So, a car hit my house...

In reply to Klayfish:

The last thing I WANT is another entity involved. Not sure when the threshold gets crossed into NEED.

Liberty Mutual is our company. They sent an adjuster and subsequently offered about $12,000.

Initially it was $7,000 before we tore down the wall so they could come again to see the real damage at which point they coughed up another $5,000. All of which will just about cover the foundation repairs and leave us with another $20,000 of actual house repairs.

Remember, there's is damage in the bedrooms above the point of impact and the front of the hose has extensive damage and the entire side of the house moved so that our front door is out of square and scrapes at the corner and doesn't close properly.

The contractor who is a trusted, long-time friend of ours said he's closer to $40k and could see it up to $45-50 but he wouldn't aim for that.

Said contractor was also told by me that "we don't want any money from this, not a penny extra, just enough to get it fixed so it looks and functions as it did before a stray SUV slammed into it".

Not that he'd pad it in our favor but we asked that it wasn't.

As far as I know, girls insurance isn't even part of the discussion until Liberty Mutual (our homeowners) subrogates them.

Why our company is stuck where they are, I have no idea. We've been with them for over 40 years with one shed/tree claim in all those years. Loyalty so far is for chumps I guess.

Wife texted me and said she's left him two messages in the last few days with Liberty Mutual and his outgoing message that's he's been out of his office has changed so she knows he's been in.

She thinks it's time to call his supervisor.

I'd like to level with the guy that he doesn't want my wife to get involved. He should just pay up now.

(Trying to be funny but I'm not in a joking mood at the moment)

By the way, my elderly parents live in the apartment where the impact was. It's 7' from their bedroom and it IS their office area.

Ahhh, got it. I certainly understand the frustration and the situation really sucks, but just from years and years of experience, lawyers will only make matters worse and slow it down.

I just went and double checked with our first party property manager (which is what your claim is), as I work in auto claims (but we do hit houses/trees/bushes/etc... more often than you'd think). The process is basically the same as I described. You should have the $12k check in your hands from Liberty Mutual. You should also have an estimate from their appraiser. You need to provide this estimate to your contractor. If the contractor does not agree with the scope of work needed, then he/she would reach out to the Liberty Mutual appraiser and they would typically meet on site to discuss scope of work. They should come to an agreement on the scope of work needed...i.e. we need "x" amount of drywall, "x" amount of baseboard, etc... From there, once they agree on a scope of repairs, it should be easy. The materials pricing really shouldn't be much of a dispute, it is what it is. The only real dispute could come in labor. If the contractor you hire wants twice the going rate (not saying they do, just giving an example) for labor, then there's not much your insurance carrier will do about that. You're always free to hire who you want to do the work, but Liberty Mutual isn't required to pay if the labor rate is outside of the norm. It's the same in auto. If you take your car to a shop that charges $100/hour labor when the others charge $55/hour, then you probably won't get paid the $100/hour.

you have snow where you live? Is the house even structurally sound right now with a snow load on the roof and a missing corner of the foundation/ weakened wall? How much snow load you think it can safely handle at this point?

Do home owners insurers have networked contractors ? With my wife's recent auto claim with state farm we simply dropped it off a a body shop and had it fixed. being a preferred contractor with state farm they were approved to do whatever repairs were needed. No long term waiting, or work on our end at all. Home owners isn't similar? Surely they know all the contractors in the area.

In reply to Klayfish:

There's disputes galore though and none of it on labor.

Four windows are affected to where you can see the diamond shape even though no glass broke.

Nothing for repair.

The dropped ceiling is effed up. Pay for 3/4 of the cost of one 4x2 tile and no suspension frame.

They want us to reside 1/2 the front of the house with new and try to match with the old (never gonna happen), one side resides which won't match the other three sides.

They don't want to repair my daughters' room (or they want to patch the crack and pay enough labor to paint just that area.

Nothing for the front door that no longer closes like it did.

We want the house fixed to pre-accident condition (with some depreciation obviously).

They're not in the same ballpark us the contractor.

Not sure about the safely with snow-load. If I mention that to my wife, we'll all be in a hotel tonight!

