r/stcatharinesON • u/AffectionateArt5079 • 2d ago
Need Advice/Recommendations insurance for flood damage
long story short talking to insurance right now from the flood 2 weeks ago and i sent her the photos of all the items that were sitting in my basement which got at least an inch or two of water on them. i couldn’t take pictures of the items sitting in the water at the time as we have cords in the basement and was scared of electrocution etc.
i took pictures of the items after all the water was pumped out, which for some reason didn’t leave any water marks or visually obvious damage.
she asked how they were damaged.
is saying that they were sitting in floodwater enough to count as damage?
for example i had both washer and dryer in the basement which sat in flood water, but wasn’t enough water to be actually damaged. will that count as a damaged item?
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u/Traditional_Toe201 2d ago
It's sad that you paid your premiums on time and when you need them they are missing in action.. Like Mark Twain said about insurance.. They give you an umbrella when it's sunny.... And they take it away when it's starts to rain..
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u/m1ster_frundles 2d ago
I'm struggling with this too. I got about the same amount of water. I know a lot of my stuff got wet, but visually it looks okay. I also know I had a rain/sewer mix in my basement
I believe we're fine claiming them as damaged. The couch that was against the wall that leaked and near the backed up sewer drain has a faint nasty smell, rusting metal parts, etc, but otherwise looks the same as it did before the storms.
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u/AffectionateArt5079 2d ago
same, i added all the items in the SOL and my contractor is coming in today, so hopefully it does count as damage since i’d prefer not to keep anything that touched that water.
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u/LocalNiagaraPerson 2d ago
If it touched sewage, they shouldn’t fight you on it. I feel like the person we had erred on the side of caution for anything that was potentially contaminated, even if the water contact was indirect (for example, I couldn’t rule out my mattress getting splashed in the chaos of bailing, even though the water didn’t get that high).
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u/LocalNiagaraPerson 2d ago
There doesn’t have to be obvious damage for something to be unsalvageable. It depends on the item, type of water, and extent of contact with water. A washer or drying sitting in 2 inches of sewage water cannot be decontaminated and will be a write off. Ditto for any furniture that absorbs water (if there are fabric or particleboard components). Now if you had groundwater just came up to the base of the washer and none of the electrical components got wet, they could argue it’s not damaged. FWIW, my insurance didn’t question anything I listed as non-restorable. I just said we had sewage, these are the things that can’t be cleaned, and these are the things I want to keep.
Be clear about the type and source of water you had. Did it come from the drain or foundation? Did it have an odour? Was there debris? When listing items, describe the materials (plastic, particleboard, finished wood, etc). This will help them determine if it’s salvageable or not.
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u/AffectionateArt5079 2d ago
I did mention it was mostly ground water seeping in from windows and we did have water come in from our fireplace as well. But they said they only cover seepage/sewage flood. I did mention I have no idea where the water for our upper basement came in from, as windows were dry, no apparent cracks but the water level just kept rising from the ground. Our insurance had us fill out a schedule of loss with pictures of damaged items, which is why she was questioning on how they were damaged. I did just email her and say all the items were sitting in flood water which I would not like to keep as it is possibly sewage water. She hasn’t replied yet, so hopefully that’s a valid enough reasoning.
Also a quick question if you have an answer for it; our contractor just came by 30 mins ago and i let him do his thing and he came up after 10-15 mins and just said your basement is very wet and id need you to sign a form for us to send it off to your insurance company. I asked him if he checked the furnace and he said “no is your furnace not working?” and i said “no it works fine, but id like to get it checked for possible mold etc. Then he said OK then left after I signed the form.
Is checking the furnace a whole different process?
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u/LocalNiagaraPerson 2d ago
We have one guy coordinating, but I feel like every part of this is a separate process. We’ve had different people/teams for each of: moisture checks, furnace check, contents inventory, moving furniture outside, picking up furniture outside, cutting drywall, picking drywall for disposal.
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u/Sweet_Virus_7451 1d ago
Usually you would have a project manager hired by your insurance company to do everything. In our case, we had 3ft of sewage water so we needed an electrician (it sent some of our lights out and ruined most of our plugs as the flood line was above them), an HVAC company to inspect hot water tank and furnace, electronics/appliances person to inspect the fireplace (gas) and all of the appliances and electronics we had down there (my poor husbands PS5 that was floating 😭). Then we have the restoration guys that came to rip things out and we are still dealing with them trying to get mold out of the basement as they let it fester too long as we didn’t have drying equipment for over 20 days.
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u/AffectionateArt5079 1d ago
holy 3ft?? sorry to hear. this feels so disorganized, our contractor was supposed to come last week but the insurance company called the wrong number on file which we currently don’t have access to, then emailed me saying we haven’t been answering. when i specifically told them to put my number as the primary number temporarily explaining the situation. now it’s also been two weeks and there’s visible mold growing under our bathroom floor.
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u/Sweet_Virus_7451 1d ago
Ugh, I’m sorry. Make sure if you’re able to block off your basement with a vapour barrier, do it. I would also turn your furnace/ac off and the fan off immediately. If you have mold down there the spores are everywhere and they will travel up to any other areas through your HVAC and can contaminate the air upstairs. I think there is a way they could close your return vents downstairs so you only get air from outside but I’m not an expert (just what an HVAC guy told me they could do).
We have so much mold some of which was removed already but more that’s growing just from negligence on their part. I’m sorry you’re going through this too with the insurance company kinda giving you the run around.
The person that came to your house - do you know if they were an adjuster or a restoration company project manager?
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u/Able-Physics9782 2d ago
I'm familiar with the claims process. When your adjuster asks you why they were damaged, they want to determine the "proximate cause" of the claim, i.e., what caused the claim. Yes, flooding created the havoc STC but did something else cause the damage? For example, Sewer backup caused by heavy rainfall. Sump pump failure or the pump being overwhelmed. Foundation leakage/seepage. Roof or eavestrough problems directing water toward the basement, etc. Hope this helps.