Winter storm 2/7/18

[Memaxndapickel]

Hey everyone,
I hope you guys made it through the storm without too much damage. Unfortunately that was not the case for my family and I.

We had multiple big trees fall on the property. One crushed my above ground pool and it's connected wooden deck. That same tree also smashed part of my houses back deck.

Then we had 2 more fall on the front and side of the house. The side one speared a huge branch right through the middle of my roof into my sons room, ruining everything. The other part of the tree took out my entire drive way and is laying on top of power lines, so not moveable until electric company comes out

The front tree also punctured the house and the weight of the tree made cracks in multiple places that are now leaking into my living room.

We have so much damage it's unbelievable. We have all necessary insurances to cover this damage...however it is still extremely upsetting. A lot of personal stuff of my sons lost.

Hope everyone stays safe in the aftermath and thanks to all the workers helping to clear downed trees and power lines.

[UncleWede]

Crazy, responsible person! Why didn't you blow all that insurance money of new cars/22"s/cell phones/boats, hookers/blow and expect FEMA to bail you out???


(bit of levity for your situation, actually wishing you well! When are you moving to Cali?)

[CTinline-six]

When I was younger, I never understood why my dad wanted to cut down all of the trees that were close to our house. Now I understand why.

Wishing you the best and just remember that things can be replaced, people can't. If your son was in that room and the tree came down in a different spot things could have been much worse.

[G35POPPEDMYCHERRY]

glad you are okay. Your family is still together and thats all that matters

[Memaxndapickel]

Originally Posted by UncleWede

Crazy, responsible person! Why didn't you blow all that insurance money of new cars/22"s/cell phones/boats, hookers/blow and expect FEMA to bail you out???


(bit of levity for your situation, actually wishing you well! When are you moving to Cali?)

Thanks for the laugh! Cali sounds really nice right about now...

[nyalpine90]

good thing is no1 got hurt, and the house will get renovated within time.
things couldve been worse. hopefully you can get all the repairs done without a hassle.

[Memaxndapickel]

Originally Posted by CTinline-six

When I was younger, I never understood why my dad wanted to cut down all of the trees that were close to our house. Now I understand why.

Wishing you the best and just remember that things can be replaced, people can't. If your son was in that room and the tree came down in a different spot things could have been much worse.

Thanks for the well wishes! Your absolutely right about my son. It could have been magnitudes worse. My wife and I are so extremely thankful for that. Branches and roof were all over his bed, this would have been so terrible if he was asleep. Ugh hurts to think about that scenario....

[Memaxndapickel]

Originally Posted by G35POPPEDMYCHERRY

glad you are okay. Your family is still together and thats all that matters

Thanks, you are correct. We are grateful to come out of this unharmed.

[Memaxndapickel]

Originally Posted by nyalpine90

good thing is no1 got hurt, and the house will get renovated within time.
things couldve been worse. hopefully you can get all the repairs done without a hassle.

Thanks man, hoping the same....hopefully it gets fixed quickly.

[RickFLM4]

Very glad to hear no one was hurt but that is a terrible situation. Lot of bad luck for all those trees to fall where they did. Best of luck with repairs.

[Memaxndapickel]

Originally Posted by RickFLM4

Very glad to hear no one was hurt but that is a terrible situation. Lot of bad luck for all those trees to fall where they did. Best of luck with repairs.

It could have been so much worse though...the trees miraculously fell around and in between all of our vehicles. My wife's Pilot, my old subie, my 335i and my new f150 all went unscathed with huge branches right next to them. Just looking at that was a visual conformation that it could have been worse....and thankfully No one was injured. Thanks for the kind words.

[vandridine]

Just an FYI, your insurance company may fight you over all the damage to the house. The company i work for has multiple clients who have had trees fall on their house and the insurance company refuses to pay. If you decide to sue them for the money they owe you, they will make the court case last as long as possible in hopes that you do not have the money to pay for lawyers for 4-5 years so you end up dropping the case. Sadly we see this all the time, i hope this will not happen to you but it should be something to look out for.

[Memaxndapickel]

This shows some damage...pictures were taken before I saw the full extent of everything.

[Memaxndapickel]

Originally Posted by vandridine

Just an FYI, your insurance company may fight you over all the damage to the house. The company i work for has multiple clients who have had trees fall on their house and the insurance company refuses to pay. If you decide to sue them for the money they owe you, they will make the court case last as long as possible in hopes that you do not have the money to pay for lawyers for 4-5 years so you end up dropping the case. Sadly we see this all the time, i hope this will not happen to you but it should be something to look out for.

Yeash....I hope I don't have to deal with that. Our Homeowners have covered things like this in the past. We live in a pretty disastrous place...river is my front yard, canal is my back. So we are use to paying a decent amount for insurance.

