Duke energy fried my property only paying depriciated value

[joshindiana]

What is the name of your state (only U.S. law)? Indiana

I don't know what my legal options are at this point. Here's what happened, for several months my electric billed showed very high kw usage. Month one was 3000 kw hours, Second month 2700 kw hours, this is triple or even quadruple what it usually is, I called Duke energy to ask questions and they said that I used it I pay for it. After talking to about 15 different Duke energy employees asking them to send a technician out to check my power lines coming in I received no answer from them. I did manage to get them to send a meter reader out twice which i didn't ask for they just showed up and ended up misreading my meter twice. Early morning I heard the central air come on then half the house lost power, I checked my breaker and all outlets nothing. Last summer I had the same thing where the main lines coming in one had shorted out causing half the power box to lose power. I called Duke and they sent a technician out and thats what it was the other line coming in did the same thing. When this happened I lost my central ac, washer, high end theater system, computer, and lcd monitor. I called Duke and they said they would do an investigation, after a week or so of calling to figure out what they found I get a letter from SRS insurance out of Tennessee asking for itemized damage. I sent that in and now they want to give me depreciated value for everything which averages about a 1/3 of the total replacement. Can they get away with this considering it was there fault and I made several attempts to contact them before damage was done. Can anyone help me out

 

[justalayman]

why do you believe you would be due anything more than the value of the damaged appliances? You are not entitled to new value because the items are not new. You are entitled to what they were worth when they got zapped.

actually, unless you lost the neutral to your house, there should have been no damage. That would not cause you to lose power to 1/2 of your panel but could theoretically cause 240 volts to be applied to a 120 volt device or a very low voltage. Either can be damaging to equipment.

 

[joshindiana]

I guess I didn't put all the details in the first post. When the line shorted right outside my house for some reason it was reading 165 volts on one line and 65 volts on the other line. I had the same scenario last summer and was told the group of lines (2x 110volt lines, ground) were completely replaced due to age. After the outage when the technician came out we were both looking at the lines and they weren't replaced just the splice on the line that went bad. The other line was wrapped with black electrical tape. The line with tape on it was the line that shorted out this time. I have made several attempts to solve whatever problem there was by contacting them by phone, mail, and troubleshooting on my side. I'm not an electrician so I didn't know at the time what the problem was I just knew that around 5000 kwh was not normal for me. That's almost 6 months of service for me. I understand that my appliances were not new but they all worked just fine before the outage. Now I'm looking at close to 6000 dollars to replace what was damaged and they are offering 2400. I'm not being greedy here but what they are offering won't fix the central ac or replace at least half of what was damaged. I was just wondering what they are responsible for financially considering they are accepting responsibility for the incident. It just blows my mind that they can ignore a potential problem without even checking on it. I know it's extreme but in a worst case scenario my house could have burnt down while I was sleeping and they had a 2 1/2 month notice that there might have been a problem with my electric. That's where I'm coming from, it's the fact that there were signs of trouble before it happened and they ignored them repeatedly and now most of my major appliances are damaged and I will be stuck footing the bill out of pocket. Duke's insurance company has made several comments to me about filing with my homeowners insurance but that results in me filing a claim, a deductible, and paying out of pocket with the intent of being reimbursed later. I don't know how it is for energy companies but I work for a large beverage company and if we damage anything and it's our fault we are liable for 100% replacement costs at current prices no matter what the age. I appreciate your time and knowledge

 

[justalayman]

100% replacement costs at current prices no matter what the age.

I don't know any court that enforces a new replacement value. A court will "make you whole" which is, the amount of actual damages you have suffered. A stove that costs $1000 new 10 years ago is not worth much today. The point is; there are not liable for providing you with a new stove, just one comparable to what you have. Same thing with every other damaged item.

and what you are responsible for sounds more like what your company pays as a matter of practice. I doubt you will ever be required by a court to pay for the new value of some item. It just does not work that way.