curvecrazy
Member
- Joined
- Oct 29, 2012
- Messages
- 16
The short of it is that my garage collapsed under heavy snowload and I'm wondering if anyone has had experience with this in terms of what I can expect from the insurance company. So far they offered me replacement cost minus depreciation, minus shipping and no debris removal allotment, loss of use allotment, labor to rebuild etc.. allotment, and no allotment for the time I had to spend shoveling the snow off of it and jacking it up so I could access my stuffs. fwiw. They even sent out a check to settle the claim for the cost of the structure, minus depreciation and not including shipping to acquire a replacement. So I was somewhat offended by this seeing as I spent several full days digging out and jacking up, and my paint on my plow, snowblower and leaf machine were all damaged to include scratches along with misc.. other damages which he allotted me $200 total compensation for. LOL
That is the short of it. Here's the longer of it.
In mid november we had a horrendous snow event dropping about 9ft of snow on us in a two days time. In the process, my fabric garage hoop structure shelter whatever you want to call it collapsed to the ground. This was in spite of me removing the snowload the first afternoon. fwiw. I always remove the snow from the fabric garage every time I do snow removal, just for safety's sake. Very religious about it/doing so. Unfortunately, so much snow came down overnight the following night that it was collapsed by morning.
So, now the question is about insurance. I have insurance through a major company. I decided to make a claim in spite of the $1k deductible because the fabric shelter is a $2500 building and almost $3k when shipping, anchors etc... are figured in. I contacted the company and they sent out an adjuster. I showed him the shelter, which at that point was "jacked back up" because I had to create access to all my snow removal gear which got crushed inside in the collapse. It was 10 days or so before the adjust actually could get out to us, and I was really worried about continued snow and not wanting to clear another boondoggle snow event with a walk behind snowblower [ second time around with tractor implements buried no thanks ], I wanted to insure access to my real snow removal arsenal. Anyways. While he was there I explained this is not what the structure looked like, I had to jack this back up, put in these timber supports from the peaks of each metal hoop to the floor to hold this up etc.. so I could access my 3pt snowblower, plow for the tractor, leaf machine etc.. Told him this was an absolute b&#ch doing so and that it took me several days of hard work to get that done. He said he would see what he could do to compensate me. He also saw all the scratches and paint chips on my stuff which is all painted very nice as is my way of operating and said he would see about compensating me for that damage as well. Took all the pictures and etc.. you know.
He walks the rest of the property looking for gutter damage etc.. and tells me he sees no damage [ I shoveled the whole roof TOO LOL ] and asks me to send him pictures of the structure as it was after the collapse and also a quote from the manufacturer for the cost/value. Gives me his contact info. Great. Away he goes. So I send out the information the next day, about as quick as I could get it back from the manufacturer. I don't hear back from him until the day before Christmas. At which point in time I also received a letter in the mail with a check for the cost of a smaller structure [ 12' x 8' x 24' vs my own shelter which was 14' x 10' x 24' ], minus the depreciation $200 something and with the allotment of $200 something for the broken stepladder, rake, and misc... paint damage on my implements etc... minus the $1k deductible. So a $1569 or so check in the mail.
So I was looking at this letter, and the attached check, thinking myself "why would they not even include shipping which is clearly stated in the manufacturer quote. And there is no allotment for debris removal, my time spent dealing with the situation, my loss of use including my inability to get my snow removal equipment cause it was all underneath the collapse and on top of it, no allotment for the cost of labor to rebuild the structure.
It would seem to me that all this stuff would apply but I really have no experience with making a claim of this sort. Frankly. I would think before sending out a settlement check on something like this there would/should be more communication/negotiation on what is covered, what is not covered, why that is the case, how, when, why/not etc... Nothing. I get a check in the mail. LOL
I sent off an email explaining I was not happy with the stated settlement and wanted it reviewed again. Mentioning the various listed above. More than a month has passed since the collapse, since I decided to actually contact the insurance company[about 6 days time], for them to get the adjuster out and then for me to hear back from them. Over the course of this time, I have been unable to use my main garage for my car or anything else because the tractor is now parked in there since I can not use the shelter to store that which is/was my purpose for having the shelter. I keep my tractor, implements, lawn mowers and misc out in the shelter.
So I'm frustrated here. Feel like they lowballed me just before Christmas without any communication beforehand to get my inputs/concerns and that they were trying to pull one on me. The wife heard back from the adjuster saying that he made a mistake on the size of the building and that he would review our other concerns and get back to us.
