Dump Allstate - Before it is too late
Some lessons learned from Allstate Insurance, just a warning to any friends who have a policy with them for homeowners.
They have declined to cover what is close to a $10k bill to replace a water heater and furnace that were damaged by water when my sump pump wasn’t running due to the power outage we had. The water killed the electronics in both and I was ordered by the gas company to never use them again…after having had the fire department here for a gas leak and CO alarm when I re-lit the pilot.
Mind you, nothing unusual was going on, just normal water accumulation and once power restored after four days, the pump pumped out 8” of water in the basement in only 30 minutes. This wasn’t flooding or runoff, this was just normal accumulation that happens any time it rains here.
It turns out that they have a hidden loophole they don’t inform their customers about. For a pittance of $20-$50 annually they would have covered up to $10k in damage from the sump issue. Trouble is, they don’t tell anyone about this. So for not paying $140 in total policy increases they are trying to make me eat $10k in repairs.
With a roof leak that was caused by the storm, they finally arrived today to do an evaluation and ruled that there was no damage. I have a ceiling that is constantly leaking now and all they are paying for is paint and sheetrock. If I just replace that, it will just leak right through in a week or so anyway. Of course, having to eat the furnace repair, leaves me with pretty much nothing to fix the roof. Fun.
They are completely useless and I recommend highly that if you have a homeowner’s policy with Allstate that you dump them for anyone else as soon as possible, before you too find out how little they will do for you.
** UPDATE
16 SEP 2011
Allstate finally pays out… a whopping $751. They still deny the claim on the $8500 repairs for the furnace and water heater entirely. This check is for the roof damage that caused a permanent leak, where a ceiling is falling inside.
$751 isn’t even enough to pay for the materials to do this repair myself, it would be a few grand easily to have this properly repaired.
I have filed for a review, but it looks like I would have to sue them to get them to make good at this point. We’ll see.
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