by imclaysmom » Tue Jan 13, 2009 07:06 pm
We had a fire in our home in May 2006, and the claim was finally settled by the Ins Co 9 months later. The 1 year policy limit on the rent of the apartment and household items was up, and the Ins Co refused to continue to pay for these items. We felt that due to delays on the part of the Ins Co, we were forced to pay out of pocket 6 months of rent on our apartment while our home was being repaired. We understand that the Ins Co may be liable for these expenses, however I can't find case law that would support this to file a claim in court. Does anyone know of any cases that would support our claim? Thanks!
Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 07:09 pm Post Subject: whoops - wrong forum
:shock: Now how did THAT happen?
Posted: Tue Jan 13, 2009 11:17 pm Post Subject:
There probably is case law but that case law would also cite the carrier operating in Bad Faith (Bad Faith laws as well as breach of contract)
I can guarantee you that the insurance won't voluntarily pay extra contractual monies without a suit being filed. As such, I'd recommend you speak to an attorney about this issue. Seeking advice would be free.
Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2009 10:46 am Post Subject:
Tcope, what are the other options available to the poster? isn't he required to lodge complaint with the state insurance commissioner against the carrier? Also, does he have to sue the construction company alsong with the insurer for the delay in the repair work as it seems that the home was getting renovated during this period?
Posted: Wed Jan 14, 2009 12:07 pm Post Subject:
OP I'm a little confused by your post...did they pay the one year rents? The claim was settled in nine months...then how long (total) till the apt was inhabitable? Also was this a renters policy (you rent and live in the apt) or you are the owner and lost rents from the fire?
Posted: Fri Jan 16, 2009 06:41 pm Post Subject: further info as requested
Our home was damaged by fire; we did not reach a settlement with the insurance company for 9 months due to their dragging their feet in doing an estimate of repairing the home. First the insurance adjuster tried to do it on his own, which was so low we rejected it. Then finally a couple of months later, the ins co brought in a construction co specializing in home restoration to give us an estimate. With each of their three estimates, we kept finding things wrong, missing or otherwise inaccurate. Then, in between all of this, the ins co adjuster left his job, and it took a while before we had a new adjuster assigned to our claim. We did no work on our house in this period of time, and we were living in an apartment with rented furniture and household goods. After we finally got a satisfactory settlement, we finally decided what to do with our home, which was to demolish it instead of restoring it, and build a new house. To restore the old house, it would have taken much longer than what we did.
Thus the timeline looks like this:
May 2006 - Fire
Jan 2007 - Claim for house settled
May 2007 - Ins Co stopped paying for rent and household rental items. We started paying the rent, and had the restoration company return our household goods.
June 2007 - contracted to demolish home and build new one
July 2007 - financing secured for project
Aug 2007 - house demolished, foundation installed, new house set on foundation. We used a modular system to cut down on construction time.
Oct 2007 - We moved into our new house. We spent about $10,000 in rent since May 2007.
We did speak to our lawyer, and he felt that since the suit would be only for $10,000, that it wasn't worth his while to pursue. He suggested we file in court ourselves to recover, which is why I am looking for case law to cite.
I hope this clarifies things for you all. Thanks for your help!!
Posted: Sat Jan 17, 2009 01:52 am Post Subject:
I'm guessing you are going to file in Small Claims court as this would mean you don't need to follow the formality of the normal court process. Does SCC in your state allow up to $10,000? If not, you could file up the max allowed.
IMHO, you'd be filing for breach of contract (your insurance policy) and Bad Faith. You would cite what that your policy states what the carrier will pay for and point out that it was months before they honored the contract. You'd also cite your states Bad Faith laws which should basically state that your carrier has certain time limits on addressing claims and need to act in "Good Faith". In that they did not do these things, you suffered an additional loss that they would pay for.
A $10,000 loss and the attorney would not handle it on a contingency basis?
Posted: Sat Jan 17, 2009 02:14 am Post Subject:
Your policy states 12 months...and that's fine however your carrier should've eaten about seven months of the 'overage' since it was due to their unfair claims handling that caused the delay...and I would tell them so...just because a policy has a limit on a certain coverage does not mean that limit is set in stone, if the claim was delayed thru no fault of the insured, and ALL the fault with the insurer...you might try (prior to going to court) filing a complaint with your states dept of ins first...this would be free, and if after they investigate they agree with you they will make them pay the balance of time they are responsible for...this is likely the approach i would take...you can find them by googling, "your state dept. of ins.'' most have complaint forms right on their websites...
A $10,000 loss and the attorney would not handle it on a contingency basis?
WITH a potential bad faith suit as well? which we all know if successful is CHA-DANG-CHING!Add your comment