Worrying and waiting to call homeowner's insurance...

[indimom]

So, while I wait to call to my insurance agent and find out what to do next, I thought I'd ask about your experience with homeowner's claims. We have had State Farm for 20 years, but have never made a claim, so I really don't know what to expect.

We recently started replacing our appliances. They still worked, but they were just old and we wanted some new features. We got a new fridge, then a new stove, and yesterday our new dishwasher was delivered.
We pulled out the old one and....

THE HORROR

There must have been a slow leak under there for a while..... DH doesn't think it was a water line, he thinks there was a slow leak around the motor part of the dishwasher.

There was unidentifiable "stuff" on the floor and visible water damage under the flooring to the subfloor, there is dark mold on the wall behind the dishwasher and the cabinets on both sides. DH went down in the cellar (we have a 100yo farm house) and he says he can see damage extending under the sink cabinet on the right and 24" cabinet to the left, and the subfloor at least two feet in front of the dishwasher. He also says the wall in that area looks wet.
YIKES! I can't believe we never smelled or saw anything! I'm guessing the cabinetry held back the odor (cause there's a smell now), and with the age of the home, the floor sloped to the outer wall so we never saw any dampness in front of the dishwasher.

So, now I'm hoping/praying that insurance will cover this and wondering what happens if we have to replace those two cabinets? There is no way we're going to find matching pieces, our kitchen is 12 years old and I tried to add an island about 5 years ago and was told that they don't sell those door fronts or colors anymore...
And the flooring that's in my kitchen extends into the dining room as well.
Ugh.

So, what is your experience/best guess?
Will homeowner's insurance cover this?
If the cabinets are seriously damaged and have to be replaced, will they replace all the cabinets just because you can't match the damaged ones?
Would they cover the entire flooring or just the kitchen portion?
How do they figure out what it will cost? Do you get estimates for repair? Or will they just offer a price per foot?
What has been your experience???
And any guesses on how long is this going to take???? Oy.

DH cut piece of plywood to size to block up the opening for now, and I'm really hoping the mold isn't "the" black mold you hear so much about...

 

[gwynne]

That must have been a very unpleasant discovery.
Have you had gotten some repair estimates?

 

[kamik86]

So, while I wait to call to my insurance agent and find out what to do next, I thought I'd ask about your experience with homeowner's claims. We have had State Farm for 20 years, but have never made a claim, so I really don't know what to expect.

We recently started replacing our appliances. They still worked, but they were just old and we wanted some new features. We got a new fridge, then a new stove, and yesterday our new dishwasher was delivered.
We pulled out the old one and....

THE HORROR

There must have been a slow leak under there for a while..... DH doesn't think it was a water line, he thinks there was a slow leak around the motor part of the dishwasher.

There was unidentifiable "stuff" on the floor and visible water damage under the flooring to the subfloor, there is dark mold on the wall behind the dishwasher and the cabinets on both sides. DH went down in the cellar (we have a 100yo farm house) and he says he can see damage extending under the sink cabinet on the right and 24" cabinet to the left, and the subfloor at least two feet in front of the dishwasher. He also says the wall in that area looks wet.
YIKES! I can't believe we never smelled or saw anything! I'm guessing the cabinetry held back the odor (cause there's a smell now), and with the age of the home, the floor sloped to the outer wall so we never saw any dampness in front of the dishwasher.

So, now I'm hoping/praying that insurance will cover this and wondering what happens if we have to replace those two cabinets? There is no way we're going to find matching pieces, our kitchen is 12 years old and I tried to add an island about 5 years ago and was told that they don't sell those door fronts or colors anymore...
And the flooring that's in my kitchen extends into the dining room as well.
Ugh.

So, what is your experience/best guess?
Will homeowner's insurance cover this?
If the cabinets are seriously damaged and have to be replaced, will they replace all the cabinets just because you can't match the damaged ones?
Would they cover the entire flooring or just the kitchen portion?
How do they figure out what it will cost? Do you get estimates for repair? Or will they just offer a price per foot?
What has been your experience???
And any guesses on how long is this going to take???? Oy.

DH cut piece of plywood to size to block up the opening for now, and I'm really hoping the mold isn't "the" black mold you hear so much about...

