We purchased our home on or around 06/2007, at which time travelers insurance accepted the liability of insuring our home, without notation of any waivers of liability or related material. We experienced a wonderful remaining summer without incident despite several storms that contained both hail and or high winds.
On or around 1/22/2008, we began to notice signs of water damage bleeding through the ceiling. We had recently had a bad rash of winter storms with high winds and or hail. I phoned our insurance company ( Travelers insurance ) and made a claim. A gentleman down the street also suffered damage during a storm, his insurance company paid up and he got a new roof. The insurance adjuster (For travelers) came out, and at first stated that she (Tonya) was going to write it up so they replace the whole roof, before she left, she painted a much darker picture.
Tonya claimed that the house had previous un-repaired damage. I was puzzled at this claim. Tonya went on to explain that since the gutters had hail damage, and the gutter guards did not, then surely the previous owner did not replace the roof. I find her analogy to be offensive and ridiculous. I never knew their was previous damage to the gutters, I wouldn't have replaced them either. Tonya went on further to claim that our roof was not properly vented, which again puzzled me because the roof has two vent holes in every soffit and every gable is also vented in the front. These venting methods appear to have been accepted when the roof was placed on the house, are still in use with most every house in our development, and were accepted when Travelers insured our home. Tonya also claimed that a valley seam was installed incorrectly, which was again false.
After doing my own research, I learned that no only was the valley seem correct, but the underpinnings of the valley seem exceeded code. Tonya ( The Travelers insurance claim adjuster ) went on to make several other claims, of which most make no sense. Even if there were any validity to any of them, they are negated by the facts, and that is that Travelers insurance accepted out home as it was, without complaint or waiver of liability. Further, Travelers has been accepting payments for almost 9 months without complaint, and continues to do so without proper claim coverage.
Home owners insurance is supposed to be something in place to help relieve stressful situations that can cause loss of life and home. In this case, Travelers has failed to pay a claim, which has lead to the extremely stressful situation of having to pay for the roof repair out of pocket.
Joshua
Saint Clair, Missouri
U.S.A.