Catastophic Loss on your homeowners?

[disneymomjcs]

Anyone ever have a catastrophic loss on your homeowners policy.

Tell me all the good, bad and the ugly!!!!!

Having issues with ours- Hail damage!

I know I mis spelled in the header and it won't let me fix ....

 

[extremesoccermom]

Dealing with this ourselves for the first time in 22 years of home ownership. We had a hail storm in April 2012. In May we had some leakage and after going on the roof DH noticed the damage. We went through Service Magic looking for a roofer. We had a contractor call us back right away and 2 others look at it. We decided on the first one and he was great walking around with the insurance agent to make sure they saw everything.
The insurance company cut a check made out to myself, DH and the mortgage company. This was the first problem the mortgage company won't sign off on the check until the work has been completed and inspected. The contractor told us he would handle all repairs. However, the only thing he has handled has been the roof, gutters, and inside water damage all of which we feel was not done correctly so we are demanding that he complete or redo the work. He told us we can take care of the rest (chimney cap, flue of wood burning stove, front siding and gable, storm door replacement, front light fixture, and shed... I know I am forgetting some other things) We now have to do these ourselves or hire someone else to finish the work. But we can deduct what the insurance company has allowed for those things. Gee thanks!
We still have not gotten the checks cashed, I paid the contractor half upfront out of our account so I have no money to finish the repairs at this time. I doubt the inspector will pass the roof so we are caught between the 3 companies trying to get all the damage repaired and getting the money due us! I do think our insurance company was fair in their assessment and payout. The problem has been with the contractor and his subcontractors doing shoddy work.

 

[Miss Mary Poppins]

This is why they make those checks out to the mortgage company as well. We had damage in March of 2011. We called the insurance company and they has a someone come out. They pretty much warned us not to pay anyone until the job was inspected and the money was released to pay. The checks were put in an escrow account with the bank and the payments were made out to the contractors.

After we selected a contractor to do the job they had to sign paper work saying they would wait to be paid until the work was inspected and then it could be up to 30 days before they would get their money.

When we had someone come out for estimates we told then our situation. We had 4 companies come out about our roof and all four were familiar with how our lender wanted the roof completed and inspected before releasing payment. All four gave us a bid. Two asked if we wanted them to up their price to include our deductible.

Our door and windows were a little harder to find someone but we did and they waited for their money. Didn't ding us for paying over 30 days so that went ok.

The only thing we had to pay out of pocket for was screens on the windows that didn't get replaced.

Do you have a written contract with this person?

 

[dhardawa]

My mom and dad had a tree fall on their house a few years ago. They ended up having to tear everything down to (and including) the ceilings. There was also water damage inside the house (the tree fell during a thunderstorm and rain got in) as well as wall damage from tree limbs. They ended up getting all new carpet, lots of new drywall, all new paint, new roof including new rafters, and they rebuilt the whole roof on their very large screened porch including skylights and re-staining everything. My parents had to move out for three months and every penny of that was paid too. They also got a new driveway because the PODS the company brought in damaged the driveway. Final total was just over $70,000 (on a house they bought for $32,000 in 1976!) The insurance agent setup and handled everything. There were no hiccups at all. The insurance had people they used and had them in within about an hour working on the house. No hiccups at all.

 

[pixiewings71]

Yes, we had a major house fire about 7 years ago. Our insurance company cut us an immediate check for immediate needs, things like toothbrushes, hairbrushes, shoes, clothes. Our home had to be rebuilt almost completely, we kept the structure the same but everything down to the studs was replaced, it took 6 months and we lived in a rental in the meantime. The ins. paid for the rental, they paid for rental furniture, they paid for everything. They took very good care of us. The contractor was lame though, poor work, not finished on schedule, told us 1 thing and then did another. They found a leak under our house from the hall bathroom, they didn't tell us, just fixed us, then they tried to bill us an additional $5000 for the work they did....ummmmm NO, you didn't clear that with us, we aren't paying it. It was a constant struggle to get things done as we asked, the foreman wouldn't even speak with me because "as a woman" I didn't have a clue.....ya, that didn't fly well. LOL Ins. co. was amazing, contractors not so much.

