Over the last couple of days I have been dealing with my insurance company, State Farm regarding a mold issue in my basement.
A bit of brief background information:
1. We have had a mold issue for the past few months (maybe 4-6) and it has recently gotten worse.
2. I have never really thought about what caused this issue (until I had to deal with State Farm), just know that it is there.
3. We recently had it analyzed by MASLabs , who we have been very happy with, and it turns out to be black mold, which is not good and we need to get it out of there.
4. Treating the mold is not going to be cheap
So the other day when we found this out I figured I was up the creek without a paddle and would have to pay for all of this myself. A friend of mine mentioned home owners insurance so I figured I would give State Farm a call, because of course like a good neighbor they would be there.
So after a quick email to my agent (it was late) they response back and say that I do have a mold and fungus coverage section of my insurance! Well that must be great news, that means they would cover this! Well not so fast.
So I call up the office and they don't know exactly what is covered, and they don't have my policy, only the declarations page. Let me revisit that point, they don't have a copy of my policy!!! How does my local agent not have my policy? So they advice me to file a claim, so I can talk to a claims agent to find out what is covered. So this morning I get a call from the claims agent, and it turns out the mold is only going to be covered if it was caused by a "covered cause of loss". Which seems like a very vague term to me, but apparently if water gets into my basement through the foundation that would not be covered. But if a pipe burst or the water heater burst etc, that would be covered.
So off the bat I figure I have no luck here and, but I have never really thought about what caused the problem. After talking to my wife for a while about the issue, we determine that it has only been an issue this year, starting earlier this spring/summer. This year with the high rain (we thought) we have had water in the basement twice, and that may have caused this mold growth. Now rain seeping in alone sounds like it would not be covered, but since we have had the house for 2 1/2 years and only had rain in the basement recently there has to be another reason that this is happening.
Earlier this year, April/May, when I was mowing the lawn I noticed that a drainage pipe on the side of the house was broken. There is a PVC pipe running down the one side of my yard, to drain water away from the house. Where the water is coming from I am not sure, either the gutters, or well overflow, or the washing machine etc... I will update this once I take a look at the pipes. There is a rubber pipe that runs into this PVC pipe and that is what is broken in half, most likely from an animal digging in my yard. So now instead of the water going down the hill away from the house it is pooling up outside, and there is no longer any grass there, just a muddy area. There has never really been a bunch of standing water there that I have noticed, but the ground is obviously over saturated, and I just haven't had time to re-dig a trench and re run the pipe.
So once I figure out that this is most likely why water has gotten into my basement, I call the claims agent back to see if this is a better situation. After speaking to him and explaining what has happened, it seems like the situation may have moved slightly up to the person who comes to my house will have to make the decision, so at least it sounds like a possibility, however there seems to be a small technicality that will probably end up sinking me.
This really makes no sense to me, but as it was explained to me on the phone:
If the water got back into the basement through the broken pipe, then I would probably be covered.
If the water got back into the basement by seeping through the foundation (even though it came from the broken pipe) I would not be covered.
Seems very odd to me, the source is the broken pipe, regardless of how the water gets back into the basement, the pipe broke!
And I have mentioned to everyone I have talked to at State Farm that I have a pregnant wife, and a 2 year old daughter and I need to take care of this mold as soon as I can because it is a health risk. But now I have to wait up to 3 days to hear from someone about coming out to my house, and then wait to see if I will be covered.
On a separate issue, I am trying to get a copy of my statement to read it for myself and see what is and is not covered. We can't find the copy they supposedly mailed to us yearly, so I call the local office asking for a copy. They say they don't have one and I have to get it sent from corporate and they only mail them out. I call corporate and get them to fax me the "SAMPLE" not even my policy, section on mold, but they can't fax me everything, only mail, and they say call the New Jersey Office.
How in 2009 can a company as large as State Farm only provide you with your policy via snail mail? This makes no sense. They should be able to fax it, email it, or let me download it from their website in a PDF form.
Either way this plays out, I am leaving State Farm after nearly 10 years of service, and this is my very first claim.
I am glad my neighbors are not like State Farm.