well i hinted a little in an earlier post that we've been dealing with a bit of an issue regarding the cincy house. theres much too much story to cover in one blog post [especially given the time limits of a lunch break balanced with the usual verbose posting a la moi]
so this all started with the move to texas. karen had just gotten into town, we were just getting settled in and we'd been working with the realtor in cincinnati via phone and e-mail to get the house on the market and try to get the dang thing sold.
at first things were actually going well. there appeared to be a decent number of showings in the place, and the feedback we were getting was positive for the most part. then, right about the middle of february we got a bite. a woman was interested in the house and put an offer on it and we started the negotiation process. considering all the factors involved with us selling the house [like not being in cincinnati for starters] we were pretty motivated to sell as quickly as possible, and seeing as this woman was legitimately interested, we gave in on a few items here and there and eventually signed a contract to begin the selling process. at this point we gave the buyer a few weeks to get inspections done look things over, etc. and then we'd come back to the negotiating table to finalize everything and get out from under this house.
well things were going okay at first. she got some inspections done and everything came up okay, but then she wanted us to turn the water back on - after we had just [2 weeks prior] had the house winterized and the water shut off. keep in mind it was still freezing in cincinnati at this point and we didnt want any issues with pipes freezing or bursting so under the advisement of our realtor we'd had it winterized. anyway, that was a bit of an issue because i felt like we got ripped on what we'd just paid for to have that done, but in the end we just bit the bullet and agreed. so she got the water inspection done and things were looking good. then everything changed...
out of the blue i got an email one day from the realtor with pictures of the backyard and the side of the house with all kinds of black material laying on the ground and the text reading 'we have a problem.' it was hard to tell from the pictures but it looked like tar paper so i was confused by this, not to mention my anxiety level shot through the roof, so i immediately called him to find out what had happened.
as it turns out, there had been a number of big storms that blew through cincinnati that weekend and apparently had blown off a portion of my flat roof. this lead to water infiltration during the storm which had dropped a portion of the ceiling on my 3rd floor/attic and had soaked carpet, etc. i would later learn that not only had it blown that large piece in the picture off my roof, but had blown more off that had damaged a piece of gutter on the neighbors house, littered her roof with debris, and had further blown debris into the neighbors yards 2 houses down the block as well... joy.
immediately i called state farm to let them know what was going on and start the claim process on the house. my insurance agent said he'd get the process started but that this was considered an act-of-god or catastrophe claim, and that those are handled by a different department of the company and that id have to wait for my claim to be processed and turned over to a representative before anything would happen. however, in the mean-time he advised me to do whatever i could to appoint a representative in cincinnati to handle things locally in my stead and to get a roofer out immediately to seal up the roof as best as possible to prevent further damage from occurring. ...and so the real fun began...
as soon as i got off the phone with the insurance agent my next phone call was the remodeler i had been working with to get the house ready to sell before i left and had had a long-standing relationship with and trusted. he'd done good work in the past and been great to work with, so i was hopeful that he would be able to help me out. as soon as he answered the phone he knew why i was calling. hed been out looking at a neighbors roof the day after the storm and while he was up there hed seen some of the damage to my roof and had seen my roof in the yards of the houses of my neighbors. he said hed have called me himself sooner, but he assumed someone would be looking after the house for us and would have let us know... [this probably should have been my first warning sign...] not wanting to waste any time i filled him in on the status of everything and asked if he could go over there and assess the damage and get the house sealed up, and he agreed that he could and assured me he would. well okay then. at this point, ive covered my ass as best as i can i think. as far as i knew id done everything i could on my end, now it was just a waiting game for everyone else to play their respective roles.... right? heh, sure....
[agent 1]
we'll call her jane. jane called me 9 days after i had initially filed the report. jane was not from cincinnati, jane had just flown into town and was ready to go look at the house and proceeded to get all my information, take down notes on everything that had happened up until this point, and assured me that she would be in contact with my contractor and realtor to go investigate the house and write up an estimate of the damage.
