Home owners insurance or utiltiy

[curt7974]

What is the name of your state? Ohio - Vernon Twp, Trumbull Cnty.

On December 30th at about 07:00 an enormous electrical surge damaged equipment on all of the utility poles along the road that I live on. The power was out until about 14:00. There were no storms, lightning, or other weather conditions that could have caused the surge at the time. I later found out that a power company line in Newton Falls, OH discharged onto our transmission lines which caused the damage. When the power cam back on I found a lot of my household appliances damaged from the surge. I was going to file a claim with my home owners insurance. I would have to pay a deductible of 250.00 out of my own pocket. A friend told me that if the damage was caused by the utiltiy and not weather conditions, then they would be responsible for the damages 100%.

Is that correct. Should I be seeking reimbursement from the Electric Utility Co. for the damages instead of filing a claim with my home owners' policy?

Thanks!

 

[djohnson]

Contact your electric company. If they caused the damage then they do carry insurance to cover any damage, from house burning to spoiled milk. Most are pretty familiar with it as people that know this use it constantly. If it was an act of God however they may not file it. They record and can tell you when surges happened or if there was problems at that time. I would do this soon as they may have a policy about the length of time the claim must be filed in. You should have already checked into this by now either with them or you own agency.

 

[curt7974]

I contacted Ohio Edison and they said that they were denying all claims regarding the incident because the PUCO ( Public Utilities Commision of Ohio ) has a tariff that prevents them from paying damages due to equipment failure.

Seems to me, if the utiltiy company's equipment fails and, as a direct result, causes damage to appliances in my home, they should be responsible to repair or replacement. It just makes common sense.

Anyone else ever heard of this "tariff" from the PUCO????

I'm contacting them (PUCO) to find out what they've got to say about it.

 

[djohnson]

Sorry I'm not familiar with it. I'm in TN so things are probably different but here that is what the insurance is carried for, equipment failure or errors or problems on the electric companies part. I work with one regularly and I know they pay for stuff like that. I would go ahead and call the PUCO and find out about this tariff.