Hacker News Reader

Comment by johnnyo | Hacker News Reader

Does homeowners insurance cover the loss?

What exactly is he suing for? Wouldn't the insurance company be the one who would want to sue here, in an attempt to get back some of their outlay?

View on HN

It sounds like it was going to according to this [0] article. The issue is the amount offered wouldn't even cover the temporary arrangements while the insurance rebuilt the home, 5k covers a hotel for 30ish days way less than it would take to replace the house.

[0] https://denver.cbslocal.com/2015/06/10/owner-of-home-destroy...

So far as I'm aware homeowners insurance in almost all cases will not cover government action, just like it typically won't cover floods, ground movement, and various other things. Read your fine print. In all likelihood since the criminal did not cause the damage they will reject any claims.

https://denver.cbslocal.com/2015/06/10/owner-of-home-destroy...

This says his homeowners will cover the cost to rebuild

He's lucky then.

Probably not, because it is not an "accident".

My dwelling policy actually says: We insure for accidental direct physical loss to the property

Interestingly, the article describes the incident as "a quasi-war zone" which is specifically not covered: We do not insure under any coverage for any loss which would not have occurred in the absence of one or more of the following excluded events: e. War, including any undeclared war, civil war, insurrection, rebellion, revolution, warlike act by a military force or military personnel, destruction or seizure or use for a military purpose, and including any consequence of any of these. Discharge of a nuclear weapon shall be deemed a warlike act even if accidental.

https://denver.cbslocal.com/2015/06/10/owner-of-home-destroy...

This article says that homeowner's was going to pay to rebuild, he wanted the city to pay for a longer term housing in the meantime while it was rebuilt.

So, its unclear what he is suing for exactly, except maybe some temporary living expenses.

Insurance company could raise his rates and he would still be responsible for the deductible.

Right, but the government offered to cover his deductible.

Any money he got from the government over and above the deductible he'd likely have to pay back to his insurance company, wouldn't he? You can't double dip like that.

They offered $5000 toward the deductible and temporary housing. No mention of actual costs involved (like, how large was the total deductible, for instance). Given how long it takes to build a house, plus extra time + expense for demo & removal in this case, I'd expect $5000 to be a small part of just the temporary housing costs.

This is prime example of what insurance should cover 100% no questions asked with no premium increase. These circumstances are way out of a homeowners' control, maybe this guy should look into suing his own insurance company.

According to the article, the city did offer $5k for rent assistance and insurance deductible coverage... not sure if that was before or after the court proceedings got underway.

Making a claim, in some cases, will increase your premium costs. Additionally, there's emotional and mental costs, which home insurance may not cover.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com