Sandy Flood claim rejected

[ralpht44]

Just received official notice today from my flood insurance company that my claim was rejected. I only had about 4-5 inches of water but it took it's toll. Carpet, Luan subfloor, popped tile, damaged stall shower and 10 baseboard heaters. I have about 1000 squae foot. The insurance company estimate came in at $1,987.00 and my deductibe is $2,000.00. I had a quote from a contractor at $22k to replace what was damaged. I sent it to the adjuster as requested. During the process I did not receive one follow up call or a return call from the company or adjuster, simply that they were "processing" the claim. I am stunned at this and have already layed out $4,500.00 for materials for the work to be repaired. Open to all suggestions from barners on next steps and any recourse.

[hevysrf]

Your flood adjuster is legally required to to give you a copy of the flood claims handbook, Claim appeal process is clearly outlined there.
http://www.state.il.us/iema/planning...s_Handbook.pdf
My fema adjuster was very helpful, claim resolved fairly.

Maybe hire a public adjuster to help ? Some policies do not cover ground floor or rooms below grade.

[ARMED4BEAR]

Go for the Public Adjuster... they act pretty much as your Lawyer for your claim. Talk to them and see what they say. Yes they take a % but that is figured in and added to the claim not subtracted from the amount.

I've got a great adjuster and when I told the Insurance Co. who it was, the people on the phone literally groaned! He showed up with 5 people including engineers and several contractors... I've never seen such a nervous Insurance agent...he's helped dozens of my friends and family...

[Ohana]

What is w/ these agents? It's not like the money is coming from their pocket. I guess it depends on who you are dealing with. My parents' agent (USAA) told us what to take out of the claim and things we could add in.
Def. get a public adjuster and don't sign anything without carefully reading it.

[Esuomm1]

Which company are you using?

[ralpht44]

My company is Harleysville. Thanks for the suggestions. made a call to one public adjuster this AM and was not impressed by our first conversation.

[Krazy8]

Read your Flood Policy very carefully , even read it a few times , compare your contractors estimate with the adjusters estimate to see what and where the differances are

[shoot-straight]

we had a defective pipe fitting break in our 3 year old custom built house while we were on vacation. it flooded the downstairs of our house pretty good. caused over 30 k in damage, and that was what was actually repaired. more SHOULD have been done. here is what i learned. insurance companies DO NOT want to give you any money. adjusters are not your friends and neither is your ins company. they will keep saying "no" till they are forced to say "ok" (notice i didnt say yes). they beat you down until you simply become satisfied with what they will give you. my life was misery for about 6 months after my issue and my house will never be the same. i relented due to exhaustion- so i lost.

i commend you for having flood insurance. many did not. you deserve to be made whole again.

[Whaler13]

Our property (directly on the bay) was fortunately not damaged (inside) by Sandy. We only had some minor exterior damage. Since it is a vacation property, I don't believe our flood insurance would have paid a claim anyway. Correct? We don't have a mortgage, so I am not required to carry Flood insurance, as far as I know. So I am considering not renewing it. Can I hear some pros and cons on this from people who may know better? I don't mind paying for the insurance, but what is the point if they aren't going to pay a future claim?

[Krazy8]

Our property (directly on the bay) was fortunately not damaged (inside) by Sandy. We only had some minor exterior damage. Since it is a vacation property, I don't believe our flood insurance would have paid a claim anyway. Correct? We don't have a mortgage, so I am not required to carry Flood insurance, as far as I know. So I am considering not renewing it. Can I hear some pros and cons on this from people who may know better? I don't mind paying for the insurance, but what is the point if they aren't going to pay a future claim?