If your contractor has actually met with the Liberty Mutual appraiser (who should be a property expert), then the next thing you'd want to do is look at your insurance contract. There is going to be a section that clearly outlines how disputes are to be resolved. More than likely it's going to involve arbitration. You hire your expert (your contractor I presume), Liberty Mutual will hire theirs. Those two will then get together and agree on a neutral arbitrator who will evaluate and come to a binding agreement. You have to initiate that process by advising Liberty Mutual that you wish to proceed with it. Keep in mind, I haven't read your policy, but more than likely it says something to that effect. I can read it if you'd like to shoot it over to me.

You can also file a Department of Insurance (DOI) complaint. I can tell you for sure Liberty Mutual is much more concerned about the DOI than they are about a plaintiff attorney.

Lawyer, you need to be made whole with nothing out of your pocket. And that includes your time, you need a general contractor to run the project.

bentwrench wrote: Lawyer, you need to be made whole with nothing out of your pocket. And that includes your time, you need a general contractor to run the project.

We have a general who's great and is a friend as well. He's concerned about getting started only to quickly run out of money

+1 to a complaint to the Department of Insurance. It may be that there is a time limit for your company to settle your claim. I am quite sure they are well past it. Do you have the option of dealing directly with the car owners company? I would have thought that they would be primary. Just as a note , years ago I had a dispute with my insurance company for 6 months and a complaint to the DOI got it resolved in 1 week.

I agree with klayfish on contacting your state insurance commission or whatever its called where you live.

ebonyandivory wrote: In reply to Klayfish: There's disputes galore though and none of it on labor. Four windows are affected to where you can see the diamond shape even though no glass broke. Nothing for repair. The dropped ceiling is effed up. Pay for 3/4 of the cost of one 4x2 tile and no suspension frame. They want us to reside 1/2 the front of the house with new and try to match with the old (never gonna happen), one side resides which won't match the other three sides. They don't want to repair my daughters' room (or they want to patch the crack and pay enough labor to paint just that area. Nothing for the front door that no longer closes like it did. We want the house fixed to pre-accident condition (with some depreciation obviously). They're not in the same ballpark us the contractor.

For instance the residing part, from what I remember and Klayfish can probably confirm/deny, but they aren't required to do the whole house.

If backed into your car and they had to repaint the fender and bumper on a 6 year old Red car, they aren't going to repaint the whole thing so it will match.

(If that's what you're getting at with the siding)

In reply to z31maniac:

Yes, that was my point and I see yours as well.

However, if that dented fender was repaired and the paint didn't match the rest of the car like it did, is that ok? If the car is light blue and the new fender is a slightly darker shade of blue, is that being made whole? I keep going back to the fact that a car left the road, hit a pole, drove 300 feet further and hit my house. The road bends the other way on top of it all. How we can be screwed with a mismatched house is unfathomable to me.

Furthermore, our siding is an odd width. My contractor says it's very doubtful he'll find the same color in the same width. Even if he find the odd width, it'll never be the same color.

That'll really help the property value.

Man, I'd be giving this over to an attorney and letting them handle it all ASAP.

Call every hour on the hour until you get someone to talk to.... Its surprisingly effective. Leave a message each time.

ebonyandivory wrote: In reply to z31maniac: Yes, that was my point and I see yours as well. However, if that dented fender was repaired and the paint didn't match the rest of the car like it did, is that ok? If the car is light blue and the new fender is a slightly darker shade of blue, is that being made whole? I keep going back to the fact that a car left the road, hit a pole, drove 300 feet further and hit my house. The road bends the other way on top of it all. How we can be screwed with a mismatched house is unfathomable to me. Furthermore, our siding is an odd width. My contractor says it's very doubtful he'll find the same color in the same width. Even if he find the odd width, it'll never be the same color. That'll really help the property value.

I understand what you're saying, but that's an argument you're not going to win, even with an attorney and/or a DOI complaint. With the car analogy, that's why shops tint paint and do blending. The shop, if their painter has more than 2 weeks experience, can mix paint to make it 99% match. Then they blend that into adjacent areas so that the eye literally can't see the 1% difference in shade color. With your house, while it's unfortunate that you may have an odd width siding with an odd color, the driver didn't damage all of it and won't be responsible to replace the entire thing. Nor will Liberty Mutual.

