Homeowners Insurance Claim

[Clover]

Iowa

We had a problem with the elec. co. transformer that caused a shared neutral. High voltage through the house. Elec. co. refuses to claim responsibility.

A master electrician wrote 2X and phoned the claims adjuster stating the damage that has occured to all electrical items plugged in. The damage is in the life cycle.

Also on the advice of our agent, we submitted replacement cost of every item. We have replacement insurance.

The adjuster wants us to submit repair cost for every item. The catch is that if the repairman comes out, the appliance is working now. No repairman will write up a statement backing up the master electrician.

Also, a statement of repair was submitted regarding replacement of all componants in the computers.

Adjuster is not accepting any information we submit.

My husband wants to close the claim, and just say forget it. How do we do this?

Thanks!

Clover

 

[ALawyer]

I am baffled.

There are a whole series of questions as to thge responsibility of the insurance company -- including what the state utilities commission requires, plus issues about your homeowners insurance.

IF you have private homeowners insurance with a replacement cost rider, and IF damage due to electrical voltage changes is not EXCLUDED out of the policy -- and some policies do exclude that -- then you are entitled to replacement cost for the items that were destroyed. That the potential lifetime of various appliances MAY have been shortened is NOT likely to be covered as the items were not destroyed. If the item was covered and the type of damage was not excluded, and the item was merely damaged, you are entitled to have your insurance company pay to repair it.

IF the electrical company is responsible, it only would be responsible for paying the depreciated value of the items they destroyed and for repairing the damages to other items.

My sense is that to collect on what your electrician says is a shorter lifetime is going to take going to court and having your electrician and the company's experts battle it out..

If tyou want to drop the matter just do nothing. BUT you may be able to get a settlement of something (nuisance value) by continuing and following through.

 

[Clover]

Hello again,

We are still dealing with the insurance company regarding this issue.

We were sent a proof of loss form acknowledging the cause of loss as *additional Perils - Power Surge*.

We were also asked to submit a letter from the electrician to support the loss. So again we went to the electrician, and he said he couldn't make it any clearer than he already had. So we submitted the form with the original letter that we submitted twice before...... from the electrician stating the damage that occured to everything that was plugged in at the time.

We submitted this form on March 20th. We have not heard anything back from the insurance company which is 5 miles away.

What is a reasonable time to wait before contacting them, or to wait for them to contact us?

Even though they gave us the proof of loss form, can they still deny us the claim?

Thanks!