Since it seems like your leak was coming from an appliance you may be covered... I know if it was coming from outside they would only cover it with flood insurance. OUr basement leaks and a few years ago we had a mold problem, we ended up just throwing a ton of stuff away and cleaning it up ourselves the best we could put it sounds like your situation is much worse.

 

[indimom]

No estimates yet, we just found out yesterday afternoon when we got the new dishwasher. We considered calling my dad (a retired contractor) and our neighbor who is a contractor, but opted to wait until we can talk to insurance. I really don't know how this works so we figured we'd start there.

I honestly didn't even think of homeowner's at first. I was just caught up in the O.M.G of the moment. It dawned on me an hour or so later that we probably should try to file a claim. I'm thinking it will be covered, but I have no idea "how much" they will cover. I am going to be utterly bummed if I have to pay thousands for new cabinets because they only cover the damaged units and I can't match the older stuff. Same goes for the flooring. I don't want two different types. But I don't know if they will cover both rooms.

 

[NewRVLady]

My homeowners covered a pipe burst leak- had a crew out with giant fans et

But when we discovered mold upstairs we just paid for that and didn't file claim

Not sure if this is a covered expense-the adjuster will let you know

 

[indimom]

I left a message, they open at 8:30a.m. So, I'm anxiously awaiting a return call.

 

[piccolopat]

You really need to talk to your agent. If this was a sudden leak of a newer appliance, it probably would be covered. Each company's policy is a bit different but most have a wear and tear exclusion. If this was a longstanding problem, they could argue you didn't properly maintain the appliance. If it's not covered, you can repair hidden damage (side panels of cabinets) with something that is a close, if not exact, match. No need to tear out all of the cabinets if the only damage is to these hidden pieces. Bleach is good to clean up mold if it's not too extensive (you can wear a mask). Good luck!

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

Hopefully it will be covered. We have friends who had some kind of leak that did something in the neighborhood of $30k damage (had something to do with pipes). Their insurance company griped and grumbled, but they ended up paying.

 

[mnrose]

As to what they cover, it really depends on the specific terms of your policy. Will they cover this at all? (Some policies exclude this sort of thing). How much will they cover ? (Replacement cost? Depreciated value?). I'd get out the policy and start digging through the terms myself so I was appropirately armed when I was talking to the agent.

Check the terms. And, they DO change. Our homeowner's policy, for example, USED to cover replacing ALL siding on a home if the color you have cannot be matched (if only one side of the house is damaged in a hail storm, for example), but NOW will only cover replacing the side that is damaged and if you don't like the fact that it's a different color than the rest of the house, too bad, so sad. YOUR cost to replace the other three sides. Insert eye roll. This is why I am glad that our siding is a nice bland white.

Anyway, I can totally see the insurance company having similar language...we will replace what is damaged, and you replace anything else. But, it might not.

Good luck, OP! That had to have been a very unpleasant discovery!

 

[Shmily1]

DH went on the roof of our house to blow off the leaves. Little did we know the leaves had evidently caused the room some damage so when he stepped by the fireplace, he fell through. Luckily, my homeowners covered it.

 

[deedeetoo]

We had a dishwasher leak last summer. It was different than yours in that it was a single event that happened while we were on vacation. We came home to water on the kitchen floor and the downstairs completely ruined. We had a finished basement and the ceiling has fallen and everything was soaked including the wall paneling. The insurance company sent a company to do demolition that night. They started ripping out what was left of the paneling and ceiling. They ripped out the carpet and emptied out all the furniture and other ruined personal possessions. They set up huge fans and dehumidifiers than ran for about a week to dry out the walls. This was all to prevent mold. Since you already have mold it may work differently. We ended up not having any. The fans did their job.

The two cabinets that were on either side of the dishwasher were completely ruined. The insurance company just wanted to reface them. That would not have worked, but we couldn't convince them otherwise. Our kitchen was old (it came with the house when we bought it so at least 20 years) so we just decided to remodel the whole thing. We had been thinking about doing it anyway so this just pushed us over the edge. The insurance company gave us the money for the cabinet refinishing which was a drop in the pan. Amazingly, somehow our kitchen floor was not damaged but we replaced that anyway as part of the kitchen remodel. The insurance company did do pretty well on paying for a contractor to redo the downstairs, and to replace our personal belongings.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

See, I would assume an appliance leak would NOT be covered.

