Out of Luck if missed 180 days on Rec. Depreciation?

Posted: Sun Jul 26, 2009 12:48 pm Post Subject:

First of all you would have a deductible for EACH claim. Homeowners policys are not like health care policys where you pay one deductible for the year. The full deductible applies to EACH claim.

Why did you miss the 180 days?
Why did you not bring up these mistakes (if they are mistakes) when you received the estimate and funds rather than now?

If I'm understanding you correctly, one of the claims is a year and half old...

I would most certainly contact the adjuster and discuss it. See if they are willing to extend the time.

Posted: Mon Jul 27, 2009 01:03 am Post Subject:

Agreed, two separate dates of loss two deductibles. As for the overhead and profit on one claim but not both and the incorrect measurements, you will need to discuss that with your adjuster. I would question how it took 8 months or so to discover these issues.

As for the recoverable depreciation, I have never worked for an insurance company that would not extend the 180 day period as long as the insured showed or stated that it was their intent to repair or replace the damages. Some carriers are looking for a timely manner and some only wanted to know the insured’s intent. In either case, I have never had a company deny the extension of the period without good reason. What it really comes down to is what is the reason for the delay. Your best bet is to call the adjuster and speak to them about it and let your intentions know to make repairs and discuss the discrepancies of their estimate.

Posted: Mon Jul 27, 2009 01:57 am Post Subject:

Thanks for the replies, sorry, can't seem to figure out how to post a response to show it's coming from the same person who posted.....

No, both claims are from the same time, one occurring at the beginning and one at the end of November 2008. We met the deductible on the 1st claim, but not the 2nd. We've found now the initial checks did not reflect that.

Though we filed the inital claims when they occurred, we did not receive payment almost 90 days (end of January, 2009) The reason we missed the 180 days is due to the fact we thought that time started from when we received the inital settlement checks (which would make the 180 day deadline fall at the end of July), not from the date of the incidents (which would be this past April).

As for the other mistakes I mentioned, we just didn't notice them until much later (6 months, not 8), as this is the first time we've ever had to deal with insurance claims, as well as the fact that the first contractor we brought in to get estimates to give to the insurance company, and who we (unfortunately) relied on rather heavily to help guide us through the process, disappeared on us after we received the inital funds, and would not return our calls. It took us time to find someone with reliable referrances to begin work.

We are going to contact the insurance adjuster and see what we can work out, if anything. I'm just trying to get some more informed opinions as to how hopeful we should be, (is the 180 day rule an absolute) or if that's just going to completely depend on the "kindness" of the adjusters in question.

Thanks

Posted: Mon Jul 27, 2009 04:26 am Post Subject:

just rediscovered my login,

just to clarify one point above (again), we've met the deductibile on the 1st claim, but not the 2nd, however the inital settlement amounts do not reflect that, i.e. they've deducted $1000 from the ACV amounts on both claims instead of just one of them. On the first claim, we had submitted an invoice from a water remediation company for $7000, the adjuster at the time sent a check for $6000, we covered the rest. Later, a second adjuster was assigned to our claims, and the final paperwork doesn't show that initial transaction, so they don't have that $1000 factored in.

Posted: Mon Jul 27, 2009 04:52 am Post Subject:

I'm still not understanding. If one claim happend at the beginning of November and the second happened at the end of November then that would be two claims and a deductible would apply to each loss. Just by your statement of "both claims" leads me to believe that they handled it correctly with two deductibles, since you are calling it two claims.

That being said, it really shouldn't be a problem to have the 180 days extended. Just explain the problem with getting the repairs complete and see what they say.

Posted: Mon Jul 27, 2009 10:31 am Post Subject:

I've never heard of the 180 days starting from the date of loss rather than the date of payment...doesn't mean it isn't so.

As Das, stated, I've also never worked or heard of a carrier that wouldn't (with good reason) extend the 180days.

Again, sounds to me like it's two claims...What EXACTLY happened on claim one and claim two?

Contact your adjuster and go over all this with them. If they are in the same town, I would suggest calling them and going to their office and go over this face to face.

Have you now made all the repairs?

Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2009 12:02 am Post Subject:

Guess in trying to make things clear, I'm, well, not....

1st claim-11-03-08.

Upstairs toilet overflow causes downstairs ceiling collapse and flooding. By the time we get home, a large part of our items downstairs are floating along--water damage in almost every room.

