Main > Everything Else
Is it "insurance fraud" to get an insurance check & not do the repairs?
shmokes:
Heh . . . Even if I had spent one day in law school, let alone finished it, let alone was a practicing lawyer, I still likely wouldn't be able to answer this question better than I already have seeing as I'm planning to specialize in international law.
Crax:
That isn't insurance fraud. You haven't even gotten a check yet. All you were doing is looking for an estimate. Also, if the claim is legitimate and covered, you aren't required to spend the money on what they gave it to you for. Insurance fraud generally consists of making untrue claims or trying to get them to pay to repair your deck from an accident type that wasn't covered.
shmokes:
Yeah . . . think about it. If that was insurance fraud there would be a lot less insurance fraud. How many people deliberately set fire to their store just to collect the insurance and retire on it. If you HAD to use the insurance money to replace the insured property there wouldn't be much of anything to gain from things like that.
I'm going to go with: you insured that property for its value -- if it's destroyed you get the value. If the property gets damaged or destroyed you get the value from insurance. It doesn't matter to the insurance company what you spend your money on. If you decide not to spend it on repairs that's fine. You'll have the money, but not the property. If you fix it you'll have the property, but not the money. Either way you don't get to have your cake and eat it to and the insurance company is out the same as much money in both cases.
I mean, think of all the property that can't be replaced. How do you replace a Van Gogh that burns up in a house fire?
Spaz Monkey:
--- Quote from: quarterback on November 10, 2006, 01:09:16 pm ---<snip>
To find out the actual cost to replace the planks that need replacing, we called the builder to get an estimate. Our insurance had already told us that it would be much more than they were willing to pay, but we wanted to check. When we called the builder, they immediately wanted to set up a time to come replace the deck. We explained that we just needed a quote for the insurance but we weren't necessarily going to have the work done.
At this point, the builder accused us of trying to perpetrate insurance fraud.
</snip>
--- End quote ---
This guy doesn't know what he's talking about. You asked for an estimate and the jerk thinks "job". Just because you ask for a quote does not mean you 're trying to defraud. He is mistaken.
--- Quote from: shmokes on November 10, 2006, 03:02:45 pm ---<snip>
If your house burns down you're perfectly free to go on a European cruise rather than replacing each item you lost.
</snip>
--- End quote ---
For your home, that's not the case. Insurance is designed to get you back where you are before the loss. You may only get the value of your home as is and not what it could be sold for (IE 50 year old house vs 50 year old home on the beach) if you say you're not going to rebuild. (Think everyone living in FL and leaving after all the hurricanes.) The homeowners policy should cover the amount to rebuild the home using new materials. Your personal property might be a different story. Usually you go out and buy new stuff and the insurance company reimburses you.
I agree with what Dervacumen & crax said ...
If the deck just has cosmetic damage, the insurance company may not have to pay an amount to replace it.
In regard with the Van Gogh, a couple of things could happen. If you told your insurance company that you had it, it could be scheduled (specifically listed) for a certain amount. If not, you could get the market value of the item.
And remember, YMMV. Call your insurance company and find out what they'll cover and how.
quarterback:
Thanks for all the replies. That's what I thought, and it corresponds with what I'd heard in the past, but since I've never had to utilize my homeowners insurance before, I thought I'd ask.
And yeah, the builders (who did our deck) are ---Deutsche Frankfurters---. Unfortunately I didn't subscribe to Angie's List early enough to avoid them in the first place. They looked good from the outside (they're a real company with offices, designers etc) but have a real ---smurfy--- business attitude. And now I know that angie's list reflects that fact as well. Live and learn.
Navigation
[0] Message Index
[#] Next page
[*] Previous page
Go to full version