Alternate Deductible for Wind included in the Policy
September 21, 2011 at 3:13 PM
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Steve Shepard
We all held our breath when Hurricane Irene rolled thru Connecticut and the tri-state area as Tropical Storm Irene, with much lower winds than anticipated. Wind aside Irene proved to be a problem with flooding and power outages that knocked out sump pumps leading to more water damage. Insult to injury when Lee dropped 10 inches of rain just a few days later.
The real drama of the storms was the insurance companies response. I am aware of only one company that identified the storm as a Tropical Storm, not a Hurricane, waived any wind deductibles and stepped up to cover
claims appropriately. The rest of the property insurers in Connecticut got a serious arm twisting from the Insurance Department and slowly agreed to cover losses without applying the much larger wind deductibles. Some of those made payments with the caveat that their decision to waive the wind deductible should not be construed as a posture that they would apply with the same logic in the future. Really…
And to date, nearly 3 weeks later out of the 40+ property insurers, one is still holding out, applying the larger wind deductibles to several hundred insured who suffered damage during the storms. Their comment is, " we are aware of the Insurance Department’s concern, we continue to talk with them".
I would call this poor judgment,
Very unfortunate but true.