If it was FLOOD damage to the exterior of the structure then insurance should cover it , if it was FLOOD damage to property, docks, bulkheads outside the 4 walls of the house then FLOOD insurance does not cover that

[Barnegat Light Mike]

Our property (directly on the bay) was fortunately not damaged (inside) by Sandy. We only had some minor exterior damage. Since it is a vacation property,
I don't believe our flood insurance would have paid a claim anyway. Correct? We don't have a mortgage, so I am not required to carry Flood insurance, as far as I know. So I am considering not renewing it. Can I hear some pros and cons on this from people who may know better? I don't mind paying for the insurance, but what is the point if they aren't going to pay a future claim?

Yes, without a mortgage you are not required to have flood insurance. I went through the process of what to do about flood insurance about 10 years ago. I looked at two things:

1. What "protection" does the flood insurance really provide me? After reading my policy several times (it was a real challenge to slog through it), I determined that between the limits on payouts, other restrictions, deductibles, caveats, etc. that any request for claim would probably result in a HUGE fight with the insurance company. I reluctantly determined they would probably win that fight, too. Certainly, the areas of the home likely to be damaged (e.g., appliances on first floor) were excluded from my policy. Thus, I determined, I was unlikely to be made whole (or anywhere close to it) via flood insurance.

2. How likely was my home to be flooded with significant damages? This was much tougher to precisely determine. A neighbor had a book on extreme weather events on Long Beach Island. The book identified the townships on LBI which had had significant flooding events with lots of pictures of the actual flooding. Barnegat Light was not among them. I then talked to the local firemen (the firehouse is on my street). The "old timers" said that they had never seen the bay meet the ocean where we are. Since our beach is so wide and the dunes so high, I concluded that the risk of my home flooding was extremely low.

I dropped our flood insurance in 2002. How did we make out during Sandy? There was no major flooding in Barnegat Light and no major damage township-wide. The same was true with our home although I did lose some bait in my bait freezer when we lost power. The final and most compelling piece of evidence I'll provide is that NOW even my wife agrees that dropping the flood insurance was the right thing to do (and she hates agreeing with her husband ). Obviously everyone must make their own decision based on their circumstances. For us, after weighing the risks and rewards, I concluded that I was likely throwing money overboard by paying for flood insurance. Good luck making your own assessment.

[Ohana]

With the new FEMA flood maps coming out and the defundng of the program by the govt insurance is going to skyrocket if your home doesn't meet the new height requirements. Apparently insuring an av. size house that doesn't meet regs could be 20k. If that's the case I see lots of people dropping flood if possible.

[Whaler13]

Our property (directly on the bay) was fortunately not damaged (inside) by Sandy. We only had some minor exterior damage. Since it is a vacation property, I don't believe our flood insurance would have paid a claim anyway. Correct? We don't have a mortgage, so I am not required to carry Flood insurance, as far as I know. So I am considering not renewing it. Can I hear some pros and cons on this from people who may know better? I don't mind paying for the insurance, but what is the point if they aren't going to pay a future claim?

Thank you for the informative responses so far, and sorry to hijack this thread, but I think many others many benefit from this information as well. Now another dilemma......
We own the bottom unit of two condos. We do not have a mortgage, so no flood insurance necessary. However, the other owner (above us) does have a mortgage, so he must carry flood insurance. Each unit is exactly the same size. Will I be compelled to keep paying flood insurance just because we share ownership of the building exterior?

[CAPTAIN DON]

Thank you for the informative responses so far, and sorry to hijack this thread, but I think many others many benefit from this information as well. Now another dilemma......
We own the bottom unit of two condos. We do not have a mortgage, so no flood insurance necessary. However, the other owner (above us) does have a mortgage, so he must carry flood insurance. Each unit is exactly the same size. Will I be compelled to keep paying flood insurance just because we share ownership of the building exterior?

Yes you will be required to pay for coverage of the entire building. It is considered comon property. You should have 3 policies flood,Dwelling, and an interior contents policy

[Whaler13]

Yes you will be required to pay for coverage of the entire building. It is considered comon property. You should have 3 policies flood,Dwelling, and an interior contents policy

That's what I figured......it's like throwing $$$ into the bay for the Flood Insurance. I have no problem with the other two policies. Thanks all.