 2007 (2wks before our wedding, that was fun). We live next to a water tower so we have high water pressure. Ended up with a 48k claim, with Servpro managing initial cleanup and demo the morning it happened, then replacing carpet, drywall, siding etc. Home insurance actually went down the next renewal, and the claim didn't impact our rate when we switched to another company 3yrs later (saving on all policies overall, not a service issue). I can't guarantee how your company or state regulations could impact your outcome; rates can increase for a variety/combination of reasons. I hope you are able to find a solution soon though.

[mcgee]

Our house flooded in 2007 when the washing machine hose popped off and flooded all but my daughter's bedroom and the guest bath. Never buy a house with a laundry room in the dead fucking center. One loose hose, and you end up replacing baseboards and carpet padding throughout the house.

This also happened days after we filed an insurance claim for hail damage after a storm damaged our roof and the condenser on the air conditioner. Oh, and we'd owned the house for less than six months.

We filed both claims, insurance paid to repair the damage - we didn't have damaged furnishings, just carpet padding and baseboards. We continued to live there and remodel, and we sold the house in 2012 with divorce pending for a profit. The prior flooding was not an issue with regard to selling the house, especially since we weren't in a flood plain.

I'm sorry you're dealing with this. Homeowners insurance issues are the worst.

[fuckyourcouch]

Sept 10, 2015 19:39:00 GMT -5 @historychick79 said:

My DH has worked in insurance for over 10yrs (property & casualty, life and health; both personal and commercial lines) He has never heard of this concern. We live in upstate NY rather than areas where mold can be a major concern (compared to say New Orleans). We also had a pipe burst while we were sleeping in 2007 (2wks before our wedding, that was fun). We live next to a water tower so we have high water pressure. Ended up with a 48k claim, with Servpro managing initial cleanup and demo the morning it happened, then replacing carpet, drywall, siding etc. Home insurance actually went down the next renewal, and the claim didn't impact our rate when we switched to another company 3yrs later (saving on all policies overall, not a service issue). I can't guarantee how your company or state regulations could impact your outcome; rates can increase for a variety/combination of reasons. I hope you are able to find a solution soon though.

We are in Denver, so no real mold concerns here either, it's super dry.

Google terrified me with this crap. All of this is such a headache and we just want to have it paid for and move on, without having to worry about getting stuck here or having our insurance being a nightmare.

Thanks for the stories, guys.

[compassrose]

We claimed water damage and there was mold. They paid to fix it. No rate increase. Liberty Mutual rocks.

[KateAggie]

Water Damage claim in TX, insurance did not go up.

[lexus]

As a buyer, I would want documentation that it was properly repaired and a mold test but I would buy if that was provided. Save all the repair documentation for the house.

[nsuhomer]

We had a water heater flood part of our house. We filed. This was our first claim. The insurance company worked tirelessly to drop us. They finally ended up succeeding. It was challenging to find another company that would insure us. Enormous headache, but in the end worth it. We had significant damage. No issues when selling the house.

[YeahSure]

DH has been in insurance for over 30 years. He says that if the landscaper is responsible for the water damage,they are fully responsible for whole cost. The ACV is over his own losses; YOUR losses are liability, which is different. He says that yes, you need to go through your insurance , but they will indeed go after the landscaper. Filing the claim shouldn't be a problem later on because the reason you are filing is so that they will FIX and mold or other problems. If you don't and there are mold problems when you try to sell it down the road, you are responsible at that point, and would need to disclose that info.

[AAM2012]

How much do you think is damaged as it relates to your personal property?

My guess is that if it's quite a bit then it would be to your benefit to go through your carrier.


Whether you have to disclose water damage when you sell is state specific. We just purchase in Arizona and the sellers had to disclose but it was when we were already knee deep in the buying process.

[fuckyourcouch]

Sept 10, 2015 22:19:44 GMT -5 AAM2012 said:

How much do you think is damaged as it relates to your personal property?

My guess is that if it's quite a bit then it would be to your benefit to go through your carrier.


Whether you have to disclose water damage when you sell is state specific. We just purchase in Arizona and the sellers had to disclose but it was when we were already knee deep in the buying process.

I'm just guessing around 5k. Two laptops, TV sound bar and subwoofer, almost all our Christmas stuff, treadmill, leather couch, chair and ottoman, some wood furniture that needs repaired, the restoration equipment cost, some video game stuff, DVDs, other misc stuff. It's not huge, but not a small amount either.

