Ex Wife Submitted Homeowner Claim

[JenniferLynn2000]

Kinda.

Doubtful. It‘s more likely she kept it to push off having to get one of those pesky job things by a few more months.

 

[Zigner]

Thank you - I say “rent” because she wasn’t able to write off / deduct anything related to the house on taxes until she refinanced it.

That's not (necessarily) true.

 

[Ohiogal]

OP you are really out of your league .. the one who most likely will agree you are not is LDIJ. And she doesn't know the law or research it. This is NOT your situation and you are relying on what you have been told. You are a severe disadvantage being a legal stranger.

 

[adjusterjack]

It‘s surprising that a claim she made on her property would affect his future cost; the insurance history should follow her, not him.

If his name was still on the policy, the claim goes against his insurance record.

very few people own their homes outright. I’d assume that if a bank owns any part of your house, a part of the mortgage and homeowner’s insurance requirement would be that paid claims are fixed with the funds.

That's normally true and insurance companies make the check out to the insured and lienholder thus requiring the insured to deal with the lienholder. The lienholder typically requires the insured to sign the check an send it to the lienholder. The lienholder deposits it in the escrow account and releases funds during the repairs.

Many insurance companies will, for the convenience of the insured, write a claim check to just the insured up to a certain amount, accepting the risk that a duplicate payment would have to be made to the lienholder if something went wrong and the lienholder squawked. The threshold could vary by company depending on how comfortable the claims department was with the risk. It's possible that the lienholder was omitted because the amount was within that company's threshold.

On the other hand it could have included both insureds and the lienholder and still slipped through the cracks when deposited. It might have been rectified then but now, more than a year later and the other lienholder out of the picture, too late.

 

[JenniferLynn2000]

OP you are really out of your league .. the one who most likely will agree you are not is LDIJ. And she doesn't know the law or research it. This is NOT your situation and you are relying on what you have been told. You are a severe disadvantage being a legal stranger.

Yes, I relied on what I was told, as he sat next to me and showed me the cashed check, claim info, etc. He was relaying the situation since he had gotten new homeowner’s ins and the cost had a significant increase due to her claim. It’s not a complicated situation, and he isn’t looking at legal action - he just wanted to know if it was kosher or fraud (the kind of fraud that the Ins Co looks into - not he and a lawyer). I tooled around on google sitting on the couch with him and found this site.

 

[adjusterjack]

he just wanted to know if it was kosher or fraud (the kind of fraud that the Ins Co looks into

No. Not insurance fraud. The policy was in both their names. The check was in both their names. Who cashed the claim check is between the two named insureds. The claim, however, is under that policy which had his name on it. The claim follows him as well as her.

He's free to shop around with other insurance companies to see if he can get a better rate despite the claim.