Am I on target here? What should I expect. I had a great fabric garage. I have insurance to cover that garage. Should I not expect the garage to be covered from debris removal, to replacement cost plus shipping, to cost to rebuild the structure? Should I expect my time to be compensated for digging it out and jacking it up to access my stuff? What about my implements that got scratched up? Nothing was seriously damaged cause its all heavy steel stuff but all of it was scratched up. In reality the scratched up is not too big of a deal, its machinery. But, I do have a $1k deductible and that isn't small so not trying to nitpick but every bit helps. Just looking for others opinions here. Having a fire in a garage might give you similar experience to help me. I don't know what to expect and don't wanna get taken beyond the last minute "Christmas check!".
Thanks in advance fellas.
That is the short of it. Here's the longer of it.
In mid november we had a horrendous snow event dropping about 9ft of snow on us in a two days time. In the process, my fabric garage hoop structure shelter whatever you want to call it collapsed to the ground. This was in spite of me removing the snowload the first afternoon. fwiw. I always remove the snow from the fabric garage every time I do snow removal, just for safety's sake. Very religious about it/doing so. Unfortunately, so much snow came down overnight the following night that it was collapsed by morning.
So, now the question is about insurance. I have insurance through a major company. I decided to make a claim in spite of the $1k deductible because the fabric shelter is a $2500 building and almost $3k when shipping, anchors etc... are figured in. I contacted the company and they sent out an adjuster. I showed him the shelter, which at that point was "jacked back up" because I had to create access to all my snow removal gear which got crushed inside in the collapse. It was 10 days or so before the adjust actually could get out to us, and I was really worried about continued snow and not wanting to clear another boondoggle snow event with a walk behind snowblower [ second time around with tractor implements buried no thanks ], I wanted to insure access to my real snow removal arsenal. Anyways. While he was there I explained this is not what the structure looked like, I had to jack this back up, put in these timber supports from the peaks of each metal hoop to the floor to hold this up etc.. so I could access my 3pt snowblower, plow for the tractor, leaf machine etc.. Told him this was an absolute b&#ch doing so and that it took me several days of hard work to get that done. He said he would see what he could do to compensate me. He also saw all the scratches and paint chips on my stuff which is all painted very nice as is my way of operating and said he would see about compensating me for that damage as well. Took all the pictures and etc.. you know.
He walks the rest of the property looking for gutter damage etc.. and tells me he sees no damage [ I shoveled the whole roof TOO LOL ] and asks me to send him pictures of the structure as it was after the collapse and also a quote from the manufacturer for the cost/value. Gives me his contact info. Great. Away he goes. So I send out the information the next day, about as quick as I could get it back from the manufacturer. I don't hear back from him until the day before Christmas. At which point in time I also received a letter in the mail with a check for the cost of a smaller structure [ 12' x 8' x 24' vs my own shelter which was 14' x 10' x 24' ], minus the depreciation $200 something and with the allotment of $200 something for the broken stepladder, rake, and misc... paint damage on my implements etc... minus the $1k deductible. So a $1569 or so check in the mail.
So I was looking at this letter, and the attached check, thinking myself "why would they not even include shipping which is clearly stated in the manufacturer quote. And there is no allotment for debris removal, my time spent dealing with the situation, my loss of use including my inability to get my snow removal equipment cause it was all underneath the collapse and on top of it, no allotment for the cost of labor to rebuild the structure.
It would seem to me that all this stuff would apply but I really have no experience with making a claim of this sort. Frankly. I would think before sending out a settlement check on something like this there would/should be more communication/negotiation on what is covered, what is not covered, why that is the case, how, when, why/not etc... Nothing. I get a check in the mail. LOL
I sent off an email explaining I was not happy with the stated settlement and wanted it reviewed again. Mentioning the various listed above. More than a month has passed since the collapse, since I decided to actually contact the insurance company[about 6 days time], for them to get the adjuster out and then for me to hear back from them. Over the course of this time, I have been unable to use my main garage for my car or anything else because the tractor is now parked in there since I can not use the shelter to store that which is/was my purpose for having the shelter. I keep my tractor, implements, lawn mowers and misc out in the shelter.
So I'm frustrated here. Feel like they lowballed me just before Christmas without any communication beforehand to get my inputs/concerns and that they were trying to pull one on me. The wife heard back from the adjuster saying that he made a mistake on the size of the building and that he would review our other concerns and get back to us.
Am I on target here? What should I expect. I had a great fabric garage. I have insurance to cover that garage. Should I not expect the garage to be covered from debris removal, to replacement cost plus shipping, to cost to rebuild the structure? Should I expect my time to be compensated for digging it out and jacking it up to access my stuff? What about my implements that got scratched up? Nothing was seriously damaged cause its all heavy steel stuff but all of it was scratched up. In reality the scratched up is not too big of a deal, its machinery. But, I do have a $1k deductible and that isn't small so not trying to nitpick but every bit helps. Just looking for others opinions here. Having a fire in a garage might give you similar experience to help me. I don't know what to expect and don't wanna get taken beyond the last minute "Christmas check!".
Thanks in advance fellas.
...DAYS of work to clean up, really?
....