[fuckyourcouch]

Sept 10, 2015 21:55:41 GMT -5 nsuhomer said:

We had a water heater flood part of our house. We filed. This was our first claim. The insurance company worked tirelessly to drop us. They finally ended up succeeding. It was challenging to find another company that would insure us. Enormous headache, but in the end worth it. We had significant damage. No issues when selling the house.

This sucks. I'm really sorry to hear that.

[darthnbjenni]

Our house flooded twice last year. TWICE. Once in January due to a frozen pipe that burst through a wall (we live in SC and it got down to 7 degrees. Totally ridiculous). The second time was in October when my lovely child flushed the toilet, yet it was clogged, and apparently the rubber flapper in the bowl chose that moment to not flap down and stop pumping water, resulting in another house-wide flood. Our insurance has not gone up, but our deductible went from $500 to $800. Both times insurance covered $8k+ worth of the damage and covered 6+ weeks of hotel living while our house was being renovated. My husband did a lot of the work himself, so we ended up being able to upgrade in some areas (flooring).

[JayhawkGirl]

That list looks like more than $5k to me.

Sh - edit: DH - had a pipe freeze/burst when he was oot, flooding the finished basement at our last house. We had no insurance issues, including when I switched our agent (same company) after we got married. Selling that house never brought it back up and when we insured the new house with a new carrier USAA it didn't red flag us or anything.

If it were me, I would get my insurance involved to start remedying the moisture issues ASAP. It also sounds like you may need their advocate skills in dealing with the landscaper and his insurance.

[MrsAxilla]

Sept 10, 2015 22:18:02 GMT -5 YeahSure said:

DH has been in insurance for over 30 years. He says that if the landscaper is responsible for the water damage,they are fully responsible for whole cost. The ACV is over his own losses; YOUR losses are liability, which is different. He says that yes, you need to go through your insurance , but they will indeed go after the landscaper. Filing the claim shouldn't be a problem later on because the reason you are filing is so that they will FIX and mold or other problems. If you don't and there are mold problems when you try to sell it down the road, you are responsible at that point, and would need to disclose that info.

I'm glad you chimed in here because I knew ACV didn't sound right, but I didn't know for sure.  Why can't fuckyourcouch file directly with the builder's insurance, though?  

[fuckyourcouch]

Sept 12, 2015 11:04:31 GMT -5 MrsAxilla said:

Sept 10, 2015 22:18:02 GMT -5 YeahSure said:

DH has been in insurance for over 30 years. He says that if the landscaper is responsible for the water damage,they are fully responsible for whole cost. The ACV is over his own losses; YOUR losses are liability, which is different. He says that yes, you need to go through your insurance , but they will indeed go after the landscaper. Filing the claim shouldn't be a problem later on because the reason you are filing is so that they will FIX and mold or other problems. If you don't and there are mold problems when you try to sell it down the road, you are responsible at that point, and would need to disclose that info.

I'm glad you chimed in here because I knew ACV didn't sound right, but I didn't know for sure.  Why can't fuckyourcouch file directly with the builder's insurance, though?  

Landscaper was a subcontractor of the builder and they have placed all blame on him. So they want us to claim through his insurance, but he doesn't have coverage to replace our stuff, which after tallying values comes to about 7500. So seems like we are going to have to go through our insurance and let them go after the landscaper and/or builder to get full value replacements or repairs.

This was a small semi custom builder, so not like a dr Horton or something for us to fight.

[fuckyourcouch]

Sept 12, 2015 10:53:56 GMT -5 JayhawkGirl said:

That list looks like more than $5k to me.

Sh had a pipe freeze/burst when he was oot, flooding the finished basement at our last house. We had no insurance issues, including when I switched our agent (same company) after we got married. Selling that house never brought it back up and when we insured the new house with a new carrier USAA it didn't red flag us or anything.

If it were me, I would get my insurance involved to start remedying the moisture issues ASAP. It also sounds like you may need their advocate skills in dealing with the landscaper and his insurance.

The repairs have already been done, and we had a remediation company come in the night it happened. Right now the fight is just over replacement values basically. But yeah, it looks like we are going to have to go through our insurance, which we already opened a claim with and had an adjuster come out. There's no moisture in the basement, it's super arid here and the dehumidifiers ran for 3 days with fans.

And yeah, it was closet to 7500 all tallied up, my 5k was a wild guess.

[JayhawkGirl]

Hope it goes smoothly for you from here on out!

