What About The Bricks?

The insurance world is incredibly simple and incredibly complicated at the same time. The simple truth is that you are covered if your home is damaged and has no policy exclusion clauses to the contrary. Truth is complicated that it often takes a team of lawyers and judges who work all day to decide what the policy says. Life should not be. It should be simple. You pay the premium and, if you can not use your home, you should collect money from the insurer. Well, that’s really unreal. No insurance company in the world works. Once the company has your money, it’s like having crocodile jaws will not let go, all the while shedding tears and saying sorry is not covered.

So welcome to the Florida case and a new and interesting about the building materials. Let’s warm up with some hypotheses. Suppose that the builder used wood in the main structural points which is the favorite food of local termites. A few years later, his house falls. Suppose that the bricks come from a bad batch (or Mexico), and begins to collapse, or builder uses the wrong mortar to hold them together. You get the idea. Well, here comes the case of Chinese drywall. For those of you who avoid scare stories about construction products, this is a quick introduction. The cast is strong and durable, but it emits a gas that smells really bad, can corrode electrical and electronic equipment. and can make some people sick. Thousands of people have been affected and the only way to solve the problem is to remove all the walls to the studs and start over. Needless to say, it costs thousands of dollars in labor and materials, and you have to find another place to live while the work is done.

When our family of Florida discovered they were victims, they contact their insurance companies. No inspection or discussion, the insurer refused to even consider a claim. Now here’s the thing. Most insurance policies exclude any liability if the defective construction materials or builders are negligent. The remedy is supposed to be against the manufacturer of the materials or the manufacturer. The good thing here is that the drywall is fabulously strong, but also emits a corrosive gas. By a strange fatality, home insurance policies cover damage from smoke. The lawyers and the judge went through all the standard dictionaries and decided to smoke particles in a gas. So the damage caused by this gas is the same risk as smoke damage. A jury trial will decide how much insurers should pay. It could be a considerable amount because the owners have paid your mortgage on a house empty for two years while the rent of alternative accommodation. All of which goes to show that if you have good luck and a good lawyer and a sympathetic judge and money to wait for everyone to work in your favor, sometimes you can get a ruling. If the home insurance company will appeal and waste two years before paying, it feels good to see people get here.