I have an ongoing interesting experience with the insurance company for my sump pump failure. I thought my letter to them, names omitted, will cover all aspects of how to get back at them. “When the going get’s tough, the tough gets going” No more Mr Nice Guy. Let’s play hard ball should you have the unfortunate situation when you need to file an insurance claim.
Reference to your letter dated Nov 5 08 denying my insurance claim for sump pump failure
Your cleanability argument does not hold water. Sorry for the pun. If that is how you do your adjustment, every homeowner who suffer damage and clean up their carpet etc don’t get paid, courtesy of your clever reasoning, so what is the purpose of insurance? Perhaps if the flood events happen years apart will you conclude differently, that cleanability reasoning have no place in your deliberation?
Let me be very clear here. Insurance coverage clearly mention coverage per occurence. Since when does a previous occurence become relevant? Is it written in law or in the insurance policy?
I had told you very clearly I had discovered the malfunction of the main pump due to the float moving sideway occasionally and this prevent the pump from being activated. I discovered this problem about two weeks ago only, and only after I had to endure four floods over the last two years. I suspect the previous main pump failure could also be due to this. I had since put a block of brick in the sump pit to make sure the float goes up and down only, not sideway, so there is zero chance of repeat failure to pump occurence. In other words, I do not forsee any more flood ever due to sump pump failure because I now have the main pump working correctly, the flood alarm detector is now placed between the main and backup pump which the original plumber unfortunately never place in there for me, and my backup pump works as it should. So we will never cross path again as far as sump pump failure is concern.
Frankly you leave a bad taste in my mouth for your cleverness, you should never have try to pull a fast one on me.
Remember as I had said on the phone with you, in all your previous claims settlement, your damage calculations only touches on carpet damage. If you still want to play the ‘cleanable game’ I want you to add to the damages the following items I listed below, but not limited to it. You may have to come over again and do complete detective work, take pictures of every damage caused by the flood to make proper adjustment.
Further damages you had not considered:
rusted exercise machine we had since thrown away
at least 5 chairs flood damaged
bed platform molded concealed damage
three closet doors molded, damage
rotted conference table
exercise machine by the bar area, rusted base
3 closet doors damaged molded
damage to walls, concealed damage molded
sofa damage molded, damage at base
coffee table damage molded
corner table damage molded
3 room divider damage molded
At least one wall was soft, I dent it when I clean it up.
The total damage is easily over $10,000
May I remind you FMI 153 mold damage, you may force me to get estimate for mold damage and in the process cost FMI up to $10,000 for mold damage claims, not just this occurence but previous as well.
I’ll call you in three days to hear from you before I take next step.
May I also remind you public adjusters are aplenty and we have the option of engaging them if needed.
Lastly my policy renewal is coming up early next month and I have to hear from you within 10 days. Your decision will impact my renewal decision if I perceive you are not doing the right thing.
Update: Insurance company called, setting up appointment for re inspection with mold remediation company together after getting instructions from State Insurance Department to do proper inspection. Now they know, the guy that carry the big stick is the State Insurance Department, not them. Homeowners don’t have to put up with their game.