[MrsAxilla]

Sept 12, 2015 13:11:03 GMT -5 fuckyourcouch said:

Sept 12, 2015 11:04:31 GMT -5 MrsAxilla said:

I'm glad you chimed in here because I knew ACV didn't sound right, but I didn't know for sure.  Why can't fuckyourcouch file directly with the builder's insurance, though?  

Landscaper was a subcontractor of the builder and they have placed all blame on him. So they want us to claim through his insurance, but he doesn't have coverage to replace our stuff, which after tallying values comes to about 7500. So seems like we are going to have to go through our insurance and let them go after the landscaper and/or builder to get full value replacements or repairs.

This was a small semi custom builder, so not like a dr Horton or something for us to fight.

Who told you this?  Did he?  I'm 99% sure this isn't true.  Unless he doesn't have insurance at all, which would be illegal and stupid.  He surely has liability, which covers both personal injuries AND property damage.  Just like with your car.  If you slam into someone, your liability insurance will cover that person's injuries and damage to his car.  It's not one or the other.  

Also, you should know that CO has REALLY strong consumer protections.  If they are fucking you around, you can contact the Division of Insurance and they will help.  www.colorado.gov/pacific/dora/node/102256

[fuckyourcouch]

Sept 12, 2015 13:32:01 GMT -5 MrsAxilla said:

Sept 12, 2015 13:11:03 GMT -5 fuckyourcouch said:

Landscaper was a subcontractor of the builder and they have placed all blame on him. So they want us to claim through his insurance, but he doesn't have coverage to replace our stuff, which after tallying values comes to about 7500. So seems like we are going to have to go through our insurance and let them go after the landscaper and/or builder to get full value replacements or repairs.

This was a small semi custom builder, so not like a dr Horton or something for us to fight.

Who told you this?  Did he?  I'm 99% sure this isn't true.  Unless he doesn't have insurance at all, which would be illegal and stupid.  He surely has liability, which covers both personal injuries AND property damage.  Just like with your car.  If you slam into someone, your liability insurance will cover that person's injuries and damage to his car.  It's not one or the other.  

Also, you should know that CO has REALLY strong consumer protections.  If they are fucking you around, you can contact the Division of Insurance and they will help.  www.colorado.gov/pacific/dora/node/102256

HiS insurance agent told me this.
Thanks for the info, I will check that out.

My understanding is his coverage is ACV for liability because he cheaped out. I don't understand how that's possible but that's what his agent said, and when I called our adjuster (not agent) he didn't seem surprised at all.

[MrsAxilla]

Sept 12, 2015 14:27:31 GMT -5 fuckyourcouch said:

Sept 12, 2015 13:32:01 GMT -5 MrsAxilla said:

Who told you this?  Did he?  I'm 99% sure this isn't true.  Unless he doesn't have insurance at all, which would be illegal and stupid.  He surely has liability, which covers both personal injuries AND property damage.  Just like with your car.  If you slam into someone, your liability insurance will cover that person's injuries and damage to his car.  It's not one or the other.  

Also, you should know that CO has REALLY strong consumer protections.  If they are fucking you around, you can contact the Division of Insurance and they will help.  www.colorado.gov/pacific/dora/node/102256

HiS insurance agent told me this.
Thanks for the info, I will check that out.

My understanding is his coverage is ACV for liability because he cheaped out. I don't understand how that's possible but that's what his agent said, and when I called our adjuster (not agent) he didn't seem surprised at all.

I don't believe he can choose how and what YOU are paid.  His liability covers whatever damage he is liable for, and the goal is to make you whole - up to his policy limits.  He may have cheaped out and only purchased coverage for $100K rather than $500K (or whatever; I'm sure there's a minimum required, but I have no idea what it is.  Certainly it's more than $10K).  If you have $7500 in damages caused by him (and can prove it), then you are entitled to $7500.  I really don't know the answer to your original question about insurability and premiums.  Honestly, if you have an agent, I'd call them.  They should give you advice without filing a claim - that hurts their book of business, too.  

And again, call the div. of ins.  They will help!

[MrsAxilla]

Also, if it turns out he doesn't have insurance or has less than $7500 in coverage, you can and should sue his business.  Coincidentally, the limit for small claims court in CO is $7500, so you could easily do it yourself.

[AAM2012]

Yeah I would imagine he'd have a general liability policy that wouldn't specify whether ACV is owed or not.

Your insurance will pursue his insurance and you can go to small claims for your deductible.