Really need some advice with my fire claim up here in Canada.
Lost my house and everything I've ever owned in a fire over a year ago and I've been hit with road block after road block preventing a rebuild. A rebuild where there's about $250,000 in premium clauses I had with my policy.
Just to quickly elaborate on the aforementioned clauses, my home was on a waterfront property and is only accessible by a narrow 250 foot long driveway making it impossible for heavy construction vehicles to traverse. The house was also over 40 years old. So knowing the age and logistical issues that are surely to arise if a rebuild was ever required, I felt it prudent to include a number of clauses in my policy to deal with these difficulties. This would include additional living expenses clause since a rebuild would take longer than usual, a by-law clause to account for the age of the house, and finally, the option of allocating unused content insurance towards the rebuild knowing the likelihood of cost overruns.
Hopefully someone here could answer some questions for me.
1) Is it normal for the insurance company to require the homeowner to conduct a thorough investigation with all the different municipal/township by-laws and any conservation regulations to ensure a rebuild could proceed?
The insurance rep said that if I did not get approval, they could not proceed with the rebuild. Didn't even know where to begin with this task, but it would eventually take me 2 weeks to get the go ahead from the township regulators.
2) Is it normal for an insurance company to have a 4th party contractor be involved with the rebuild?
It seemed kind of redundant when the insurance company hired a 3rd party demolition contractor who then hired a 4th party demolition contractor to actually work on the claim. Had to sign the same paper work twice.
3) Why did the insurance company ask me to waste all my time doing all that research when I learned that the 4th party contractor was responsible in the first place for obtaining the required permits for my rebuild?
This is where things get really squirrelly. The 4th party mentioned above was obsessed with buying the burnt remains of my house and property as is. He said he wanted to park his big camper after all the debris was removed. He made multiple offers to buy and when I declined, he ended up telling me that the township denied the permit for my rebuild because of new conservation regulations that affected waterfront properties. He even said that once the rubble was removed, we were not allowed to rebuild anything making the property useless. He offered to buy my property again but at a lower price.
This made no sense because I already got the go ahead to proceed and the issuing of a permit was just a formality. I revisited the helpful folks from the township who gave me the go ahead. It turns out the 4th party contractor went to the departmental head and stated on the permit application I was planning to move the new house 15 ft closer to the shoreline. Doing this would have been insane making the house dangerously close to the water. I notified the insurance company of this conflict of interest and that the permit was denied and they did nothing. I ended up having to waste even more time assuring the township I wasn't planning to move the new house closer and they issued the permit to that 4th party scumbag.
Since September, the insurance company has stopped paying for my rent citing that I refused to meet with the agent to discuss the next steps. That was via email, but verbally on the phone, the agent says I must take possession of payment for the depreciated value of my house and sign off on related documentation during our planned meeting. Only after that he will proceed with rebuild talks. I’ve repeatedly asked for a copy of this documentation for me to review, but it’s never been provided. As of the end of this month, I would have drained all my savings paying both rent and the mortgage on a house that no longer exists.
So I guess question 4 is -
Why is the insurance company so insistent on me taking this payment when I’ll have to give it right back. I made it clear that I needed them to make all the arrangements.
Asking around the office, I’ve learned I have 2 co-workers who also lost their homes in fires over the past 10 years. Neither was ever asked to run around to research by-laws and regulations so a rebuild could proceed. The construction company that rebuilt their houses did all of that. Neither were ever asked to accept payments for the depreciated value of their homes because their insurance companies handled all the necessary arrangements for the rebuild so there was no reason for them take possession of this payment.
Lost my house and everything I've ever owned in a fire over a year ago and I've been hit with road block after road block preventing a rebuild. A rebuild where there's about $250,000 in premium clauses I had with my policy.
Just to quickly elaborate on the aforementioned clauses, my home was on a waterfront property and is only accessible by a narrow 250 foot long driveway making it impossible for heavy construction vehicles to traverse. The house was also over 40 years old. So knowing the age and logistical issues that are surely to arise if a rebuild was ever required, I felt it prudent to include a number of clauses in my policy to deal with these difficulties. This would include additional living expenses clause since a rebuild would take longer than usual, a by-law clause to account for the age of the house, and finally, the option of allocating unused content insurance towards the rebuild knowing the likelihood of cost overruns.
Hopefully someone here could answer some questions for me.
1) Is it normal for the insurance company to require the homeowner to conduct a thorough investigation with all the different municipal/township by-laws and any conservation regulations to ensure a rebuild could proceed?
The insurance rep said that if I did not get approval, they could not proceed with the rebuild. Didn't even know where to begin with this task, but it would eventually take me 2 weeks to get the go ahead from the township regulators.
2) Is it normal for an insurance company to have a 4th party contractor be involved with the rebuild?
It seemed kind of redundant when the insurance company hired a 3rd party demolition contractor who then hired a 4th party demolition contractor to actually work on the claim. Had to sign the same paper work twice.
3) Why did the insurance company ask me to waste all my time doing all that research when I learned that the 4th party contractor was responsible in the first place for obtaining the required permits for my rebuild?
This is where things get really squirrelly. The 4th party mentioned above was obsessed with buying the burnt remains of my house and property as is. He said he wanted to park his big camper after all the debris was removed. He made multiple offers to buy and when I declined, he ended up telling me that the township denied the permit for my rebuild because of new conservation regulations that affected waterfront properties. He even said that once the rubble was removed, we were not allowed to rebuild anything making the property useless. He offered to buy my property again but at a lower price.
This made no sense because I already got the go ahead to proceed and the issuing of a permit was just a formality. I revisited the helpful folks from the township who gave me the go ahead. It turns out the 4th party contractor went to the departmental head and stated on the permit application I was planning to move the new house 15 ft closer to the shoreline. Doing this would have been insane making the house dangerously close to the water. I notified the insurance company of this conflict of interest and that the permit was denied and they did nothing. I ended up having to waste even more time assuring the township I wasn't planning to move the new house closer and they issued the permit to that 4th party scumbag.
Since September, the insurance company has stopped paying for my rent citing that I refused to meet with the agent to discuss the next steps. That was via email, but verbally on the phone, the agent says I must take possession of payment for the depreciated value of my house and sign off on related documentation during our planned meeting. Only after that he will proceed with rebuild talks. I’ve repeatedly asked for a copy of this documentation for me to review, but it’s never been provided. As of the end of this month, I would have drained all my savings paying both rent and the mortgage on a house that no longer exists.
So I guess question 4 is -
Why is the insurance company so insistent on me taking this payment when I’ll have to give it right back. I made it clear that I needed them to make all the arrangements.
Asking around the office, I’ve learned I have 2 co-workers who also lost their homes in fires over the past 10 years. Neither was ever asked to run around to research by-laws and regulations so a rebuild could proceed. The construction company that rebuilt their houses did all of that. Neither were ever asked to accept payments for the depreciated value of their homes because their insurance companies handled all the necessary arrangements for the rebuild so there was no reason for them take possession of this payment.