We are so happy to be back in our home. Staying in a hotel can be fun when you are on holidays and there is a beach or other fun attractions nearby. You can read about our mess here.
Not so much fun when you are getting ready for work and trying not to wake the other person. Not so much fun when you are tired after work and you still have to go out and have dinner somewhere when normally your spouse would have dinner ready when you walked in the door.
Not so much fun when you are running out of clean clothes and have to go to the laundromat or to a friend or relatives to wash your clothes. You can read a quick note on that experience here…
Here is how insurance works. If you have damage to your home/contents due to some sort of issue the house insurance covers your loss and repairs. They do not, however, cover the costs to repair the issue that caused the damage.
Imagine it this way. If your washing machine breaks and floods your house your insurance will pay for the damage to the house caused by the leaking water but they will not pay to repair your broken washing machine.
Now imagine a much bigger scenario where a sewer pipe on your property breaks underground. It is not a city pipe. It belongs to you. It is 12 feet below ground and you have to have heavy equipment brought in to expose the pipe so it can be repaired.
Imagine trucks taking soil away. Trucks bringing in gravel to properly support the repaired pipe (which wouldn’t have broken in the first place if the pipe had been given proper support to begin with) Imagine a hefty bill in the thousands that you are responsible for. They did a great job but boy oh boy it wasn’t cheap. Keep digging… almost there. 
We are still waiting to have the repairs to the inside done. Fortunately this part is insured. They have to replace the drywall that was removed in one room. Paint. Redo the baseboards in that room and re-carpet the entire downstairs and staircases since they cannot match the current carpet.
Have you ever had a big insurance claim?
Oh my word, this sounds like a nightmare. Hope it is all fixed soon.
ReplyDeleteI have been following this horrified. My house had roof and skylight problems. The insurance paid for repairs on one room, but when the second skylight failed (due to old roof) they would not put it on the same claim (happened one week apart). Second claim would have caused a ton of insurance problems. It was my first claim in 25 years. So new roof, two new bathrooms cost to me about $20k insurance paid $3k for room repair. That's why I bought into a strata when I moved. We had shoddy workmanship but I didn't have to pay $50k the strata did (not just my townhouse). Sorry this happened it sucks!!
ReplyDeleteknock wood - no we haven't, but our daughter did. What a pain - but nice when it is all done.
ReplyDeleteWe had a house fire almost 30 years ago. We had an insurance company that offers great service, and a wonderful adjustor--so the whole process was smooth and as quick as possible.
ReplyDeleteYour house repairs are going to be pricey too (to the ins. co.). I just bought oak baseboards for 3 bedrooms--$350 for the lumber, and I still have to stain, varnish and apply them.
had a leak that was in the wall of the laundry. it leaked for 8years before I noticed the floor was suddenly squishy. We were so fortunate that everything was taken care of. Had no idea a little drip could do so much damage. Sorry you are dealing with this, I remember when you first posted about it and was hoping it was over by now. sigh. At least we are not back east...see? silver lining!
ReplyDeleteWe had a railroad tie retaining wall collapse just below the grade of our house and we called the insurance company thinking it would be covered (one estimate put the repair at $4000). The adjuster was there 2 minutes and declared it was not covered. Later, the insurance rate went up because of our "claim". We argued it and they rescinded the increase. We left the mess for two years and the house did not collapse. Just before we moved last summer, our handyman repaired the wall using only shovels and picks and charged us $400. Sometimes it doesn't pay to make a claim. I'm glad the insurance company is fixing your interior damage and I do hope they don't jack your rates up for making a claim.
ReplyDeleteHi Lori...that's a very expensive result of a nasty break. And a smelly one too.
ReplyDeleteWhile I am glad that you are/have gotten it fixed, my heart goes out to you about the issues you have faced with the problem. It's expensive no matter how you look at it isn't it?
Our water line needed to be replaced, it was 10 feet down, and they had put huge boulders on it...[we live on the side of a mountain, they must have thought, hey use the rocks and boulders to fill it in]. Unfortunately it wasn't covered by insurance, but it's done now..and a good thing we had it fixed, now we have water pressure again.
Jen