St Lucie Plumbing Leak - Broken Tiles - Successful Appraisal
St. Lucie County, Florida - A single family homeowner (R.Y.) in Port St. Lucie had a burst supply line inside the slab of his home. Water was coming out of the slab in multiple locations causing significant damage.
The homeowner contacted the public adjusters at VIP Adjusting to assist him with the insurance claim process and to make sure he was fairly paid for his homeowners insurance claim.
The Loss - Supply Line Plumbing Leak - Burst Copper Pipe
A copper supply pipe inside the slab of this home burst and resulted in water damage in the insured's garage. The homeowner immediately contacted a plumber who turned off the water supply and located the break between the home's main and the kitchen, as well as a leak between the plumbing manifold and the master bathroom. The plumber noted water coming from the slab in multiple locations. In order to restore the use of the home's plumbing, the plumber performed a plumbing re-route, which is typically covered by most homeowners insurance policies.
The Damages to the home from the plumbing leak
While the homeowner initially only noticed water in the garage, during the leak detection process, the plumber noticed water escaping in multiple locations from the slab, often ending up inside the slab and escaping in other locations.
The use of a moisture meter during the inspection showed damage to drywall in several rooms, including multiple bathrooms and the kitchen, damage bathroom vanities, and damage to kitchen cabinets. In addition to the use of a moisture meter, there was also visible damage to exterior stucco where water was escaping, and multiple popped tiles and cracked tiles in the home that were not damaged prior to this plumbing leak.
The homeowner hired a water mitigation contractor to provide restoration services to the home, including removal of wet drywall, and the use of fans and blowers to dry wet materials in place, including the damaged cabinets and vanities, all to prevent mold growth. This type of water remediation was required under the homeowner’s insurance policy as part of his post-loss duty to protect the property from further damage.
The Insurance Claim and Outcome
VIP Adjusting's public adjusters reported the claim on the homeowners behalf and documented the damages while preparing an estimate on his behalf. Based on the public adjuster's presentation of damages to the insurance company, insurance initially paid $41,000 for the damages to the home, including repair to damaged drywall, replacement of tile flooring in the kitchen (but not all of the tile flooring), and a minimal repair for refacing of the cabinetry. The insurance company also paid for content manipulation, packout, and storage, including the difficult area in the garage.
VIP Adjusting's estimate prepared by our licensed public adjusters included replacement of the bathroom vanities, replacement of the damaged kitchen cabinetry, and replacement of the tile flooring throughout, including the visibly broken tiles that the insurance company did not believe were caused by the water damage.
Our public adjusters disagreed with the insurance company’s evaluation of the flooring, since the homeowner indicated it wasn't damaged prior to this leak, the cracks to the tile looked new, and not old or worn, and the damage was consistent with the dampening and drying, expansion and contraction of the slab and mortar underneath.
Resolving the claim through the appraisal process
Ultimately, as a result of the dispute for the proper payment of this claim, it ended up in appraisal. We wrote recently about the strengths and weaknesses of resolving insurance claims through the appraisal process.
For this claim, we selected an impartial third-party general contractor to act as the appraiser on behalf of the homeowner. Our appraiser and the insurance company's appraiser were able to come to agreement on the majority of the damages and reached a final appraisal award of over $85,000, more than double the initial claim payment. When all was said and done, our client was able to perform the significant renovations that restored him to his pre-loss condition.
If you've found yourself with water on the floor in your home, let VIP Adjusting's public adjuster's perform a free claim evaluation for you. Sometimes, when you think there's just a little bit of water on the floor of your garage, there can be a lot of hidden damage that can result in costly repairs. If this homeowner had waited until he started trying to make repairs to report his claim, he might have had his claim denied!
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