The fact that the car left the road, drove 300', hit a pole, with a road that bends counterclockwise is irrelevant to your damages. Their driver is liable, the extenuating circumstances around it don't make the house more damaged than it is. I know it's frustrating, but the facts of the loss don't change the damages. That's something I hear all the time from plaintiff attorneys..."Well, your client was texting and reading GRM at the time of the accident". My answer is that the driver could be Stevie Wonder driving while high on cocaine, it doesn't make a car more damaged or a person more injured.

once I had a tree hit the house and they only reroofed the side the tree hit. The other side was undamaged, but I paid the contractor a slight fee and he did the rest. Siding is a bit different.

It's sounding more and more like Liberty Mutual owns the car insurance company. Or owes them....

When my next insurance payment doesn't quite match the bill, they should be fine with that. No?

Obviously I don't expect anything to change because of the crazy nature of the accident.

It's just all the more frustrating because by definition, we are 0% at fault and are going to be screwed in one way or another.

(This despite at least FOUR friends that have VERY different outcomes that have gotten enough payment to do extra home improvements)

When hurricane Ike rolled through Kentucky and the resulting extremely high winds blew a half dozen shingles off my roof, the insurance company paid for a whole new roof because, in their words, they wouldn't be able to color-match the existing shingles.

That may be completely irrelevant to your situation, but it's the only data point I have to contribute.

I would call the state insurance regulators office and explain your situation to them. Lawyers are a last resort. The only way I would seriously consider a lawyer is if you have some sort of consumer protection laws that double or triple damages and even with that it will take a long time to be resolved. Another place to look for help is the state department of consumer protection. You should be able to both file a complaint and they may be able to assist in moving the process along.

After reading the story it really sounds like you need to escalate this up the food chain with your insurance company. If the person tgat is handling it is not getting I done move to there supervisor and so on. I have found that being nice yet letting them know that you are also working in parallel with the insurance regulatory people as well as the consumer protection people should get there attention.

This is also a story that on a slow news day the local tv would probably be interested in. But be careful what you wish for going down that road. I would advise against it.

ebonyandivory wrote: When my next insurance payment doesn't quite match the bill, they should be fine with that. No? Obviously I don't expect anything to change because of the crazy nature of the accident. It's just all the more frustrating because by definition, we are 0% at fault and are going to be screwed in one way or another. (This despite at least FOUR friends that have VERY different outcomes that have gotten enough payment to do extra home improvements)

Agree or disagree, you've just had one former claim rep and a current one explain how Coverage A works.

Which is all in the policy (contract) you agreed to when you gave them XXX money in exchange for YYY coverage.

It sucks, but there really isn't anything you can do about it. All a lawyer is going to do is end up with some of your settlement.

I work in property and casualty insurance. The treatment of your claim is appalling. EbonyandIvory you are the most patient person I've ever seen. Was your offer of 12k open pending work being completed? Was it a the ACV portion with the recoverable depreciation out there to collect after repairs are done? I would contact your claim representative's supervisor. Get your contractors estimate to the liable parties insurance company immediately. There is surely an open claim there, and contact the state insurance department. On property losses like this, the longer the home sits damaged unrepaired the greater the damage and therefore cost becomes. This should motivate your carrier. Do you have an agent to ramrod the claim? I agree with Klayfish, lawyers will only slow communications, add billable hours, and bottleneck the process further.

In reply to carknut:

I wish I could answer your question but I know so little about the ins and outs of insurance claims, I don't even know how to answer.

Part of your post suggests that I take my contractors estimate and bring it to the "perpetrator's" insurance company?

Am I able to do that even though our homeowners is involved and is (I assume) subrogate her insurance afterwards.

(I never got why we've not been dealing with her company from day 1)

None, I repeat NONE of this is going the way I expected. And certainly not the way I know other very, very similar claims have gone.

It's incredibly frustrating because I don't know where I stand or how to move forward