Airqual guy, many of those problems have lessened since insurance companies have limited mold coverage. The coverage for mold is usually capped at $5,000.00 now so those large insurance exposures have been severely averted. I have heard of people getting dropped for multiple water claims but there were other factors involved such as the condition of the house. I have never heard of insuredÂs being dropped for inquiring about a claim. If a person was dropped without a claim; it was because the homeowner did turn in a claim and the claim was denied. If the water problem was caused by a plumber or builder, I would call them to see if they would cover it. Your insurance will at least subrogate against another party if they were at fault. In short, if you can afford not to turn in a claim, DONÂT. If you have no choice, I wouldnÂt worry about turning in a claim for this issue unless you have a bad claim history.

Totally agree about everything posted. 1st) Flood insurance usually states they will not cover you in a situation it is deemed an act of God. So, pretty much that only means a pipe bursting. If there is an actual flood that damages your house or a hurricane, well, that's an act of God and you're not covered. I didn't know that until I heard many of those in Louisiana who paid for flood insurance went to cash in, and found out it doesn't cover an actual flood or hurricane, those are acts of God. Kind of takes the wind out of flood insurance. Do like DavidAndKasie say, and make sure it specifically stipulates you're covered even if it's an act of God if you get it. 2nd) Read Devorah's post, carefully. Before I bought my house, my mortgage person first thing said, "Give me the address, let's check to see if the previous owners took a claim on water damage. If they did, you won't be able to get a mortgage for that house". Once you cash in on water damage, now the insurance company usually will drop you, you will have a very hard time trying to pick up someone else as you're now marked, and you will have a hard time trying to sell your house as you'll have to find someone who's mortgage company will actually let someone buy a house that's claimed water damage. Insurance companies are afraid you've created a mold/mildew issue and they don't want to risk the medical repurcussions of the individual(s) or anyone moving into that house who gets sick. In my opinion, flood insurance is a hoax. If you win the fight, you've lost the war as now you're marked as a potential health risk from then on, your house is flagged as a safety risk, anyone buying your house from then on will have a hard time trying to purchase it, and you will have a hard time trying to find a mortgage company to back you. Better off just paying for the damage out of pocket and keep your insurance out of it. A guy at work is convinced you can't even call up your insurance company and ask them about water damage. He said he had a pipe burst in his house and called up his insurance company. They got his name, and account, and then all he wanted was an honest answer from them if it was just better he take the hit or have a claim. After discussing it with other people at work, everyone was like, DO NOT get the insurance company involved or have a claim. Well, a month later his insurance company cancelled his insurance without reason and sent him a check for the remaining balance. Think it was coincidence? So, that's how I understand it. You have to take what I say with a grain of salt as it's all what others have told me but no actual proof or backing.

I got all the documentation from MIL. I don't know who this adjustor is, but he clearly has less homebuilding experience than me. He totally missed the ballusters, handrails, misidentified the species of wood. The roof is damaged. There are chunks of siding missing and he didn't account for that. She does have replacement coverage, so I don't get the depreciation thing. I need to call them, but I need the contractor to add more detail to his written estimate as well. Tree removal is way more than $250 around here. You won't even get someone to come to your house for that. Plus there is nowhere to take them. The nearest disposal for trees is an hour away, so there is 2 hours of labor plus the dump fee there. It's a pine, so no one wants it. This was a huge tree, over 24" diamter. I don't know how to handle the siding and roof issue. The siding can probably be matched good enough, especially if we powerwash and restain the entire side (can I ask for that? It's cheaper than replacing the siding on the entire side). There is no way to match the roof, but the roof is circa 1990, and it isn't visible from the ground. Do we just patch that section and have it not match? I don't want to over reach, but I also don't want to not ask for what she is entitled to.

Well, this has definitely been a learning experience for us! We've not been happy with the level of responsiveness from our insurance company although it supposedly is ranked as one of the top companies in the country. In many ways they have screwed up from the get go. So, we've been feeling that we are definitely on our own on this one. After more than a month of hassling this, we are starting to think that perhaps we should have just hired a GC. But, at the start we didn't realize that the scope of the necessary repairs would keep expanding into the realm where a GC might be necessary. Our adjuster just told us to find some companies to bid on the heating and plumbing work (all that we initially thought was involved). As we get further into this, we are realizing all of the additional things that will need to be worked on. I guess we are lucky in that we have the funds in hand to pay for some of the initial expenses such as temporary lodging and initial diagnostic work on the house. A number of times we've talked about how in the world people who don't have the extra money would be able to handle making these payments and then waiting for reimbursement. Our insurance company didn't even step up and offer any assistance with finding temporary lodging until more than two weeks into this. And, then, they didn't have any better options than I'd managed to find after hours and hours of searching on my own. I think some of the issues we are having are due to our wanting to do things our own way to make sure they are done correctly and in a manner suitable to a 100 year old house. The insurance company has four approved contractors in our city, and if we had chosen to work through them all of the money would have gone directly to them through the insurance agency without us having to be involved at all. But, we started looking into reviews of those companies, and they weren't great. So, we opted out of using those approved contractors. We are ending up acting as our own GC, but it is a lot of work! We are lucky we have the time to do this. Yes, we have just considered paying off the rest of the mortgage and could do that. But, we live in a pretty pricey house and that is a good chunk of money that we might want to have available elsewhere in this entire process. So, we are sitting on that idea for a bit. And, when asking about pocketing some of the money by doing work on my own, my intent is not to defraud or raise rates. I just want to know why I could not do the painting myself since I am as capable as the professional that I know the insurance company will be paying a pretty penny to do the same work. So, are some of you suggesting that we just hire a GC, have the GC make a bid for the entire project, and then make our own arrangements with the GC on how we could save some of the total sum by doing the work ourselves? Thanks for all of the advice and personal experiences.