by Guest » Thu Nov 28, 2013 08:29 am
We arrived and settled in Texas from UK in 2001. When we purchased our home through Redfearn real estate company that recommended that we use the company recommended insurance for both our home and auto policy. Since we were new to this place and having no substantial knowledge of the Texas insurance and the legal requirements, we asked our agent to help us and she gave us lot of valuable advice regarding coverages. So she set up our home insurance and apart from raising the value to reflect current costs of rebuilding it is pretty much as she set it six years back. Now we have come across a leak in one of the pipes and the agent of the carrier is saying that we have no coverage at all. Yes, they even showed us the part of the policy that says this. They also added that we could have this coverage just by paying $30 a year!! This is ugly since our agent never discussed such things with us before purchasing the policy. I still remember that we talked about flood insurance and fire but never this sort of stuff. Do we still have any claim since ‘error’ or ‘omission’?
Posted: Thu Nov 28, 2013 09:23 am Post Subject:
They also added that we could have this coverage just by paying $30 a year!! This is ugly since our agent never discussed such things with us before purchasing the policy. I still remember that we talked about flood insurance and fire but never this sort of stuff. Do we still have any claim since ‘error’ or ‘omission’?
You very well could have a claim against the agent for failing to procure the most appropriate coverage for your needs.Sue the agent in small claims court for the full value of the damages less $30 per year for each year of coverage you could have been protected (about $360).
Normally, however, leaking pipes are a "maintenance" issue, and the physical damage that evolves over a number of years is not the responsibility of the insurer. I'm not sure what coverage you can actually get to protect against such losses (unless you are talking about a "mold" rider, which is common in Texas -- but that wouldn't cover the damage to the leaking pipe, only the remediation of the mold problem it caused). The sudden rupture of a pipe and the damage caused by the flow of water is covered under normal circumstances, but not the repair of the pipe itself.
Posted: Fri Nov 29, 2013 08:20 am Post Subject:
The insurance would perhaps have covered the water damage caused to your property from the leak had you had the coverage, but fixing the leak on your own is just one of those joys of home ownership that you just cannot miss.
Posted: Mon Dec 16, 2013 07:37 pm Post Subject:
Any time you can stay out of the court room the better. For $360 possibly, I'd chalk it up as a learning experience.
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