 

[Riles_and_Gabe]

I think you have a chance of having it covered. I think you should get some estimates on the cost of repair. By filing a claim (that is paid out on), you will most likely lose your safe homeowners discount (usually for a period of 5 years). I would ask your agent what that discount is and weigh that against the cost of repairing it yourself. Good luck!

 

[Jaime4004]

No estimates yet, we just found out yesterday afternoon when we got the new dishwasher. We considered calling my dad (a retired contractor) and our neighbor who is a contractor, but opted to wait until we can talk to insurance. I really don't know how this works so we figured we'd start there.

I honestly didn't even think of homeowner's at first. I was just caught up in the O.M.G of the moment. It dawned on me an hour or so later that we probably should try to file a claim. I'm thinking it will be covered, but I have no idea "how much" they will cover. I am going to be utterly bummed if I have to pay thousands for new cabinets because they only cover the damaged units and I can't match the older stuff. Same goes for the flooring. I don't want two different types. But I don't know if they will cover both rooms.

We have state farm and filed a claim once. It was a leak from outside and destroyed my ceiling in one room. I don't remember the details, it wasn't a roof leak but had something to do with how the electricity was coming into the house. I vaguely remember the electric company having to come and cap something. I'm sure that makes no sense, but the shorter version is that the state farm guy came to the house to see the damage and I had no problem with the claim. They even paid for things I wouldn't think of, like instead of patching the ceiling in one room, the whole downstairs is one continues ceiling and would need to be scraped down and repainted. Hope it works out for you!

 

[barkley]

you may luck out on the flooring. we had to file w/state farm a few years back and were surprised to find that despite the repairs only requiring some repainting in our kitchen, b/c we have an open concept home w/the rounded type wall corners state farm viewed the walls as being 'continuous' and ended up repainting our living room, kitchen, great room and the hallway (so we talked to the painting contractor who let us choose a new color vs. the ugly 'contractors standard off white' we already had). depending on if the flooring you have is still available (and there's no color variation between batches) you may end up w/new flooring in the kitchen and dining room as well.

not sure what they will do re. the cabinets but in any case-I wouldn't be calling for bids b/c state farm has their own contracted people. in our case we got a visit from a claims adjuster as well as one of state farm's contractors. the 2 did separate inspections and came up with what they each believed needed repairs (and we received copies of both)-then state farm came up with dollar figure (and if you don't agree with it as far as the scope of what needs to be repaired you can call and negotiate w/your reasoning-like the loss of cabinets that can't be replaced or duplicated). you have the option of taking what state farm ends up valuing the loss at and using someone else BUT if there are problems down the line w/the job (or any subsequent damage that state farm can trace back to the original cause) if you use their contracted people state farm will handle getting it fixed vs. you having to deal with the contractor you choose.

 

[RitaE]

The only homeowner's claim I ever had was our pipes froze and I had turned the faucet in the laundry sink open waiting for them to warm up. Then I probably forgot about it and left for the grocery store. I came home to a flooded laundry room. They covered it, so hopefully your water damage is covered too.

 

[indimom]

You really need to talk to your agent. If this was a sudden leak of a newer appliance, it probably would be covered. Each company's policy is a bit different but most have a wear and tear exclusion. If this was a longstanding problem, they could argue you didn't properly maintain the appliance. If it's not covered, you can repair hidden damage (side panels of cabinets) with something that is a close, if not exact, match. No need to tear out all of the cabinets if the only damage is to these hidden pieces. Bleach is good to clean up mold if it's not too extensive (you can wear a mask). Good luck!

Are you an insurance agent? because that's almost word for word the way he explained it. And yeah, we're not covered. It's considered wear and tear. If a pipe had burst and we had a sudden flood, that would have been covered. Ugh. So, the fact that it leaked slowly and we didn't notice is what got us.

Hopefully it will be covered. We have friends who had some kind of leak that did something in the neighborhood of $30k damage (had something to do with pipes). Their insurance company griped and grumbled, but they ended up paying.

Looks like we won't be this lucky, but I've already had my dad out this morning and we're coming up with a plan.

As to what they cover, it really depends on the specific terms of your policy. Will they cover this at all? (Some policies exclude this sort of thing). How much will they cover ? (Replacement cost? Depreciated value?). I'd get out the policy and start digging through the terms myself so I was appropirately armed when I was talking to the agent.

