flooded and not sure what to do next

[flooded flow]

What is the name of your state? Colorado
At my request I asked for ulitities to be shut off due to moving out of house in October. Gas was shut off but water and electric were not. As a result house was flooded and needs to be completely gutted. Homeowners policy will not cover loss due to utilities being shut off. But water was left on. Not sure of my options. Is water department liable?

 

[seniorjudge]

What is the name of your state? Colorado
At my request I asked for ulitities to be shut off due to moving out of house in October. Gas was shut off but water and electric were not. As a result house was flooded and needs to be completely gutted. Homeowners policy will not cover loss due to utilities being shut off. But water was left on. Not sure of my options. Is water department liable?

What caused the flooding? (I know it was from the water company's water; I need to know how and why it happened.)

 

[HomeGuru]

What is the name of your state? Colorado
At my request I asked for ulitities to be shut off due to moving out of house in October. Gas was shut off but water and electric were not. As a result house was flooded and needs to be completely gutted. Homeowners policy will not cover loss due to utilities being shut off. But water was left on. Not sure of my options. Is water department liable?

**A: what was the cause of the flood? Why did you not confirm that the water was shut off?

 

[flooded flow]

Flooding was caused by frozen pipe. Water was eventually shut off in December after over 500,000 galloons of water had flowed through the house. The initial request to turn water/utilities off was due to moving to different area.

 

[flooded flow]

What caused the flooding? (I know it was from the water company's water; I need to know how and why it happened.)

Gas was turned off and pipes froze and burst causing the flooding.

 

[seniorjudge]

Gas was turned off and pipes froze and burst causing the flooding.

Okay, how is all of this anyone's fault (but yours)?

 

[flooded flow]

Okay, how is all of this anyone's fault (but yours)?

Good question, but why would they only turn off some of the utilities when I requested that they all be turned off. If they had left them all on no flooding if they had turned them all off no flooding. But I requested that they all be turned off.

 

[HomeGuru]

Good question, but why would they only turn off some of the utilities when I requested that they all be turned off. If they had left them all on no flooding if they had turned them all off no flooding. But I requested that they all be turned off.

**A: did you read my post?

 

[efflandt]

Even if the water department had shut off the water, you would still have had a problem with burst pipes if you did not properly drain them, just less of a flood. You should have made sure that gas or electic for water heater was turned off, water was turned off at the meter, drained all of the pipes, and put non-toxic anti-freeze (propylene glycol from an RV store) in toilets and all waste traps.

Since you did not take actions that a sensible person would take to avoid the problem, you are liable.

It is not clear who you requested to shut off utilities. Did you contact each utility directly with a specific shut off date?

 

[justalayman]

So now he has a house to fix and a water bill for
A half a million gallons of water

I don't pay water bills,,,does anybody know what 500,000 gallons of water cost.

 

[seniorjudge]

So now he has a house to fix and a water bill for
A half a million gallons of water

I don't pay water bills,,,does anybody know what 500,000 gallons of water cost.

I don't pay water bills either so I don't know.

 

[ShyCat]

,,,does anybody know what 500,000 gallons of water cost.

Using my last water/sewer bill as the basis, I calculated that if this had happened at my house (yikes!), the bill would have been about $4495 -- $2097 for "water service" plus $2201 for "sewer service" plus $194 state sales tax and the usual $3 user fees.

 

[Ohiogal]

Using my last water/sewer bill as the basis, I calculated that if this had happened at my house (yikes!), the bill would have been about $4495 -- $2097 for "water service" plus $2201 for "sewer service" plus $194 state sales tax and the usual $3 user fees.

I think i could probably afford the usual $3 user fees.