Water remediation done, bill is over $7000. 1st adjuster in different state cuts check for $6000, we pay the rest. Thus, 1st deductible on 1st claim met

2nd claim--11-23-08 or thereabouts-
Water heater on raised platform---leak in garage, which shares a wall with the downstairs kitchen, living room. Seems to occur over the weekend while we're away, come Monday, we find the garage, a good portion of our backyard and half of our kitchen is again flooded.

Water remediation is approximately $1160. Get our then contractor onsite to turn in estimate to out of town adjuster. That gets turned over to an adjuster in a local office, who sends out their own eyes and ears in the form of a 3rd party adjuster.

Back and forth ensures as to what should be covered. 3rd party adjuster turns in 2 settlement writeups at end of January, 2009. We then get two checks that go to our mortgage company, then are released to us.

1st claim writeup (the line items of ACV, RCV, etc) does not include note of the the $1000 paid, nor the $6000 check sent by the very first adjuster, so therefore they deducted $1000 from the amount given on that claim, as if we had not already paid it.

2nd claim is correct, however, in noting that we have not paid anything towards it's deductible, therefore deducting that amount ($1000) from the amount sent for that claim.

so--(these are not the exact amounts)-if they say for the first claim, it will take $15, 000 ACV (including sales tax, material overage, profit, etc), which is the amount they give us up front, then deduct $1000 from that amount, (as if we had not already satisfied that requirement by covering $1000 of the $7000 bill for water remediation) and THAT's the amount of the check they sent, we're basically being asked to pay the same deductible twice on the first claim.

The second claim, the one which we haven't paid anything towards when it comes to a deductible, has listed a certain amount allotted for repair, then minus the $1000 deductible we owe, and THAT's the amount on the check we receive. On the second claim, we haven't met our deductible, so that amount is valid.

I hope that's now clear. We've paid $1000 towards the costs incurred on the first claim, but we haven't on the 2nd. When they wrote out the total costs they would cover for each claim, they subtracted $1000 from each amount----as if we had not paid anything out of pocket yet for either claim, thus, we're missing at least $1000

The delay in repair and noticing mistakes---first contractor flaked and dropped all contact---trying to figure out what all the paperwork meant, as we were (stupidly) leaving it up to our "experienced" restoration contractor to handle the details, we've gotten misinformation as to when the 180 days started, etc.

We have some of the repairs completed, but not all. It was our understanding that as repairs on certain line items were completed in full, we could send in receipts for those items and be reimbursed for those items only--recovering depreciation as we go to help limit out of pocket expenses, but we're now hearing this isn't the case...suffice to say we're not sure what the heck is going on.

The main question in this post seems to be answered, in that there's hope in still being able to file for and get the recoverable depreciation allocated in the 2 settlement writeups. I actually have more questions now in relation to all this, but as they're different aspects of insurance claim fun (such as when is the right to arbitration lost, does depositing the checks sent mean we still cannot contest what they say is covered vs. what we believe to be covered, etc) I'm guessing I should start a different thread

Thanks

Posted: Tue Jul 28, 2009 11:07 am Post Subject:

pslove,

The payments for both losses should include a subtraction for 1k on each claim total...so you should be out ONLY 1k total on EACH claim.

Yes, starting another thread if a different question would be the thing to do.

Posted: Wed Jul 29, 2009 02:38 am Post Subject:

Makes more sense now. The independent adjuster most likely did not know that they had already deducted the 1K from the first part of the first claim and someone missed it at the desk when the reviewed the adjuster's estimate and took it again. Let them know and there should be no problem getting that back.

Posted: Wed Jan 04, 2012 12:29 am Post Subject: recovering depreciation on one simple claim and when 180 day

had extensive water damage to home due to faulty toilet. claim covered. reported damage aug. 26./11. mitigation work started same day. due to revisions to estimate work nnot finished untill late sept. remodel work not started untill middle of oct. had private contract with recommened const. co. recieved money for remodel work as expected. do not have itimized statement for mitigation work or remodel work.const co will not give either. when ask how to recover depreciation stated on last estimate by ins. co. was told that to recover depreciation i would have to sign release of total libility for const. c. before i would be paid. am not sure mitigation work done on home was complete.[mold under house] can ins co legally do this? also when does 180 day period start? day of damage report or day of finished repair work?