Home was destroyed by massive tree in 80mph wind. Insurance has been like pulling teeth to make claim. Is this normal?

[sinnerinthehands]

@hollywoodbowles If you have emailed them photos of the damage, I don't see how they can deny you long term housing. It sounds like it is pretty bad.

Was this a well documented wind storm in your area? Are there many others dealing with damage, too? Sorry if you have already answered this.

Do you have a contractor you trust? Start tracking down contractors, and find one you can trust who has experience with framing and roofing, etc.

If you can, have one of them inspect the damage and write up a bid. Email the bid and photos to the adjuster. If you have the name of a supervisor, copy them in the email.

The field adjuster should work with your contractor to get an agreed upon scope and cost of repair, as well as, a repair time frame. That is the piece that will get you into housing.

Also, reach out to your local building department to see if they are able to help fast track their inspections, so your home can get permitted for repair and occupancy sooner than later. Lastly, when I handled claims like this MANY years ago, we (insurance company) typically also hired a structural engineer to consult on the repair plans to make sure repair was done adequately.

I work for AmFam, but not in Claims. The scenario you are describing doesn't meet our service standards. I am very sorry for what you are going through. Feel free to message me. I can likely track down someone to escalate this to.

 

[hollywoodbowles]

@sinnerinthehands sorry for the late response - this has been pretty rough to handle so far. i'm going to message you.

 

[resjudicata]

@hollywoodbowles I’m sorry for your loss and that you’re having a frustrating experience with your claim.

What carrier?

How did you file the claim? I’m interested in what was said to first have this assigned to a non-large loss adjuster. I know at my previous regional carrier, if someone called in saying “my house was destroyed and is inhabitable. A tree sliced it in half”, there’s no way it would’ve been incorrectly assigned.

 

[hollywoodbowles]

@resjudicata Homesite. I said my home was destroyed by a massive tree in an 80mph wind storm. We got a warning from state emergency system immediately before it happened.

 

[gilcollect]

@hollywoodbowles Homesite isn’t known for having good claim service. AFICS (American Family Claim Services) is who you are dealing with. I dealt with them two years ago and it was the same experience no one ever helped and no one ever called back or returned calls period. I went almost 4 weeks without contact despite me trying to get a hold of my adjuster. Eventually I filed a DOI complaint and they started doing something.

Overall my entire experience dealing with AFICS who services all of American Family Insurance claims and their subsidiaries which includes homesite was unpleasant. You could not pay me to keep a policy with them no matter how good or cheap the coverage was. Their claim service is absolutely awful and everything you are saying tracks with what I dealt with.

Luckily the damage to my home was not as bad and I could still live there. After the entire experience I said to myself if my house was unlivable I wouldn’t trust this carrier to take care of me and even get me into housing so I canceled my policy.

I would try to get a supervisor on the phone. Call the 1800 number and ask the person to be transferred to your adjusters supervisor. They were able to do that when I dealt with them. Although she was equally unhelpful it did at least allow me to get my photos uploaded to my claim file.

It might be too soon to file a DOI complaint but I would say if this continues it might be a good option as they do have to formally respond to it.

I would also avoid getting a PA unless absolutely necessary they tend to drag the claim process out even longer

 

[hollywoodbowles]

@gilcollect This is literally what I needed to see today.

 

[gilcollect]

@hollywoodbowles Hang in there I know what you are going through. I work in claims for a competitor so I knew what to expect for a property claim. I can confidently say the carrier I work for is much much better than AFICS. I remember the VP asking how my property claim was going and when I said it’s been 4 weeks without contact his jaw dropped.

You truly do get what you pay for when it comes to claims service for insurance. I switched to a regional carrier after my experience with AFICS. I paid $300 more for a policy but the peace of mind alone for not having to ever deal with them is worth it.

If you do plan on switching I would highly recommend finding an independent agent to get you new quotes for home insurance. I would not recommend going and shopping in the direct market yourself. There are so many carriers out there that are better than homesite that you likely have never even heard of. These carriers often have better homeowners products and more competitive pricing as well as better claim service. In my opinion AFICS is probably at the bottom of the barrel when it comes to claim service.

I hope they get their act together and start helping you. I hope no one was hurt when the tree fell on your house.

 

[dbchleqz01]

@gilcollect Came here to say this too. There’s a reason I didn’t go with low bid for insurance. When you really need insurance for a claim, low bid is not better. I just want the peace of mind that comes from knowing they’ll step up (as my company has already done once for me). It’s worth the extra $400 we send their way. But we are very fortunate that we can afford it.

 

[mamaafrica]

@gilcollect Amen on on that. I’ll avoid AFICS for the rest of my life God willing

 

[sdtexas2022]

@hollywoodbowles It’s weird this wasn’t immediately assigned to a Large Loss Claims Unit right away.

