State Farm Insurance State Farm would not properly investigate homeowner damage and denied claim. Westlake Village California

In August of this 2003, I notice a small water stain in my ground floor ceiling. It just appeared there one day. Since that ceiling is just under a shower on the second floor, I immediately stopped using the shower and called the insurance company.

It took my State Farm insurance agent, Matt Nickel, over a week to get back to me. When he did, the best he could offer was discouragement about how the policy probably wouldn't cover the damage.

No offer to send out anyone to inspect it. Nothing but attitude.

I called State Farm's regional office, who sent out an inspector. He looked at it in mid-September. Then he went back to his office to file a report. I didn't hear anything back from him for a week, at which time he sent out a leak detection unit. The crew from the leak detection unit said that "the damage was obviously a shower pan leak and not a long term situation."

The State Farm policy does not cover damage from leaks, but it does cover fixing the source of any leak, like breakage, etc.

Despite the leak detection unit's report, State Farm insisted that it would not fix the break. I did not request they fix the damage from the leak, only the break in the shower pan itself, which is a costly repair. That's why I have insurance. State Farm said they "would get back to me."

By late October, State Farm still had not gotten back to me. When I finally did get through to their agent, he informed me that "the file had been closed" in September.

Some good neighbors, eh?

I then pressed State Farm to send someone out and actually look at the property, at which time the regional supervisor agreed with me that my policy did cover fixing the break, but not the damage. He sent another agent out who carved a hole in my ceiling and looked up at the damage. The State Farm agent decided that since there was water damage to the wood (duh, that's what leaks do), State Farm wouldn't cover anything.

Again, nobody was asking them to fix the damage, just the break, which is covered by their policy.

Rob
Encino, California
U.S.A.