HO 3; not what you think

Fred Zonker

New Member
4
We purchased homeowner's insurance.
Our house burned to the ground in the catastrophic Camp Fire in northern California.
All of our trees burned down.
Our barns burned down.
Our new car burned down.

We will be made whole by our insurance Company, CostCo Ameriprise.

This is not true. Even though any reasonable person can see we have a total loss the insurance company has many rules and people to rush us through things so that they do not have to pay 100%. Adjusters say things such as " I am your friend. I work for you"
The truth is, the consumer will never see 100% of being whole.
Perhaps, if the consumer pays for a public adjuster, 100% can be achieved...less the fee for expert advice.
 
My heart goes out to anyone caught up in the legal mumbo jumbo after such a catastrophe. Your home would be covered by the HO3 and your auto would be covered under your auto policy. I am shocked when the call comes in after someone has read their policy because this never seems to be the norm. People assume that a homeowners policy covers everything. What are they denying coverage for? Items not enumerated in the policy? Language such as 25,000 coverage with no one item more than 1000. A customer with over 20,000 tied up in 2 rings has them stolen and gets 2000 back because they were never added to the policy. A customer who has picked and clicked a policy to get the lowest premium finds out they have eliminated most of the coverage. Hang in there, start creating records of what was lost.
 
The car was covered by the same company. My point was, Ameriprise is not making me whole and they treat me like I am somehow expecting to much when everything I had has been reduced to 6" of ash and I think I should collect 100% of the insurance I paid premiums for.
 
The issue is is the company's and agents just want to sell a policy and not do the underwriting to make sure the proper coverages are offered/applied and the insured is educated for what they are insured. The insureds shop the market for price, not understanding what they need. No one reads the policy, just assuming they are covered.
 
Even though any reasonable person can view the photos of our ashes and determine that our home is a total loss, Ameriprise did not send an adjuster to look and determined we only had a 75% loss for our personal property. They then said a third party would help us do an inventory. They did not tell us that this would change our claim from personal property replacement to actual cash value.
A quick inventory shows we can replace our property if it is not depreciated for about 95% of our policy limit. We can not replace it for 75%.
It would be very difficult and time consuming to find the huge amount of property to be replaced in like kind condition. The insurance company will not compensate us for the many hours of work involved. The only way to get a fair sttlement would be to hire a public adjuster at our expense. In every scenario, we are not made whole.
Our best option is to take the loss and accept it.
 
Let's say you have a home policy with 600K of dwelling coverage, 420K personal property included, 60K other structures. Your insurance company has the right to rebuild the home for whatever the actual cost is, (maybe 450,000- 500,000). You need to produce an itemized inventory of your possessions. Your outbuildings will be reconstructed at whatever it costs to rebuild.
the 600K dwelling coverage often contains the cost for removal of the ash and debris in addition to the rebuild so it might not actually be 600K worth of rebuild. the fire started November 8 and we are approximately 60 days past the start. Don't know when your claim was filed but complaining right away might be jumping the gun. No insurance company is going to hand you a check for the 600K
 

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