Insurance

I just had the last straw with American Family. But I'd best back up and relate the whole story.

So our upstairs neighbors, who are renters, flooded our house when their son pulled the hose that goes into the toilet. This means insurance nightmare. I was on the phone for over 6 hours yesterday with insurance companies trying to work out who pays for what. My insurance company, State Farm, was wonderful. They were so kind and thoughtful. But we have a $2,000 deductible with them so they suggested we see if another insurance will pay. Besides which, we didn't cause the damage. They advised me to contact the HOA insurance company. They only cover the exterior of the building and the grounds, but it's best to inform them and have them come check it out anyway. So I put in a claim with them and they said they'd send someone out in 48 hours or so.

So next, to the insurance of the renters and the owner of that condo. They told me they were with American Family Insurance, but they had already called in a claim and were told that renters insurance only covered their goods and not damage to property. Great. So I get the contact info for their landlord, Gary. I call him to get his insurance information and he tells me he has the same insurance as I do. I said that yes, we had the same HOA insurance, but I needed his condo insurance. He didn't realize (even though when I was on the HOA board I personally sent him letters saying that the HOA insurance does not cover the interior and he needed to get coverage) that it wasn't covered. He doesn't have a mortgage on the place, so he's not required by law to keep it insured. When I told him the HOA coverage doesn't cover interior stuff, he started yelling at me. He was furious and yelled as though it was all my fault. I gave him the current president's number and don't envy her that call. He was really no fun to work with at all. And now he has a flooded condo and no insurance to cover the damage.

So now I call back to State Farm -- actually, I sould give a shout out. His name is Bob Clark. I worked mostly with Doreen in the office, but they were wonderful. I am so glad we switched to them about a year ago. They've just been wonderful, there's no other adjective for it. Okay, so I call State Farm and they told me that despite what my neighbors had been told, we were covered. All renters policies carry a liability coverage, and as long as they are negligent their liability kicks in. So the fact that their son caused the damage makes them negligent and it should pay. I didn't know what would have to happen to prove this, but it gave me something.

So now I'm calling American Family and because they cover so much of the midwest they are swamped (pardon the pun) with claims for property damage. It was Monday and they were backlogged from the weekend. I only ever got to talk to auto accident specialists. All I wanted to know was, could I call someone to clean it up or did I have to wait for their person to come out and assess damages first? Nobody knew. Now I have to admit they were really kind and had great phone service skills. But they had no information that was helpful. After a few hours someone from property damage called me, but then she realized that it was a liability claim and she couldn't help or give me advice either. So it had to get transferred again. Meanwhile, water is seeping further into the walls. DH and my mother were mopping up what they could, but I didn't know if I could call a recovery place. I spent hours with American Family trying to get answers. Finally they sent it to someone in Salt Lake (I'd been talking with people in Denver and Des Moines.) Again, they wouldn't give me any information because they hadn't assessed negligence yet. So I called State Farm and they recommended I call ServPro and have them come out and start drying things out. It's something that has to be done whether insurance covers it or not. So I called them and they came within the hour. (BTW, they are wonderful! I would highly recommend them to anyone! I'll post about them another time.) Just as they get working I get a call from AmFam and he said that he'd spoken with the neighbors who admitted their son pulled the hose, which means negligence, but he was still going to investigate. *sigh* He didn't leave me with much information at all. I called him back today to find out what the liability coverage limit was and see when I'd know for sure if they were covering, but his voicemail says he's on vacation for the next few days. Nice. I was being patient with them, but really. He takes everything, talks to me last night and then leaves for a few days without telling me who to talk to in the meantime.

So I called back my people at State Farm and they said standard liability coverage is $100,000 -- plenty to cover the damage. At this point, I'm thinking it will be about $20,000. It's going to be $3-4k for the drying, $10k for repairing the walls, and then I don't know how much for the carpet and painting and linoleum.

Oh, I hope, I hope that they find negligence. Otherwise we've got to go through our place and pay $2,000 and probably our insurance company will sue the neighbors for the rest. But from the very moment when I found the water and talked to them, they said it was their son who pulled it out. I don't know what else it could be. But you never know with insurance companies ...