by ashleys1221 » Sun Dec 20, 2009 08:38 pm
Our dishwasher broke and has leaked water under the house in the crawl space. We found this out when we noticed our kitchen floor buckling. There is mold in the crawl space and it has spread to our kitchen cabinets (which we have been told can happen in less than a week's time). Our claim is being denied because it excludes seepage and they are saying the water leak has been going on for too long but can't give me a time frame for "too long". Why isn't this covered - we reported the problem right away.
Posted: Sun Dec 20, 2009 08:48 pm Post Subject:
What state are you in?
Who is your insurance carrier?
You're right about mold. I have seen an entire room go down in 3 days. Why does the insurance company do that? Because they can. The reality is that they cannot tell you how long the leak has been going on. Another reality is that there is no set damage to time ratio...What do I mean by this...you can have substantial damage in a couple of days or it could take 3 weeks or even a month.
The Insurance Companies send their examiners and adjusters to "seminars and conferences" that supposedly teaches them how to tell how long a leak has been ongoing. Truth is, they cannot.
Does your policy give you a specific number of days or weeks? Most policies I have seen say " repeated leakage or seepage for a period of weeks, months or years".
Here is my argument to that... If you are not going to pay me for damages because the leak has been going on for 2 weeks, then pay me for the leak caused up until the 2 wk point....At this point they will see they have no way of gauging at what point the loss changed from a covered loss to one excluded.
A case like this I would take straight to legal.
Posted: Sun Dec 20, 2009 10:31 pm Post Subject: Dishwasher leak
Thank you for your reply. I am in NC and my insurance carrier is Farm Bureau. I am waiting for a full copy of our policy from our agent. Supposedly they have added an exclusion for seepage within the past few years. We have been in the house for 10 years with this policy and they are now telling us changes have been made to the policy and exclusions have been added. I will have to look to see if time frame is mentioned. We do have $5000 mold coverage, so I'm not sure how we can have that if we are not allowed to have any seepage?? Any additional thoughts?
Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 12:32 pm Post Subject:
The reality is that they cannot tell you how long the leak has been going on. Another reality is that there is no set damage to time ratio...What do I mean by this...you can have substantial damage in a couple of days or it could take 3 weeks or even a month.
The Insurance Companies send their examiners and adjusters to "seminars and conferences" that supposedly teaches them how to tell how long a leak has been ongoing. Truth is, they cannot.
Does your policy give you a specific number of days or weeks? Most policies I have seen say " repeated leakage or seepage for a period of weeks, months or years".
Here is my argument to that... If you are not going to pay me for damages because the leak has been going on for 2 weeks, then pay me for the leak caused up until the 2 wk point....At this point they will see they have no way of gauging at what point the loss changed from a covered loss to one excluded.
I don't even know where to begin with this one. :roll:
A case like this I would take straight to legal.
Why am I not suprised?
Supposedly they have added an exclusion for seepage within the past few years. We have been in the house for 10 years with this policy and they are now telling us changes have been made to the policy and exclusions have been added.
You would have been notified of changes to your policy. When was the last time you had a policy review?
Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 04:21 pm Post Subject:
HO policies are usually going to exclude coverage for water seepage that is "ongoing". I've seen policies that define this as "weeks, moths, years". The reasoning is that 1) they don't want to assume coverage for a situation that started prior to the policy being effective and 2) the policy is designed to address "sudden" losses. If a damage is ongoing then it's really more of a maintenance issue.
I have no doubt that the carrier is using the fact that mold exists to determine that this is not a situation that has only existed for a few days. I'm guessing it also depends on the location and extent of the mold.
Posted: Wed Dec 23, 2009 04:26 pm Post Subject:
I am waiting for a full copy of our policy from our agent
PA speak is PA speak....but this is the statement from the OP that really confuses me. You have been with this company for 10 years and you don't have the policy? I don't know, but when I bought a house "The State" sent my policy and then I get updates all the time. Same thing with my car insurance. I have the policy, but then Progressive sends me updates all the time, like my new pet coverage so my unicorn has some protection when we are tooling around.
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