We have a home on a river and this home has two large picture windows on the river side. This makes it a subject for birds hitting the window.
We insured the house with CNA Personal Insurance. They came out and looked over the house and took pictures of the house. It is an older home and we have had no problems with the windows during our 6 years of owning this house.
This last year we had renters in the home which the insurance company knew about and changed our policy. I trusted this company to give me the correct and proper insurance for this house.
I naturally assumed that the windows were covered for pretty much anything other than us breaking them ourselves. Reading and understanding a policy is like reading Greek.
The renters gave notice that they were leaving and then 3 days later contacted us that the largest of the 2 windows broke. I asked him if a bird hit it and he stated no. I asked him if he had hit it with something and again he stated no. He claimed he was sitting in the living room across the room from the window which is a double pane window and one pane just broke. I asked him to go into the basement under the window and check for new cracks. He stated no to that also.
I called my agent and was told to get an estimate which came to $2500.00. We turned in the claim. The adjuster called and I told her I did not know what happened since there were renters in there. This information came from the renter, I did not make it up. She then called the renter and he told her that there were new cracks in the basement and that the window broke due to the house settling.
This guy is a vacuum salesman not a building inspector. The adjuster called me back and told me it was not covered for settling. I told her I did not think that was what happened and asked for an adjuster to come out and look at it and was told "no". They were taking the renters word over mine, the one who pays the policy. I was forced to pay out $100 to get an inspector in there and check the window. The result was that the window did not break due to settling.
He stated that the window broke because of moisture between the panes of glass and the heat of the sun after being real cold out cause the window to expand and break. Otherwise known as weather differential. We had never had any kind of problems with this window and never had moisture that we ever noticed. I was once again told this also was not covered.in between all this I started reading my renewal policy which was merely chances made to the policy not a full policy and did find a section that states they do not cover for amoung a whole list of non-covered items, settling, shrinking, bulging, birds, vermin, or animals. I was never aware of this. I did not see anything in regards to mositure but then again I don't have the orginal policy with me. I just assumed as so many I have talked to that these windows should have been covered and with good coverage.
Another part I noticed and was not aware of was a part that states they do not insure for loss of the first $5,000 of damages due to vandalism or malicious mischief, damage by burglars, etc. Truthfully I can't see much we are covered for. I don't understand how they can know we have two large picture windows and delete coverage. What do I pay insurance for? It's like they went out there and said this area is a possible claim and this so we will delete them from the policy.
This is a rip-off and everyone better read their policies very carfully and then hire an attorney to read them again. I called around to 3 other insurance companies, stating I was looking for a price quote. Then asked about the coverage windows cause we had 2 large picture windows.
I was told they were pretty much covered for anything other then us breaking them ourselves deliberately including birds, animals, etc.
When asked why, I explained the situation and was told that this was ridiculous and those windows should have had good coverage as they were known to be there and they faced the water as well. When I told that to the super-visor of the adjuster, he said they were lieing just to get my business.
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