Insurance
Comment here if you have information or opinions
about dealing with your insurance company (successfully or not) and also about
getting flood insurance (or not) in the future.
This is intended to be a neighbors’ forum for people affected by the August 20 flood in Shorewood Hills. We’ve all been working to clean up our homes and yards. We’ve all been working our way through insurance claims and financial decisions. We all want to see the Village and the city of Madison engineer the storm-water system so that such a thing can’t happen again, while at the same time we're fortifying our homes in the event it does. We’ve done little for the last month but research how to achieve all this. So let’s share what we’ve learned. Lengthy email chains aren’t ideal for any number of reasons. Maybe this blog will be better. (Or maybe not. We’ll see.) The idea is to create a group conversation that doesn't clutter up our in-boxes. The initial categories for comments are these: General For anything that isn’t easily categorized, including emails written previous to the blog. Municipal mitigation For information about what cau...
Comments
I have one tip on insurance. Talk about it as sewer back up and focus on the items that "would have" been damaged with about two feet of water. This can still include furnaces, water heaters, clean-up/sanitization & removal of drywall and flooring. If the conversation goes towards ground water coming in, just confirm that at some point water may have started to commingle with the water from the backup, but that the damage had already (still would have) happened. We have had success with State Farm so far. Note, this is because we do carry a sewer back-up/sump pump failure clause.
Thank you for your leadership on this issue.
Allstate did not cover anything as it was due to “surface water”, moreover, they indicate that they cannot provide me with flood insurance in the future as the Village is not involved in the flood insurance program.
Jim and Ana
Allstate also covers my house. They denied my claim for water in the interior based on it being floodwaters and that is not covered; I had no sewer back up coverage so that was denied, too. Finally, after flood cutting my interior walls and removing wet insulation, my contractor spotted existing water damage under a window and suggested I call my insurance company for that since it was not a result of the flood. Allstate denied that claim, too, as leaking windows are considered a 'maintenance' issue and maintenance is not covered.
I've heard good things about a local insurance company Wisconsin Mutual but I have not investigated what coverages they offer.
$100,000 dwelling + $40,000 contents for $347, with a $1,250 deductible. Other options increase about $50,000 dwelling + $20,000 contents for additional $50 premium increments.
Thoughts?