Location: Arnold, Mo
In March, a tornado sent a 100 year old oak tree into our house (Arnold, MO) and rendered it uninhabitable. We lost our bedrooms, our basement, and our roof caved in. We have had a lot of back and forth on the structural side but we are finally making progress. The contents side remains a struggle. We have replacement cost value, so I thought this would be easier, but they’ve made the process unreasonably hard and I don’t know what to do. I am going to bullet point some of our larger concerns. Any advice would be appreciated. Some general information: home purchase price: 175k, purchase year: 2021, age of home: 77 years, age of roof: 6 months, structural coverage: 220k, contents coverage: 133k, RCV insurance through Safeco. I have a contractor and my contractor provided my insurance company with a full photo report of the damage. If any additional information is needed, please let me know.
- Dozens of missing items. There are tons of items that are missing from the list and when we’ve reported them, we’ve been told we need photos. The items are missing following the destruction of our house by a tornado. I don’t have photos of missing items that could have gotten taken away in the storm. For example, my jewelry box had a tree limb go through it and shatter it. My engagement ring has never been found. I have photos of the ring from before, but they aren’t covering it because they say they need proof it was damaged.
- Not including damaged items: my headboard, my tv, my mattress, all of which were destroyed.
- Safeco told my contractors that they could not handle the cleaning/inventory of our contents and that it was being redirected to a preferred vendor. They did this without obtaining my consent, and I was not made aware of this until the vendor was already in possession of my things. That vendor left my wet things in plastic bins, leading to mold growth. On top of this, everything was covered with fiberglass insulation from the roof collapse. I’m immunocompromised (lupus, RA, Sjogren’s), so this poses serious health risks. The items cleaned by the insurance company’s selected vendor were inventoried by that company. We do not have a clear list. They also still retain possession of my belongings.
- Arbitrary flat-rate “allowances” imposed. I’m REALLY upset about the $100 children’s toy allowance. My son is an only child and for four years was an only grandchild. That doesn’t come close. A $300 craft supplies allowance. I’m an avid crafter. I have thousands of dollars in craft supplies. I also have no such limits in the policy.
- Many of the selected “replacement” items used to calculate replacement value are not actually comparable to the original item. This is the case with the stuffed animals. Most of my son’s stuffed animals are Build-A-Bear or purchased in Disney World or Universal Studios and they used a “Kohls Cares” stuffed animal to price out all of them.
- Over general categories – i.e. – 10 lbs of “fluff and fold” listed on the unsalvageable inventory includes all of my bras and underwear. You can literally see them all in a giant clear plastic bag in the pictures. They reimbursed these items by the pound and paid less than $70 for the entirety of that 10lbs. Additionally, they used quantity instead of valuing items – I.e. – men’s shirt qty 17 value $8/ea. Many things are poorly or inaccurately described and then undervalued. Ie, Red Leather pouch actually refers to my red leather Kate Spade fold over purse. The price difference is substantial.
- Aggressive depreciation on most items. Upwards of 70% despite only being a homeowner for 4 years and everything being less than 4 years old.
- Many items are listed as “pay when incurred” and valued at $0. I don’t understand this. These items have value and I want them covered at the value they have. I had two pairs of hearing aids destroyed. Just because I have new hearing aids doesn’t mean the old ones were valued at zero dollars. Insurance didn’t even pay for most of the cost of them! My boyfriend’s CPAP was destroyed. Since getting the CPAP, he has had nose surgery and probably doesn’t need a new one. That doesn’t mean they shouldn’t cover the value of the old one.
I have been trying to avoid hiring an attorney because I know they’ll need to be paid about 30% of what they get us, but we lost everything and literally cannot afford to give them 30%. Plus, it’s hard to find one because a couple months after my home got hit, one of the most affluent areas in St. Louis got hit. Their claims are much more valuable than mine.
I have reached out to my state senator’s office and they forwarded me to the DCI in my state, which is looking into this as well. I looked into a public adjuster but they are so backlogged and there are substantially larger valued homeowners claims in my area, so I doubt I’d make it to the top of anyone’s list any time soon. I’m fully expecting to have to advocate for myself but I want to know what I can do to best achieve that.