Does HO insurance cover damage due to unpermitted work

[petersonra]

I emailed the Illinois division of insurance. Here is part of what I sent and their answer.

Q: Electrical work is done that eventually causes a fire (for instance it was done improperly). The work was done by an unlicensed contractor, or without a permit, or by the homeowner himself.

Would such a circumstance cause the resulting damage claim to be void just because of who did the work?

A: Since this is a real general type of problem, I would say that the resulting fire should be covered but not the work.

 

[mdshunk]

Re: Does HO insurance cover damage due to unpermitted work

I do a fairly large amount of fire work, much of it started by electrical issues. I've seen insurance pay out on fires caused by some very poor electrical work that never met any code that ever existed in the history of mankind. I'm not sure if they go after the person who originally did the work, or if they cancel the homeowner's policy after the claim is paid. I suspect that they do both.

[ November 28, 2005, 06:30 PM: Message edited by: mdshunk ]

 

[tshea]

Re: Does HO insurance cover damage due to unpermitted work

Originally posted by mdshunk:
I do a fairly large amount of fire work, much of it started by electrical issues. ... I'm not sure if they go after the person who originally did the work, or if they cancel the homeowner's policy after the claim is paid. I suspect that they do both.

Fire repairs are great...until the end of the day when you can smell yourself outside. (It's great work actually, as long as the check is written to the HO and you the EC!
Most of the insurance companies I know of have cancelled the HO policy after the payout or increased the premiums to the point of the HO shopping around.

 

[JohnE]

Re: Does HO insurance cover damage due to unpermitted work

I asked an agent the same question once and the answer that he gave is that an insurance company looks for any reason that they can to avoid paying a claim. We were discussing liability insurance, though, not HO insurance so I guess that the question was not the same. The answer may be though.
Homeowners insurance in MA is voluntary, so a policy may be cancelled for any reason.

 

[charlie tuna]

Re: Does HO insurance cover damage due to unpermitted work

the fire jobs i have worked on tell me the insurance investigators are not capable of knowing what is legal or illegal! and what actually caused the fire or the damage.

 

[mdshunk]

Re: Does HO insurance cover damage due to unpermitted work

Originally posted by charlie tuna:
the fire jobs i have worked on tell me the insurance investigators are not capable of knowing what is legal or illegal! and what actually caused the fire or the damage.

You betcha. There was one time, in particular, in which the insurance man actualy said, "if you guys happen to figure out what caused this while you're working, we'd be interested in knowing." It didnt take a rocket scientist to see the jumpered out high limit switch on the charred remnants of the wood furnace in the basement.

 

[charlie tuna]

Re: Does HO insurance cover damage due to unpermitted work

we had a major high rise office building blow up it's bus duct and caused a flood from the sprinkler system activated by the bus duct failure. the flood damaged the main switchgear also. the bus duct actually failed due to the a/c system's duct work's design. they built a return air duct around the feeder pipes feeding the chiller system's switchboard. water condensed inside the three feeder pipes and drained down into the tap box on the penthouse floor---be advised ---it doesn't take much water to blow up a 480 volt bus duct!! the insurance guys, there was three of them, never asked our oppinion ---guess what---we never told themm our's!!! they worked for travellers insurance. they eventually blaimed it on a roof leak that never existed............... a big problem was the fault of square d ---they had a major problem in the service switch.. but they never asked us anything!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!