I looked online before he called back, and I had a bad feeling, but was still hopeful. When my FIL's crappy 30yo garage was damaged by hail, State Farm paid to replace the entire structure from the ground up. Don't know how they managed that, but it gave me hope that they cover more than you would expect. But, no such luck for us.

Check the terms. And, they DO change. Our homeowner's policy, for example, USED to cover replacing ALL siding on a home if the color you have cannot be matched (if only one side of the house is damaged in a hail storm, for example), but NOW will only cover replacing the side that is damaged and if you don't like the fact that it's a different color than the rest of the house, too bad, so sad. YOUR cost to replace the other three sides. Insert eye roll. This is why I am glad that our siding is a nice bland white.

Anyway, I can totally see the insurance company having similar language...we will replace what is damaged, and you replace anything else. But, it might not.

Good luck, OP! That had to have been a very unpleasant discovery!

I considered that a possible option also. But, we didn't even get that lucky. Insert my own eye roll here.

DH went on the roof of our house to blow off the leaves. Little did we know the leaves had evidently caused the room some damage so when he stepped by the fireplace, he fell through. Luckily, my homeowners covered it.

Was your husband alright? Wow, that's scary!!

We had a dishwasher leak last summer. It was different than yours in that it was a single event that happened while we were on vacation. We came home to water on the kitchen floor and the downstairs completely ruined. We had a finished basement and the ceiling has fallen and everything was soaked including the wall paneling. The insurance company sent a company to do demolition that night. They started ripping out what was left of the paneling and ceiling. They ripped out the carpet and emptied out all the furniture and other ruined personal possessions. They set up huge fans and dehumidifiers than ran for about a week to dry out the walls. This was all to prevent mold. Since you already have mold it may work differently. We ended up not having any. The fans did their job.

The two cabinets that were on either side of the dishwasher were completely ruined. The insurance company just wanted to reface them. That would not have worked, but we couldn't convince them otherwise. Our kitchen was old (it came with the house when we bought it so at least 20 years) so we just decided to remodel the whole thing. We had been thinking about doing it anyway so this just pushed us over the edge. The insurance company gave us the money for the cabinet refinishing which was a drop in the pan. Amazingly, somehow our kitchen floor was not damaged but we replaced that anyway as part of the kitchen remodel. The insurance company did do pretty well on paying for a contractor to redo the downstairs, and to replace our personal belongings.

Seems like that's the type of accident they do cover. Sort of a bummer. I'm not sure how we were supposed to notice a leak behind the cabinets. We get our appliances serviced once a year in the spring, so it's not like we don't follow up. I admit that I skipped it this year because we were buying a new unit. Go figure... it's probably been leaking since before that and we could have caught it a lot sooner if I'd gone ahead with the service job.

See, I would assume an appliance leak would NOT be covered.

If it was a sudden break in a line, apparently they will. Our agent used the example of the ice maker line springing a leak while you're on vacation. But they won't touch a "slow leak" and he said "if there's mold, that's a slow leak." So, you're certainly right in this case.

I think you have a chance of having it covered. I think you should get some estimates on the cost of repair. By filing a claim (that is paid out on), you will most likely lose your safe homeowners discount (usually for a period of 5 years). I would ask your agent what that discount is and weigh that against the cost of repairing it yourself. Good luck!

No luck there. I figured there would be a draw back but since I expected this to be a pricey repair I figured "this is why we carry insurance." Ugh.

We have state farm and filed a claim once. It was a leak from outside and destroyed my ceiling in one room. I don't remember the details, it wasn't a roof leak but had something to do with how the electricity was coming into the house. I vaguely remember the electric company having to come and cap something. I'm sure that makes no sense, but the shorter version is that the state farm guy came to the house to see the damage and I had no problem with the claim. They even paid for things I wouldn't think of, like instead of patching the ceiling in one room, the whole downstairs is one continues ceiling and would need to be scraped down and repainted. Hope it works out for you!

