Home Insurance Advice

Hey all,

I am hoping to tap into the collective HBT knowledge/experiences a bit here.

About 6 weeks ago the water line somehow detached from my fridge. Fortunately we were home and it could not have run for more than 10 minutes. We called home insurance and they acted immediately and sent out ServPro to dry out the affected floor.

Soon after the floor was done drying the local adjuster came out and did his thing.

And now here we are, with a torn up kitchen and a complete inability to get our insurance adjuster to answer her phone or call us back. What can I do? How can I get this resolved? I am sick and damned tired of being given the run around.

TIA,
Dave

Why didn't you just shop vac it up and be done with it? It couldn't have been that big of mess, and it wasn't like it was sewage or anything.

I did clean it up myself. And then the pergo floors turned up at the edges. There was also moisture in the base of the walls.

This is why I have home insurance.

Sorry Dave, I didn't mean to offend. It didn't sound that bad in the original post.

If the adjuster won't respond, call the direct number and punch around the menu until you get a person. Explain your situation and ask for the adjuster's boss. You can be nice as pie about it. Concerned home owner just looking to get things sorted out.

If that doesn't work, go down to the main office with a fire axe. Bust a pipe in the lobby and start making demands. You will get a response.

Call, call, call, that's the best thing. Leave message after message each time letting them know how much more pi$$ed off you are getting with each subsequent phone call. I had a similar situation a few years back with a DirecTv tech flooding the finished basement of the house we had just bought and moved into. After about a week of phone tag we finally got ahold of their insurance adjuster...long story short after he brought my wife to tears for calling him, I went a bit bat $hit crazy on him, ended up having to call not only DirecTv corporate, but their insurer as well to get anything done. Eventually it was taken care of, but not until over $20,000 in damage was done and I spent many hours on the phone trying to get things moving. Not trying to scare you, but just trying to say don't let up the calls and document everytime you call. You pay homeowners for a reason. If you can't get the adjuster on the phone, go over their head, bosses just love hearing from angry clients about how their employees are not doing their job.

onthekeg said:

Sorry Dave, I didn't mean to offend. It didn't sound that bad in the original post.

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Not offended, just explaining. I was trying not to write an essay in the first post. I can understand why you would think it wasn't that bad.

I think that I am going to start inferring that I am going to get legal help and see if that pushes them along.

I would just pester my agent. I figure its his job to deal with the adjuster the office etc. Thats why he gets paid the big bucks

What insurance company do you have your policy with?

You could also threaten to call or just call a public adjuster. Some companies will magically become more responsive if they see a public adjuster on the scene.

bosdave said:

I think that I am going to start inferring that I am going to get legal help and see if that pushes them along.

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That has a risk. If you threaten to lawyer up, they can too. And they have a bevy of lawyers on hand. You say you'll get a lawyer or have one and they will say, okay, we'll let them handle this from here on out. Now you have to get a lawyer.

Keep a log of dates/times and names of people that you made phone calls to. If things get really messy it's nice to be able to document your efforts.

Do you have an agent or is it one of those 1800 deals?

A few things first. How long have you been trying to reach him? Have you tried at various times of the day? Does he have a voicemail? If so then hit 0 when the voicemail comes on. Many times it will route you to someone else.

What carrier are you with and do you know if it is one of their own adjusters or a contracted company? That makes a huge difference.

Call into the sales line, they will always answer that one, and explain the situation and ask to speak to a supervisor to adress it. Don't yell or get rude with them or you won't get anywhere.

If all else fails contact the insurance commisioners office for you state.

Zuljin said:

That has a risk. If you threaten to lawyer up, they can too. And they have a bevy of lawyers on hand. You say you'll get a lawyer or have one and they will say, okay, we'll let them handle this from here on out. Now you have to get a lawyer.

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That doesn't happen with insurance.

Sorry for not updating the thread, and thank you everyone for your advice.

I have been doing much of what has been suggested in this thread for over 6 weeks. I finally got the supervisor of the adjuster(s) on the phone and all of a sudden we were getting great communication for all of Monday. Seemed like it was going to be resolved and then we hear nothing yesterday, I really hope we are not back to the incredible void.

So where are you currently at? Did Servpro rip up the pergo at this point? If so I'm sure there is some sort of issue with the subfloor that could be rough on your feet and causing you grief. Say it's unsafe for you/your kids/whatever, light a fire under their ass. Kind of dumb for them to try to dry pergo, but that's the restoration tech in my speaking, and I don't know all of the details.

Did you sign a contract with Servpro? If so call them and ask what's up as well.

Finally concluded the process today.

Pergo was ripped up immediately.

bosdave said:

Finally concluded the process today.

Pergo was ripped up immediately.

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Glad its looking up for ya then.

Do you feel like they made you whole?