Have you had the tree removed from the house and the house secured yet? (Windows and doors boarded, roof trapped etc.)

 

[hollywoodbowles]

@sdtexas2022 I have not because everyone I’ve had look at the house doesn’t want to take it on because they think they won’t get paid because the home is destroyed. I have asked for help from insurance and it is not happening. Homesite has claimed every claim is a small claim until it isn’t with them.

 

[jul1a]

@hollywoodbowles sorry this happened to you. I can empathize. it’s been three months since a small water damage claim on a condo

I have had a number of adjuster changes and “on vacation”

Construction still has not started and their vendor can only repair the kitchen in august

So hotel rates for three months plus because of waiting for repairs instead paying for replacement.

Not to mention the anxiety and stress.

Hope it is better for you. I don’t know how to make it better but look for a better company

 

[hollywoodbowles]

@jul1a Same to you. I hate to hear that

 

[hiimbryan]

@hollywoodbowles 80mph winds? Think you're the only one? Companies are short staffed to begin with, and when a disaster hits in peak vacation season this is what happens. There's a huge influx of claims and a loss of staff to deal with them all. It sucks whenever a huge claim like this happens, but it's going to involve a long time and many many people and hours to get all the many moving parts of your claim started and finished. 14 days is not that long considering the massive scope of the claim. You're likely in for a year of this unfortunately. You just have to remember that ultimately nobody was hurt and it's going to take lots of people and moving parts to move things along which takes time.

 

[hollywoodbowles]

@hiimbryan This is all true. I’m very new to this and am just appreciative for the info and sanity check. It’s very overwhelming.

 

[teo201]

@hollywoodbowles The rebuild will be a long haul and getting an appropriate estimate will take some back and forth.

However, getting you setup in long term housing takes very little time from an adjuster, and needs to be done ASAP so that you can preserve as much of the limit as possible. I don’t agree that you’re being unreasonable for wanting this taken care of now. When I was an adjuster, it was hotel until I knew how bad it was, then a call to Temporary Accommodations (this is an outside vendor, there are others) to find a place that works for the timeline and budget. They handle sending the billing straight to the insurance.

When you get to the finish line, shop around for another carrier. I’m not thrilled by the lack of response to your large loss that will have you out of the home for likely a year.

 

[marie2018]

@hollywoodbowles Hate to be a Karen but did you think your claim was going to be paid and closed in two weeks? They set you up in temporary housing, you could probably call a temporary housing vendor like crs temp housing and ale solutions to start the ball rolling on long term housing if you have an ALE limit to limit the ale as staying in a hotel is expensive. You can most likely provide your adjuster info to the temporary housing vendor who will connect with said adjuster for approvals on ale.

With respect to the damage to your home, don’t know what ur policy is or who is it with but generally if a tree fell onto the property the resulting damage would be covered. There is a limit to haul the tree debris off the property. Typically your house limits aka dwelling limit would apply to physically remove the tree off the structure and onto the ground. The realistic timeline your looking at is 8-10 months as there is extensive damage. Most likely your going to need a city permit to rebuild along with a structural engineer to draw the plans up and assess the structural components of the home that were affected. Please set realistic timelines before hiring a PA or sending a doi compliant. Typical the insurance company has 30-60 days to respond depending on the state.

I would not suggest hiring a PA unless you are getting absolutely no where with your insurance company as your PA will be taking some of the settlement funds to rebuild your home. It’s typically 3-5 %.

 

[hollywoodbowles]

@marie2018 Ale solutions was denied moving us into long term by homesite as of yesterday(hopefully only for now.) I absolutely didn’t think it would be closed and paid within two weeks. I’m here entirely for a sanity check and hope I haven’t been representing myself poorly. This is an entirely new entire segment of learning for me so I’m just trying to make sure I handle this properly. Thanks for the info. I’m just having a hard time understanding why I’m considered a small claim still, though.

 

[chabod]

@hollywoodbowles I'd take a day off and stay on the phone until you got someone on the phone who would take care of you. Keep on asking for supervisors and their supervisors until someone gets your claim moving. I've got 2 elderly people living with me, and they would be pitching a fit if we were stuck in a hotel.

 

[hollywoodbowles]

@chabod I did that Wednesday and now my calls forward to help desks that only pass on messages and I continue to ask for supervisors and am told no. I’m a remote software engineer and I can’t even VPN from the hotel so I’m having issues. Additionally this hotel is destroying my ALE and I want to get into an apartment so that my policy lasts longer for housing. Sometimes this stuff is just designed to break you but I promise I will be made whole eventually.