[RickFLM4]

Originally Posted by vandridine

Just an FYI, your insurance company may fight you over all the damage to the house. The company i work for has multiple clients who have had trees fall on their house and the insurance company refuses to pay. If you decide to sue them for the money they owe you, they will make the court case last as long as possible in hopes that you do not have the money to pay for lawyers for 4-5 years so you end up dropping the case. Sadly we see this all the time, i hope this will not happen to you but it should be something to look out for.

What's the basis they use to deny the claim?

[vandridine]

Originally Posted by RickFLM4

What's the basis they use to deny the claim?

Every case can be different but the general idea is the insurance company comes up with a complete bullshit reason as to why problems with a house are not their fault and they deny your claim. The problem with this from a home owners perspective is that you have to take them to court to disprove their claim.

Lets take a very large tree falling on the roof of a house as an example, when the tree falls on the roof, it creates a large hole which opens up the house to the outdoors. Usually storms with winds strong enough to knock down trees are accompanied by rain which means water gets into the house and the next thing you know your house has water damage and mold (which can be VERY expensive to fix).

In situations like this we have seen insurance companies come in and say they will fix the structural damage to the house but the water and mold damage is not their fault because you should have covered the hole in roof sooner then you did. They deny paying for the rest of the damage (ruined furniture, electronics, rebuilding of the interior of the house, mold, you get the idea). The home owner starts fighting with the insurance company, meanwhile the house is not being repaired and is open to the elements, which it remains like as long as the insurance company refuses to pay.

We even had a client who had this HUGE tree fall on their house and when you went into their basement, you could see multiple cracks in the foundation right under where this tree landed. They called the insurance company, the insurance company came by and said nope, those cracks are settlement cracks and denied the claim. It was the most bullshit thing i had ever seen, the home owner ended up winning but it took years in court.

[RickFLM4]

Originally Posted by vandridine

Every case can be different but the general idea is the insurance company comes up with a complete bullshit reason as to why problems with a house are not their fault and they deny your claim. The problem with this from a home owners perspective is that you have to take them to court to disprove their claim.

Lets take a very large tree falling on the roof of a house as an example, when the tree falls on the roof, it creates a large hole which opens up the house to the outdoors. Usually storms with winds strong enough to knock down trees are accompanied by rain which means water gets into the house and the next thing you know your house has water damage and mold (which can be VERY expensive to fix).

In situations like this we have seen insurance companies come in and say they will fix the structural damage to the house but the water and mold damage is not their fault because you should have covered the hole in roof sooner then you did. They deny paying for the rest of the damage (ruined furniture, electronics, rebuilding of the interior of the house, mold, you get the idea). The home owner starts fighting with the insurance company, meanwhile the house is not being repaired and is open to the elements, which it remains like as long as the insurance company refuses to pay.

We even had a client who had this HUGE tree fall on their house and when you went into their basement, you could see multiple cracks in the foundation right under where this tree landed. They called the insurance company, the insurance company came by and said nope, those cracks are settlement cracks and denied the claim. It was the most bullshit thing i had ever seen, the home owner ended up winning but it took years in court.

I live in FL and fortunately have not had such experience nor have any friends who have told me about such experiences following hurricanes. I have heard about debates of whether homeowners or flood insurance applies but general rule of thumb here is that damage to the roof such that water enters from above is homeowners, while rising water is flood. I also understand it is better to have a homeowners claim than flood claim (assuming you have flood insurance, as some people do not).

If this is what insurance companies are doing on a regular basis there is a serious regulatory problem. Expecting a homeowner to go outside and climb on the roof to cover it during a winter storm when trees are falling (or even after the storm when hazards remain) is ridiculous.

In any event, hopefully these situations are exceptions and will not be an issue for OP.

[vandridine]

Originally Posted by RickFLM4

I live in FL and fortunately have not had such experience nor have any friends who have told me about such experiences following hurricanes. I have heard about debates of whether homeowners or flood insurance applies but general rule of thumb here is that damage to the roof such that water enters from above is homeowners, while rising water is flood. I also understand it is better to have a homeowners claim than flood claim (assuming you have flood insurance, as some people do not).

If this is what insurance companies are doing on a regular basis there is a serious regulatory problem. Expecting a homeowner to go outside and climb on the roof to cover it during a winter storm when trees are falling (or even after the storm when hazards remain) is ridiculous.

In any event, hopefully these situations are exceptions and will not be an issue for OP.

I work for an environmental consulting company so we only get calls from people who are having problems like i described above. I am sure there are way more people who have no problems with insurance companies vs those who do have problems.