Back in July the plumbers I hired to replace a hose bib apparently did not take care when soldering the new spigot back to the existing copper pipe. An hour or so after they left I suddenly realized I was smelling something burning and there was smoking coming out the attic vent. It was a hot windy day so fire response was prompt and plentiful. It could have been a lot worse, my pets weren’t at home, I was fine, I had homeowners insurance and the plumbing company was also insured and seemed to be admitting responsibility. It was awful but I kept telling myself it would be fine, I’d rebuild and most of my stuff wasn’t ruined only very, very smoky.
As I sit in the house I’m renting because my home is not yet rebuilt, nor has restoration begun I’m losing faith in the hope of any justice for the little guy, apparently if you live in the Commonwealth of Virginia it’s perfectly legal for your homeowner’s insurance to decide to not renew your policy even if only one claim was ever filed as long as they give you 45 days notice, even if your house has not yet been repaired because of their delays in permitting the restoration. Officially the stated reason for dumping me is for two claims in 3 years, one claim for water damage due to a humidifier improperly installed by the HVAC company that did the install and this claim.
Yes panic is setting in — my mortgage company when told of the news tells me, yeah we knew that back in July. Well were you going to tell me? I call my insurance agency — they will talk to “the underwriter” to see if consideration will be made due to the nature of the claims. I’ve called back three times and no answer yet so of course I’m doubtful.
I called the Virginia Bureau of Insurance, not much I can do but they recommended I file a complaint anyways because the notice of non-renewal was sent to my old address so it didn’t get to me 45 days before the drop dead date. It’s a Hail Mary pass for sure.
So I’m reduced to calling around to see what sort of insurance I can get on a vacant house that is now on the insurance “naughty list” aka CLUE. My mortgage holder will either force place expensive insurance to cover the balance of the mortgage that won’t cover me in case of further losses or in a worst case scenario they could pocket the initial insurance money they have and immediately demand the balance from us.
It’s a holiday weekend, I've got plenty of time on my hands so the next letters are to my state delegate and senator, they’re good people to ask them why doesn’t Virginia have more protections against insurance games played. And yeah asking friends who know lawyers to ask them who I should be talking to in order to know my rights to redress.
Hopefully my story can warn others to not file claims under $5,000 and maybe some of you reading this have been down this road before and have pearls of wisdom for me.