Stuff blew up, POCO won't accept fault

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Coppersmith

Coppersmith

Senior Member
Location
Tampa, FL, USA
Occupation
Electrical Contractor
Summary: I need an opinion here. This takes place in Florida. The POCO's drop to a house had an fault. The fault destroyed the HO's stove, fridge, a lamp, and a surge protector. The POCO is refusing to reimburse the HO because they didn't buy house wiring protection the POCO billed monthly for. There is no doubt in my mind that this is the POCO's fault. Can they get away with not reimbursing the HO? Is there any recourse?

The rest of the story: POCO's drop runs by a tree that had been rubbing the conductors. POCO installed a plastic cover over the conductor to protect it. The drop failed anyway. POCO replaced the drop. I only have the HO's description of what happened next. He spoke with the lineman doing the repair. Either the neutral failed or a hot contacted the neutral. I don't know which happened.

The fault caused some lighting in the home to go very bright. A fan near the HO slowed down. One light bulb burned up. Both the stove and fridge stopped working and had to be replaced. A kitchen GFCI failed and when I replaced it the back had blown off. The surge protector mounted on the outside of the outdoor panel literally exploded (it had a big hole in one side) leaving black soot all over the siding.

So your opinions please. Is this a situation where the POCO should be reimbursing the HO even though the HO didn't buy an optional indoor wire protection plan? If the POCO continues to refuse to reimburse, can the HO complain to a public service commission or similar body? Any other options?
 
Risk managers (I‘ve worked with several) will always deny a claim, initially. Why? Because there are many bogus claims. The indoor wire protection sounds a bit like a extended vehicle warranty. Keep track of your time and expenses.
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This may be just like the situation of “the neighbors tree” falling on your property situation.
Where as far as insurance/liability goes, is that unless they were physically doing something to the line when the problem occurred then it is an unforeseen issue in time or “act of god”. So, it’s the homeowners insurance that would pick up the repair unless like you stated, there is some kind of additional optional coverage that the POCO provides at some cost.
 
depends on the tariffs but usually acts of god are not covered by anything other than your ho insurance.

in any case, the HO probably has no clue what actually happened, only relaying what he thought the lineman said

suppose it was a lightning strike on the power lines? would that be the poco's fault? would you expect them to pay?

who is responsible for the tree?

best bet is the HO calls his insurance agent and asks what coverage he might have. he might also have some coverage from the SPD manufacturer.

BUT, most times insurance of any type does not cover replacing old junk with brand new stuff. They will usually write you a check for what the burnup stuff was worth, so chances are they will figure the value of the old junk rather the the cost to replace it with brand new.

You might want to have the HO get in touch with the utility commission, or whatever they call it in Florida.

Best bet is for you to stay out of it completely.
 
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Coppersmith said:
The fault caused some lighting in the home to go very bright. A fan near the HO slowed down. One light bulb burned up. Both the stove and fridge stopped working and had to be replaced. A kitchen GFCI failed and when I replaced it the back had blown off. The surge protector mounted on the outside of the outdoor panel literally exploded (it had a big hole in one side) leaving black soot all over the siding.
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'sounds like a faulty neutral to me; I've seen it do these things. I remember one of the linemen for the local POCO telling me once that the claim handlers at his company always denies claims no matter what, and customers really had to be persistent and bug the heck out of them,
 
I feel for you
FWIW.
I have personally filed claims with National Grid for faults in the underground secondaries to the hand hole in front of my house that have damaged appliances and equipment in my house and so have my neighbors.

Issues were faulty neutral.
 
The symptoms clearly describe an open neutral. I believe this should be legally pursued.

This is not a case of faulty indoor wiring. This is damage caused by faulty POCO-owned equipment.

Of course they want to get out of it. That doesn't mean they should get their way.
 
What does this 'house wiring protection' consist of and would it protect against an open neutral?

But get the HO's insurance company lawyer to ask the question. All you need to do is testify to the damage you witnessed during your deposition.
 
Coppersmith said:
The rest of the story: POCO's drop runs by a tree that had been rubbing the conductors. POCO installed a plastic cover over the conductor to protect it. The drop failed anyway. POCO replaced the drop.
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I guess we don't know what exactly the failure was, but I believe keeping trees trimmed from the service drop is the customers responsibility in every utility I have worked with.
 
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