Who should I contact about paying for repairs?

16 years ago

Hi all,

Not sure if this is the right forum, but here goes.

Last night we a problem with the power wires near our home. There was a loud pop, and then there were wires down in our yard. Power was out over night, but up again first thing in the morning. However, now we are having lots of problems in our house. Our new tankless water heater isn't working, a/c is not blowing cold air, several outlets are not working and our built-in microwave is dead (the outlet it's plugged into still works, so we know there is something wrong with the microwave itself).

My question is, should we contact our homeowner's insurance, or should Southern Calfornia Edison take care of this? If we do go through our insurance, should Edison pay our $500 deductable? What should our first step be?

Thanks,

Emily

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Comments (9)

texasredhead
16 years ago
First I would call my homeowner's insurance carrier and make them aware of the problem. Then I would call Edison and ask them to come out and check the problems. Is there any chance any of this was related to a lightning strike?
bus_driver
16 years ago
I would definitely call the power company first. Have them check the power to your meter. Sounds as if only one "pole" of your service is powered and you have only 120 volts.
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ejorritsma
Original Author
16 years ago
Texas - It wasn't a lightning thing. We don't get much lightning in these parts (S. Cal).

Bus driver - Edison came around yesterday morning and looked at the meter and said everything should be up and running. Most of our outlets that aren't working had black soot of some sort coming out of them, so they were somehow damaged and will need to be replaced.

I'm hoping our homeowners insurance will deal with Edison. Am I dreaming?
davidandkasie
16 years ago
this is exactly the type thing to get your HOI involved in. you will have to pay the deduct, it is NOT Edison's fault. you took a surge. it happens from time to time. while the electricians are there, see about getting them to install a whole house surge suppressor. it won't totally eliminate this from happening again, but it WILL lessen the chance greatly.
mikie_gw
16 years ago
Power company here is years past has been know to replace some appliances from blown transformers & basic lost phases/neutrals.

Not lightning nor hurricane related causes though, otherwise they used to be pretty liberal if a known equiptment or transmission failure.
ron6519
16 years ago
You didn't mention if you looked at the breakers in your panel. Maybe some of them tripped. That would be my first step. There's a good chance some of the appliances are fried, like the microwave. Have an electrician come in to diagnose the problems if the power company won't. If the electrician states the damage was caused by the power company, file a claim. You can call your insurance company and get their take on the situation.
When you go to get this fixed, install a whole house surge protector on the panel.
Ron
iggie
16 years ago
You have my sympathy, but being honest I doubt you will get much satisfaction from your insurance or the power co. Usually you get the run around for a period and then are told such would not have happed had you had a whole house surge protector installed, therefore it,s not their fault. I had a similair occurance. The power went off due to a storm, when it was restored. 3 cordless phones, the modem in my web tv, and the furnace control panel were fried, The surge protector I had on my fridge was also fried.however, it saved the fridge. I got no satisfaction from either the power or insurance company neither. Since I am in the hvac field I was able to replace the furnace panel for cost. I paid for for everything. Several other neighborhood residents had the same problems. and so far as I know none have been able to collecet a dime from anyone. I truly hope you have better luck. Iggie
ejorritsma
Original Author
16 years ago
Iggie - thanks for the sympathy. We've heard several similar stories to yours since this all happened.

Well, it looks like the repairs are not going to be too costly, probably not much more than $500. So we're not going to file a claim with our insurance, since we have a $500 deductible anyway, and we don't want the claim on our record for such a small deal. So we're going to go ahead and make the repairs and file a claim with Edison and see what happens, though we're not expecting much. Their customer service people were not very helpful, and according to the lady I spoke with, the claims dept doesn't have a phone number - yeah, right!
brickeyee
16 years ago
"...it is NOT Edison's fault. you took a surge. it happens from time to time."

Outside of lightning, surges ARE the POCOs problem.

A transformer that goes bad can put 7,200 volts (or higher) from the primary side into the secondary (your wires).
A falling feeder can also contact the 120/240 V lines and dump high voltage.
The POCO is responsible for all of these, unless they can show either lightning or someone else is responsible (like the car that hit a pole).
They can be a PITA to deal with, but you need to have the wiring carefully checked for damage.
Simply replacing the obviously damaged receptacles does nothing to verify the hidden wiring.
The insulation in your walls is rated for 600 volts.
Anything more can cause damage that can lead to overheating and even fires.

Who should I contact about paying for repairs?

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texasredhead

bus_driver

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Who should I contact about paying for repairs?

Comments (9)

texasredhead

bus_driver

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ejorritsmaOriginal Author

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ejorritsma
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