So, a car hit my house...

In reply to MDJeepGuy:

As I've mentioned in this thread, we were on vacation when this occurred. My elderly father was home alone as my mom was undergoing a life-saving surgery and we were lucky to have, coincidentally, had my brother down from Maine to visit my parents. He arrived not knowing this even happened. He was at least able to allow inspectors and adjusters in the house and take notes.

And using our insurer and them, in turn, subrogating the drivers insurance company is not unusual and I'm told by those in the industry that it's perfectly normal and oftentimes preferred.

Not to mention we hired a private adjuster who we couldn't have known would be terrible at his job combined with a contractor who didn't have a wealth of expertise (possibly none) dealing directly with insurance companies.

So, now as you may have read, we fired our private adjuster, parted ways with the previous contractor AND Liberty Mutual has permanently removed the initial adjuster from any part of our claim, told us in writing that he would be dealt with internally and put a new adjuster on our claim who has responded to my new contractor's requests and estimates within a few HOURS, not days, not weeks.

And as you also may have read, (this thread is 13 pages long so I don't expect you to have read it all) I hired the contractor I most definitely should have hired back in July. Who, without hyperbole or exaggeration, had gotten us further toward a settlement in three days than the previous people had gotten us in 7 months.

Things are going so well right now that I want to let it work and just get my house fixed and this mess behind us.

Please feel free to suggest what more I should do at this point. Should I look to punish Liberty Mutual now? Wait until the house is completed and sue them? Blast them in an editorial page in the local newspaper? I'm open to serious suggestions.

At the end of the day what do you want from liberty mutual? An apology? I am sure you have probibly got that now that you are dealing with the correct people. This is a case where the little people involved initially ate at fault and corporate probably had no clue. If going to the news or changing carriers makes you feel better go for it. In the end what can liberty mutual do. They don't have a time machine. They appear to be very responsive now and that is what matters. If somthing happens in the future I am sure they will be very responsive as all of this I would think will be in your file.

The best thing is to get the house fixed and move on with life.

dean1484 wrote: At the end of the day what do you want from liberty mutual? An apology? I am sure you have probibly got that now that you are dealing with the correct people. This is a case where the little people involved initially ate at fault and corporate probably had no clue. If going to the news or changing carriers makes you feel better go for it. In the end what can liberty mutual do. They don't have a time machine. They appear to be very responsive now and that is what matters. If somthing happens in the future I am sure they will be very responsive as all of this I would think will be in your file. The best thing is to get the house fixed and move on with life.

Bingo.

Though I will say that if the adjuster had a significant role in this, which it seems he/she did, where was the claim manager? That's a big part of the managers job, to make sure files don't slip through the cracks.

To Dean and Klayfish:

I may have been too subtle in my last post at the top of this page. My last paragraph was pure sarcasm.

Of course I've been more than frustrated and rightly so but I'm hearing a few people here and in real-life that are pushing for revenge.

Let me be perfectly clear: I want my house fixed, I want this all behind me. I have zero interest in any sort of revenge.

I'm as pleased at the progress now as I was frustrated by the lack of it before. I'm not about to screw up the direction we're heading. It looks to me like the obstacles have been cleared and we're on our way to being made right.

Sure, there's times to "make 'em pay". This isn't one of them.

In reply to ebonyandivory:

I'd at least try and get them to buy me a donut or two for breakfast as an apology. But I really like donuts.

Good on ya, Ebonyandivory. Quite the ordeal. Looks better in the rearview.

So how is this going?

Any update? Hope you aren't in jail for taking a baseball bat to the office

In reply to eebasist:

Thanks to the new contractor and a new Liberty Mutual contact, the house is done!

$43,000 plus and almost a year but it's done!

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I would celebrate by planting a robust tree.

MrJoshua wrote: I would celebrate by planting a robust tree.

And maybe some Armco too.

In reply to MrJoshua:

I've planted some shrubs but I'm thinking of a WW2 era tank-trap!

A moat. Everyone needs a moat.

I have a pine between my house and the street that destroyed an Altima that was trying to hit my house (and dropped said Altima on the hood of my E46 ). Insurance gave me some money for the "Damage" the Altima caused to the pine tree, but the tree shrugged off the few pieces of lost bark and still stands guard.

Congrats!

Landscaping boulders!

It is good to hear that this finally ended well.

Seriously, getting my anger and frustration supported here helped immensely. I'm usually a brute-force fixes everything type but I'm glad I stayed calm and worked things out the legal, non-violent way.

Truth be told, my wife was on the phone doing what women do when they're not being treated fairly which was really the catalyst that got this thing done.

And a big thanks to all here that offered "legal" advice as well as to the guys who seemed to support the nuk-u-lar option that I fortunately didn't have to use!

mndsm wrote: A moat. Everyone needs a moat.

And if you have a moat, it needs to have gators. Face it, you know you wanted the gators anyway. Now you have the justification for them.

Pete Gossett wrote:

mndsm wrote: A moat. Everyone needs a moat.

And if you have a moat, it *needs* to have gators. Face it, you know you wanted the gators anyway. Now you have the justification for them.

Or at the very least, ill-tempered sea bass.

Any 'during' pics of the repairs?

Fitch barriers. Tragic motorsport incident inspired however. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Fitch_(racing_driver)

I saw this thread bubble up again and had steeled myself for the worst. So glad it has ended reasonably well for you, and hope you can get back to some normalcy.

In reply to old_:

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Hurray for happy endings!