Non-medical HELP!

[Spiky Bugger]

So, it rained.

Intermittently. For 12 of the last 19 days.

While my solar panels were being installed.
Over an old, flat roof over a storage room.
When the roof was built, in 1962, it likely had the required 2% "grade" so that water could run off.
But earthquakes, land has settled and we are close to 1%.

And the solar experts added about 600 pounds to the rooftop.

Which, with our recent rainfall at 200+% of normal, caused a little sagging. So the panels were attached more or less correctly when installed but the weight of the panels caused a gap. AND the positioning of the panels caused the rain to sheet down into the seam (always the weakest point in any construction...check your butt seams) between the storage room and the garage and pool up the area now depressed by the added weight of the panels and water. And then drip into the storage room.

We have mold. (We had it tested.)

But we also have water damage from FALLING water...not flood water.

The solar company rep who came out yesterday says that his company is responsible for the roof damage, etc. The mold remediation will cost $3000 + testing fees for asbestos, lead, etc because of the age of the house. They will have to undo and redo all their work, after rebuilding my roof. The storage room will need new drywall, paint and flooring. If the antique floor covering has asbestos, increased disposal fees.

Not much IN the room got ruined. Most stuff was boxed, much was in plastic.

Homeowners insurance only covers $5k on mold claims. (This ain't our first rodeo.). But most of the damage is not YET mold.

DOES ANYONE HAVE EXPERIENCE CONVINCING A HOMEOWNERS INSURANCE COMPANY THAT THE MOLD PART SHOULD NOT LIMIT THE CLAIM FOR THE WATER DAMAGE PART?

I'm hoping the solar company...which also owns a roofing firm...pays for almost everything.

If they do not, I suspect my insurance will cover what they must, and then...through the magic of subrogation...the solar company will pay anyway.

Any wisdom out there?

 

[hilary1617]

No wisdom here, but YIKES, sorry to read this. Glad the solar company has admitted fault and hopefully their commercial policy will cover all damage. including the cost for hotel while repairs are conducted.

 

[Clematis]

They should be able separate this without trouble. My basement flooded 2 years ago and I had insurance company's authorized disaster relief team here within an hour. Their minutely-detailed bill to the insurance company was separated out by cause, item and action. Water damage was overarching cause for everything that needed to be done, not mold. They would list "Walls: remove and dispose of paneling, spray mold treatment, replace with new paneling" (I'm simplifying this) So in my case, if I had had a mold specific exclusion as you do, they could have placed the spraying of the anti-mold substance and labor for that in the "Mold category" but the removal and replacement of the paneling was water damage.

Mine was a $68,000 claim. The insurance company, Chubb, was FANTASTIC and disputed nothing -- they even paid replacement costs on the 30 year old shabby, dog-peed furniture and utter crap we had in the basement storage room -- but when our policy came due the next time I was saddened that they outright cancelled us.

 

[Spiky Bugger]

No wisdom here, but YIKES, sorry to read this. Glad the solar company has admitted fault and hopefully their commercial policy will cover all damage. including the cost for hotel while repairs are conducted.

Thanks...luckily this is for an added-on "storage room." The original building permit says "guest house," and is lined out and replaced with "storage room." LOL

It is attached to the back of our unattached (to the house) garage. The roofline is about 12' x 24'. The actual room is closer to 12' x 20'. It appears that it was used as a bedroom. But there is no plumbing out there now.

Anyway...we don't have to move out...you just can't camp out in our "poolside, bathroom-free" room for a while.

My nephew, his wife, two teen sons and two dogs JUST moved back into their home, after two months post-plumbing disaster, and two months in two rooms at an Extended Stay America--kind of a dump--but the only place that would take two dogs.

We just paid a local guy, unemployed because of many years of bad decisions but mostly okay now, and his son to move ALMOST everything out of that room and into the garage. So now we have driveway parking only!

Meanwhile, we have an almost-ready-to-go solar system that might not get the Permit to Operate in time for us to qualify for "net metering." Right now, every 1 kW hr we generate would be a 1 kW hr credit, for 20 years. Soon it will be worth only 0.75 kW hrs of credit. The change is effective when the utility company hits 5% of its residential users on solar. It could be tomorrow or next month or whenever. THAT is irritating.

 

[Spiky Bugger]

They should be able separate this without trouble. My basement flooded 2 years ago and I had insurance company's authorized disaster relief team here within an hour. Their minutely-detailed bill to the insurance company was separated out by cause, item and action. Water damage was overarching cause for everything that needed to be done, not mold. They would list "Walls: remove and dispose of paneling, spray mold treatment, replace with new paneling" (I'm simplifying this) So in my case, if I had had a mold specific exclusion as you do, they could have placed the spraying of the anti-mold substance and labor for that in the "Mold category" but the removal and replacement of the paneling was water damage.

Mine was a $68,000 claim. The insurance company, Chubb, was FANTASTIC and disputed nothing -- they even paid replacement costs on the 30 year old shabby, dog-peed furniture and utter crap we had in the basement storage room -- but when our policy came due the next time I was saddened that they outright cancelled us.

Thank you. EXACTLY the info I was seeking. We had a mold claim in our last house. And we were lucky that we got $5k out of the insurance. The remediation and rebuild cost about $13k. We did not get cancelled, but might have. We sold and that company wouldn't insure our new home.

This will be a subrogation issue. The solar company people on the ground admitted their culpability. The city building inspector did not give the okay to operate and said they had to repair. The solar company patched up all of the holes it had made, indicating that THEY were the cause.

Who KNOWS how long that roof was there?! It was built in 1962 and is most likely the original plywood. The structure itself has survived numerous earthquakes and then just settling over time. But THEY make their living putting weight on rooftops and THEY should have been able to determine that this roof needed a different approach. A guy came out and measured everything...but I don't know

Instead, they installed ten solar panels on that area, each 50#+...each having a rail system and more hardware to tilt the panels from the flat position to the correct position to collect the sun's rays and intermittently, probably 400# of humanity and their respective tools working on the project.

I feel bad for our salesman. He has spent this week snowboarding at Aspen and I didn't include him in the emails so that he might enjoy himself. And the on-the-ground guys were also very nice. They installed what they were told to install, where they were told to install it.

Oh, well.

 

[Jbandmmomma]

We had a toilet leak that flooded into the garage ceiling below. Not evident until the water caught in the garage, already much damage. We had to fight vigorously for it to be covered at all, as our insurance adjustor originally said we didn't report it as soon as the leak started. We had no clue there was a leak because the plumbers caulked around the base of the improperly installed toilet. But - since the toilet was installed improperly (no wax ring) - our insurance went after the plumber's insurance to be reimbursed. They did all that. All we had to do out of pocket was our deductible.

 

[Spiky Bugger]

We had a toilet leak that flooded into the garage ceiling below. Not evident until the water caught in the garage, already much damage. We had to fight vigorously for it to be covered at all, as our insurance adjustor originally said we didn't report it as soon as the leak started. We had no clue there was a leak because the plumbers caulked around the base of the improperly installed toilet. But - since the toilet was installed improperly (no wax ring) - our insurance went after the plumber's insurance to be reimbursed. They did all that. All we had to do out of pocket was our deductible.

Thanks, Becky.

The solar company understands that if they don't pay, my insurance will go after them...they are just dawdling trying to accept that.

My nephew's situation was kind of like yours, except "downstairs" was the main floor of the tri-level house.