Thanks for the good wishes. You win some, you lose some. Looks like we lost this one.

you may luck out on the flooring. we had to file w/state farm a few years back and were surprised to find that despite the repairs only requiring some repainting in our kitchen, b/c we have an open concept home w/the rounded type wall corners state farm viewed the walls as being 'continuous' and ended up repainting our living room, kitchen, great room and the hallway (so we talked to the painting contractor who let us choose a new color vs. the ugly 'contractors standard off white' we already had). depending on if the flooring you have is still available (and there's no color variation between batches) you may end up w/new flooring in the kitchen and dining room as well.

not sure what they will do re. the cabinets but in any case-I wouldn't be calling for bids b/c state farm has their own contracted people. in our case we got a visit from a claims adjuster as well as one of state farm's contractors. the 2 did separate inspections and came up with what they each believed needed repairs (and we received copies of both)-then state farm came up with dollar figure (and if you don't agree with it as far as the scope of what needs to be repaired you can call and negotiate w/your reasoning-like the loss of cabinets that can't be replaced or duplicated). you have the option of taking what state farm ends up valuing the loss at and using someone else BUT if there are problems down the line w/the job (or any subsequent damage that state farm can trace back to the original cause) if you use their contracted people state farm will handle getting it fixed vs. you having to deal with the contractor you choose.

Thanks for the tips and advice. Looks like we'll be doing this on our own, so we're going to just figure out what works for us on a budget.


So, after talking to State Farm, I called dear old dad. He's a retired contractor so I knew he could give me his expert opinion. He did some looking from the kitchen into the cellar.
The flooring is probably a lost cause. We had old hardwood floors, which were covered with subfloor and vinyl. There's no option on that one. But, he's hopeful that we can save the cabinets, from what he can see at this point.
The plan is to remove the countertops and sink, then lift out the cabinets (hopefully only the closest two are affected), thoroughly clean them and replace any of the back/sides that are affected. Since the face of the cabinets look fine, he thinks he'll be able to help us rebuild the back/bottom of the boxes to get rid of any mold/damage. We're going to have to cut out the sections of drywall that are contaminated and replace that and any insulation that got wet.

Luckily, we won't have to pay for the labor. DH has some vacation time, and dad's retired.
So, for today I've got some industrial fans and a couple filters (?) going in there, and I guess we'll see how far the damage really goes tomorrow morning.
And, we'll have to get the air tested too, I guess. I don't know any companies that do that, so I'll have to do some online researching there.

Moral of the story, I guess, keep an eye on your appliances. Especially those that are somewhat enclosed. You never know what might be lurking behind your walls. Blech.

 

[piccolopat]

Are you an insurance agent? because that's almost word for word the way he explained it. And yeah, we're not covered. It's considered wear and tear. If a pipe had burst and we had a sudden flood, that would have been covered.

No, I'm not an agent but I work for an insurance company and was a commercial lines underwriter for many years. I took a look at some of the standard industry forms before I posted this morning. Hope things go smoothly on your repairs.

 

[roller99]

Are you an insurance agent? because that's almost word for word the way he explained it. And yeah, we're not covered. It's considered wear and tear. If a pipe had burst and we had a sudden flood, that would have been covered. Ugh. So, the fact that it leaked slowly and we didn't notice is what got us.

This happened to us a few years back, moved the fridge to realize it had been slowly leaking and had warped the laminate wood flooring underneath. We have State Farm and they did cover it, replacing the entire kitchen and dining room floor, as well as paying for repainting of a large portion of our house because it was "continuous". They also paid for a restoration company to come out with fans to dry out the floor because once we started pulling up the laminate we realized the water had spread a lot further than we originally thought underneath it. I'm sorry your insurance won't cover it.

 

[tvguy]

We had that happen with a 15 year old dishwasher. The vinyl flooring suddenly (like almost overnight) turned brown at the seams. That was the first clue of an issue. I replaced the dishwasher, after drying out the subfloor for several days. Subfloor below the dishwasher was fine.
Insurance came out, wrote a check on the spot, for $700 (total estimate was $1,700, I had a $1,000 deductible) to replace the rest of the kitchen floor and underlayment, and gave me a list of preferred contractors who would fix it for that price. We picked one. and new flooring. Only issue we has was when they pulled up the old floor, they discovered there was another, identical vinyl floor below it. Same flooring. So insurance kicked in another $150 since that double the amount of work to remove the flooring. Only thing we can figure is the builder had planned to put tile flooring in, and changed his mind, and just put 2 floors down so that floor would be the same height as the adjoining Family room and hall.
Only stipulation insurance had was that we had to replace the faulty dishwasher at our own expense, which had already done before filing the claim.