Originally Posted by 40yearfan

My RO filter under the sink blew a fitting on Feb. 15 and flooded my whole house. We got a water retraction specialist in as soon as we found it and managed to keep any furniture from being damaged. That was 3 weeks ago and we are still waiting for All State to do something. It took them a week to get an appraisal guy there and now it's been two weeks and still nothing. Most of our carpeting was torn up by the water retraction guys and they tore all the baseboard off and cut holes in the drywall to be able to dry everything up.

My wife and I have been living in these conditions and have put most of the small stuff in the garage in anticipation of getting our carpets re-installed. We are living out of boxes and standing on hard concrete floors and all we keep getting from All State is excuses and dates that they never meet. My agent is about as much help as a rock. They told me I will have to hire the contractors and get the work done myself as they no longer have people do the work for them.

I have been with this same insurance company since 1982, have paid higher premiums to get replacement value rather than depreciated values and this is the first claim I've ever had. They are telling me they will give me depreciated value for the flooring and I have to go out, find a carpet company, get them to install the flooring, and then turn over the final amount to the insurance company and they will pay the difference if it's within their parameters, but they won't tell me exactly what those parameters are.

I am tired of living like a transient. I want my house back.

Thanks for listening to my rant.

Originally Posted by 40yearfan

My RO filter under the sink blew a fitting on Feb. 15 and flooded my whole house. We got a water retraction specialist in as soon as we found it and managed to keep any furniture from being damaged. That was 3 weeks ago and we are still waiting for All State to do something. It took them a week to get an appraisal guy there and now it's been two weeks and still nothing. Most of our carpeting was torn up by the water retraction guys and they tore all the baseboard off and cut holes in the drywall to be able to dry everything up.

My wife and I have been living in these conditions and have put most of the small stuff in the garage in anticipation of getting our carpets re-installed. We are living out of boxes and standing on hard concrete floors and all we keep getting from All State is excuses and dates that they never meet. My agent is about as much help as a rock. They told me I will have to hire the contractors and get the work done myself as they no longer have people do the work for them.

I have been with this same insurance company since 1982, have paid higher premiums to get replacement value rather than depreciated values and this is the first claim I've ever had. They are telling me they will give me depreciated value for the flooring and I have to go out, find a carpet company, get them to install the flooring, and then turn over the final amount to the insurance company and they will pay the difference if it's within their parameters, but they won't tell me exactly what those parameters are.

I am tired of living like a transient. I want my house back.

Thanks for listening to my rant.

Originally Posted by maddogkf

yeah that sounds about right - Carpet is always depreciated ACV (actual cash value). Tell them you think you have RC (replacement cost). Also ask them if it's standard procedure if it takes 2 weeks to get an estimate.

How long after you filed your claim did you receive contact from an ajduster? If it was more than a day or two for first contact, lemme know....

They never did contact us. We called 3 times trying to get an adjuster and they finally assigned an independant adjuster to us. He told us it would be at least a week before he could get to us, but after my wife had a fit, he managed to get there sooner


Call your adjuster. He should have contacted you a few times by now & given you an estimate for damages or at least given you a few names of contractors who do insurance claims work.

The agent has never contacted us in regard to this claim. All of the phone calls have been made by us trying to get some action on this claim.

To proceed with your claim, here's what I want you to tell them:

1. You will get your own contractor to do the work & will work off of HIS estimate if you don't get an adjuster's estimate within 3 days.

2. You will submit all your invoices (emerg service, cleaning, house repairs, personal property repairs) to your adjuster. They will group all the info into the following categoies:

Cov A - Dwelling repairs - cost of all dmamage to the house, inlcuding the emerg bills, less carpet depreciation

Cov B - Personal property - damage to any of your personal property less depreication

Cov C - Additional Living Expense/Loss of Use - tell them that you could have moved out of the house, but didn't. Therefore, since you did mitigate your damages, you feel that you should be compensated for your own work.

They will cut you a check for Cov A damage less your carpet depreciation. If the damage is over $2K, it will have your mortgage company also on the check. Once your carpet is replaced, you should be able to get the money that was withheld back when you submit your receipt.

For Cov B damage (if you did lose any items) they will pay RC once the items are replaced. Basically, they will pay for the ACV first then you submit the receipts to get the money they withheld back. If they pay for any items that were damaged, they may take these items for salvage. If the adjuster is lazy, he won't take salvage. Tell him you will dispose of it on your own.

Cov C - tell them since you could've easily packed up & went to a hotel, you would like to work something out - maybe pay you an amount equal to your deductible for your time (tell them since you are not a young buck, you had to move your furniture & did not know what to do & threw your back out.)

Tell them it's been a 3 week hassle & no one has contacted you on how to proceed. Throw in a couple of "bad faith" lines & say "I think I smell mold" & "do I need to get a private adjuster to help me out?" - that'll surely light a fire under their asses.

Let me know how this progresses - I worked home owner claims for almost 5 years....

Originally Posted by Pariah

Here's what I want you to do:
1. Go to the nearest window.
2. Open it.
3. Stick your head out.
4. Yell: "I'M MAD AS HELL AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANYMORE!!"

Good luck with your house, 40.

Originally Posted by SweetD

I would also call a carpet cleaning business to do all the work like this one.

www.herocarpetcare.com

Originally Posted by maddogkf

Call your agent right now & express that you have conerns that you have not been acted upon in a prudent and prompt manner. It was too long of a time for contact.

Then call your adjuster & drop those 4 bombs: bad faith, mold, public adjuster, insurance commissioner. Start the stop watch. If he's not responsive within 24 hours, then let me know. I have a few names of some PAs that I used to deal with that were just ruthless.