Septic tank collapse-Homeowner's Insurance claim?

17 years ago

After a 10 inch snowfall the ground collapsed above our septic tank. The septic tank has also collapsed, though we currently are not having problems inside the house. (Knock on wood.) We have been told that this may be something that our Homeowner's Insurance would cover. Anyone had any experience filing a claim with their Homeowner's Insurance for a septic tank collapse? My insurance agent was not at all familiar with septic tanks and made calls to more experienced agents. They said to file a claim, so we have. Our insurance company is sub-contracting the claim out to another company. This company is scheduled to come out late this week. Anyone have any experience with this or thoughts on how we should handle the claims adjuster?

Featured Answer

rychnc

17 years ago

Hi - my septic tanks collapsed but due to poor backfill from the excavator, not snow. Your excavator should warrant his work for at least a year. Your tanks should have a 5 year warranty. Good luck

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Comments (14)

xracer
17 years ago
10 inches of snow did not collapse your septic tank. you had problems before that were weakening it.
mnk716
17 years ago
i agree with xracer its doubtful snow caused the collapsed. the adjuster will most likely send an expert out to examine how the septic collapsed. insurance usually covers accidents which are sudden an unexpected. this sounds like a maintenance/wear&tear issue which is not covered.

good luck
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And remember that if you even call your agent about it, it can adversly affect your insurance policy. People on the 'net have been discussing how some insurance companies now use insurance scores to determine potential risk. This uses your credit score and the past history of making claims on your homeowners insurance - or previous owners of your home's past homeowner's insurance claims - to set your insurance rates. Every time you use your insurance, you risk having your rates go up or your policy cancelled. So always read your policy before calling your agent to find out if you are covered for a claim. Plan to use your insurance only for catastrophic claims and increase your deductible to at least $1000. Make it $5000 if you can afford to. Using your insurance for small claims will drive up your costs, so save money by having a high deductible and then have a savings account to use to make repairs under $5000 -or to pay the deductible on large claims. I had along-term leak in a roof that was fixed shortly after I moved into my last house. 10 years later, I had that part of the house remodeled and the ceiling was replaced. The contractor found that the roof rafters there were rotting. Two were rotted through - as was the header between this former porch arera and the kitchen. We were lucky that it had not collapsed. Since it was a long-term, slow leak, it was not covered by homeowners. The agent gave me this way to figure out if something is covered: If it happend slowly after time, it is a regular repair, no insurance involvement. If you can name a date in which an event happened (the August 12th windstorm), it may be covered. Best of luck in repairing your home. I hope you have the opportunity to do some updates (even just extra insulation) while you are tearing things apart.
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castoff
17 years ago
Let's see now. This is the third post about this same tank.

Seems to me that this is a very old tank and the tile field also needs replacing, correct?

If that's true, then why do you think that your insurance company should buy you a new tank? All things wear out, including septic tanks and tile fields. if your roof starts to leak due to shingles that are bad due to old age, should your insurance company pay to re-shingle your roof? What about your car? When you have put 200,000 miles on it and the engine hasn't enough compression to start, should the insurance company buy you a brand new car?

You want to know how to handle the adjuster? Take a chair outside so he has something to fall into while laughing his butt off at your uadacity in thinking you have a legitimate claim.
coolvt
17 years ago
I had frost push a foundation wall in years back. I got the same answer that MNK posted..."had to be sudden and unexpected." Frost took a week or two to push in the wall and that wasn't sudden enough for the inusurance company.
coolvt
17 years ago
As a thought...we had dozens of barn and house roofs fall in this year in Vermont from snow loads. As I understand it, insurance companies are covering some of these.
castoff
17 years ago
Any septic tank that cannot withstand the weight of even four feet of snow on top of it would not be approved in the first place. Secondly, the OP has never revealed as to whether this is a concrete tank or a steel tank or how old the tank actually is.

Snow loads that exceed the tables in the local building code would be considered a peril within the spirit of insurance. However, adjusters are going to be looking very closely at some of those barns to see if they were well-maintained or not. Wood supports that were rotted out will likely cut back the amount the insurance company will pay.
lazypup
17 years ago
I would suspect that there was frost in the ground long before they got the 2' snow fall. When the ground is frozen you can barely crack through it with a backhoe..I don't believe it would even be possible to break through with snow load.
castoff
17 years ago
My experience has been that there is enough heat generated inside a properly working septic tank to prevent any frost from forming in the area immediately above and around the tank. Between the warmth of incoming water from showers, cooking and laundry plus the heat from the natural digestive process of the waste in the tank, frost is usually a non-issue.

Regardless of frost or no frost.... I'm not buying into 10 inches of snow as being the fault of this tank failing.
davidandkasie
17 years ago
wait until next month when your insurances cancels you and you go on the Choicepoint blacklist for frivolous claims. you won't be able to find affordable HOI and will wish you had just paid to fix it.
publicadjuster01
15 years ago
You can search the Public Adjuster in your local area in this website. By entering your city name, you can get the details.

http://www.publicadjustersearch.com

Here is a link that might be useful: PublicAdjusterSearch
danhoggard_hotmail_com
13 years ago
I don't know why your septic tank collapsed, but it wasn't because of snow. Is it possible your car drove over it? I do see vehicles crush them pretty often. Vehicle damage is generally covered under homeowners policy, subject to your deductible.
Aj Larkin
8 years ago
For any one interested u can buy a septic protection plan at www.septicmaxx.com Thea also sell helpful bacteria that can reduce many problems
User
8 years ago
The same Andrew J Larkin and company that has 32 BBB compaints? I guess I'm not surprised that you're here trying to steal advertising by resurrecting an old, dead thread. Nice job, AJ - way to show integrity!

Septic tank collapse-Homeowner's Insurance claim?

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