 

[extremesoccermom]

This is why they make those checks out to the mortgage company as well.

Do you have a written contract with this person?

We do have a contract and find it very funny that in the first paragragh it mentions the contractor abides by working in our best interest which has not been the case. We believe he is working to cut corners at our expense.
I would hold him to the other things but we want them done correctly and will do them ourselves if need be.
I did go through Service Magic and have yet to leave my review of his service because I have been giving him the benefit of the doubt to correct the work. I hate to leave a bad review but I will be honest and if the work is not completed I will be stating that once all is said and done.

 

[a1tinkfans]

a family member is dealing with this right now. New home purchase a few months back....then a pipe burst in ceiling and the Entire home was flooded...and then Mold...the home is a vacation home, so by the time they got there, the damage was huge...
the carrier...came to a conclusion after several weeks...the remediation (mold) has been paid directly to the outside company, the rest $$ to our relative...this was a claim in excess of 100K...the HO carrier cancelled the policy right after being notified of the loss (they are paying the claim but we shall see about the add ons that will likely be needed with the situation)...
anyhow, the "new" carrier is over 4K for the same coverage...it was about 1800. before...its been stressful to say the least and it is ongoing and will be for many more weeks...basically the home was taken apart down to the outside walls...I mean a complete gut job, so there will also be Xtra $$ out of pocket because once one starts this type project it is inevitable that there will be upgrades not covered .....
we shall see where it all ends...my "guestimate" is 130-150K range with the carrier trying to deny as much as they can...they are already at a huge loss....
its all SAD...but thankfully there was coverage!!

 

[bpesch]

I dealt with a Katrina claim 7 years ago, and I guess that's about as catastrophic as you can get. We had MetLife at the time and I have nothing good to say about them. It was a nightmare and it's really made me totally distrustful of any and all homeowner insurance companies. They kept putting us off and putting us off. We had lost everything and three years later we finally got a check. Not even close to what we had hoped for. And our only recourse was to sue. By that time we were totally over it, stressed to the max and just decided to not bother.

Unfortunately this story was all too common in our area. I don't think you'll find a majority of people on the Gulf Coast that have good things to say about their insurance companies after that.

So I guess I wouldn't be a good one to give you good advise about dealing with your insurance company.

 

[Samar]

We had a freak ice storm last year that caused a MASSIVE tree from the county property behind our property line to fall on our fence and our neighbors fence narrowly missing both of our homes.

The adjuster came over and wrote out our estimate and gave us a check on the spot for removal of the tree on our side of the fence and for the damaged fence section.

The county guy came over, I reemed him out because I have been telling him for 2 YEARS to remove that dang tree due to it's height and the start of uprooting at the base but did he listen? Nooooooooooooooo. So he had his guys out a few days later to remove the entire tree since it was due to their neglect that the ice storm had such an effect on the tree.

Long story short, thankfully it was only the fence. We had just replaced the roofing and the siding and it could have been so much worse

 

[disneymomjcs]

Thanks everyone for telling me your experience with home losses.

Our first loss like this and I am learning more than I care to know about homeowners insurance. We have been loyal customers for 24 years with this well know insurance company and never had a claim of this magnatude.

I had one estimate or claim report from the insurance adjuster. Had too many estimates......ranging from highway robbery to low ball estimates. After finding contractor I wanted to work with the adjuster came back out to go over with contractor still over 6,000 away from being able to complete work with roofer, siding and windows. That doesn't cover screen damage, lamppost etc.

They are going to have Contractor break out further to see where differences are......not to mention we were told don't worry about deadline everything would be taken care of..... with three different agents in the last two years. Having my claim tossed around to multiple people and in the last month two adjusters....frustrating and worried about eating all these costs.

Now its a different story....... After the outcome I may need a new Homeowners policy......


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