4 days later, i get a call from jane. she looked at the house with the previously mentioned representatives and she was not happy. the roof is kind of high, if you hadnt guessed. being that its a 3 story house, that would make sense. well seeing as its a 3 story house and theres no roof access hatch on my flat roof, she was unable to assess the damage to the roof and would have to have another team come out at a later date to assess the roof damage and she was only able to write up her estimate for the interior damage she saw. additionally, the roof had not been sealed properly and there was water leaking into the house when they were there - she was not happy about that. i would later find out that jane was not even qualified to be my insurance adjuster - she was still in the process of training and had her trainer with her during the walk-through of my house to make sure she was getting it even remotely accurate - which she didnt.
i immediately called the contractor to find out what the deal was and he informed me that at this point he hadnt sealed the roof because he was waiting for the agent to see it before he sealed it. they would have to look at the damage and anything hed done to seal the roof would have to be ripped up in order to inspect the damage so he was waiting for the insurance people before he could do it. while on the one hand this made sense to me, on the other hand i was a little pissed. i wanted that roof sealed almost 2 weeks ago and i was not happy it hadnt been done, not to mention that based on the way he was handling it, it wasnt going to get sealed anytime soon because now he was waiting other team to come out that was actually going to inspect the roof - in his eyes this was all the insurance companies fault with the delays and he couldnt believe they were doing this to me. i asked him to please just put down a tarp temporarily to try and prevent any further damage until the next round of agents came and he said hed work on it.... [yes, im an idiot. i believed him...]
[agents 2]
dont know their names. 3 or 4 days later they met up with the roofer to get on the roof and inspect the situation on the roof. i found out later that both of these guys had been flown in from the south and while one of them actually did have roofing experience [the other one is still out to the jury] neither of them had ever worked on a flat roof and didnt seem to have a clue what they were doing. the result of the inspection determined that the roof was a total loss and would have to be replaced - wow, thanks guys. way to be thorough. the contractor supplemented that with a core sample and discovered that the existing roof was comprised of 6 layers of torch-down modified roofing membrane over a layer of tin roof over 100year old 1inch thick, wide plank, spaced, decking over the roof joists. well that was a start at least. now we know what was actually up there all this time...
not long after this i received janes initial estimate in the mail which resulted in a phone call with me being as calm as possible while pissed the ef off at this nonsense. she quoted slightly less than $6000 total for the roof and interior damage combined and estimated that the entire interior damage amounted to a single 4x8 sheet of drywall worth of repairs as well as a little spackling and painting to finish it and that my carpet could be cleaned for a reasonable price to repair the damage [from it being completely saturated when they were there???] this was not good. my estimate from the contractor was upward of 13,000 for everything he needed to do at this point. i wont even go into the saga of actually getting a freaking estimate from my contractor.... [at this point i really should have known where this was going...]
a few days later i get an irate phone call from jane. the roofer had finally tarped the roof at some point, but the tarp had blown up in another storm and there was extensive further damage from the storm. more of the ceiling had fallen down, now in another room on the third floor, the carpet was soaked throughout the 3rd floor, there was a piece of ceiling that had fallen on the second floor under the original area the water had started coming in on, and she was fuming that i had not gotten the roof sealed properly and was in breach of my claim requirement to mitigate further damage to the house.
i tried my absolute best to talk calmly to jane and calm her down and discuss what needed to happen at this point and what the heck i was supposed to do from 2000 miles away. eventually she did calm down, apologized, and expressed her concern that i was being taken advantage of and couldnt believe that someone had actually put down 6 layers of roofing on my roof - for anyone that doesnt know, thats waaaaaaay too much. the weight alone from that much roofing is a serious structural problem, i dont know how the roof never caved in. not to mention that over time that weight had caused the roof to sag and hold water [the bowl effect] and that was causing even more problems...
so after calming her down she spoke with her supervisor and called me back to inform me that state farm was sympathetic to my situation and wouldnt hold me personally responsible for the damage not being mitigated and would roll the new damage up into the existing claim [and save me the additional 1500 deductible for a second claim, thank God] and we'd be going from there. however, at this point, her time in ohio was up and she was flying off to the east coast somewhere [to possibly get some real training?] and would be handing off my case to another mobile agent that would be in town soon and would be in contact with me...
i think this is a good place to stop part one. now that we've gotten rid of jane and are about to meet agent 3. hopefully hes less useless....
until we meet again...
1 comment:
Ouch..seriously disastrous.
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