Rene Sigman and public adjuster James Howard were quoted in the television news story above. Rene Sigman will be my special guest host on Tuesday @ 2 with Chip, discussing all issues involved with the frozen pipe and water loss catastrophe facing Texas.
Rene lives in Houston and in a blog from last week, Frozen Pipe Water Loss Catastrophe in Texas —Blunt Advice from an Experienced Texas Policyholder Attorney About the Need to Contact Your Insurance Company About Your Frozen Pipe Claim, she posted:
What many people don’t realize is that insurance carriers have been altering policies over the years and reducing coverages right under Texan’s noses. I have spoken about this at many seminars and have detailed the dwindling rights and coverages in my presentations.
Plumbing leaks and accidental discharge claims are one of those provisions that carriers have messed with. These small changes in policy wording can leave you soaked with expenses when you have to front the cost to repair your busted pipes while the insurance company gets off the hook. For example, some Allstate policies have a two-day/48 hour window to notify Allstate that a water loss or leak claim occurred. This provision means that if you don’t call or notify Allstate about your loss within 48 hours of it first occurring (the break) then it will not be considered “accidental discharge,” which will then prevent you from recovery. Not immediately providing notice of loss could provide a reason for your insurance company to deny or lower the amount of your claim. They could assert that under the policy terms the frozen pipe claim will be treated as long-term seepage, when we all know that is not long-term seepage.
The link for today’s 2 pm EST event is here.
Thought For The Day
A lot of people like snow. I find it to be an unnecessary freezing of water.
― Carl Reiner
