National General has lost my business!_

Mile-High-Endura wrote:
How many of you check the plumbing under your shower? I noticed something running down the right rear tire cover. When I pulled the cover to see under the shower there was the p-trap just hanging there. The factory had glued the connection together instead of the correct way. We have vinyl floors never noticed any water (no carpet to get wet). Over time the floor in the bathroom, hall and out toward the kitchen area got soft. Very costly repair. I repaired the shower drain with a rubber coupling. Sure would've been nice to get some help from insurance for the floor repair. I don't believe it was a lack of maintenance on my part.

Jeff

Too late for this loss but a picture of the p-trap just hanging and your statement that it had always leaked would have supported an "accidental" loss and might have been covered by your insurance company. I've personally been involved with covered losses that were similar in nature.
The age-old rule in insurance is coverage applies if the loss was "sudden and accidental". Just because it took time for you to notice the damage doesn't automatically deny the claim. The loss occurred because someone accidentally failed to connect the plumbing correctly. Another rule of thumb is, "an unbroken chain of events" so if you can successfully show such a chain existed in your loss then coverage might be afforded.
You should know, however, that each use or event that led to the damage could be considered a separate loss and subject to a deductible. Insurance is weird.

There's part of me telling myself, "don't post this" but another part telling me "go ahead".
First - the basic rule of thumb in providing coverage is "sudden & accidental". So, NatGen has a basis for the denial. However, and this is a big however, if your statement is true that CW has yet to identify the leak then a formal denial is impossible. How the water got in has yet to be determined. NatGen does NOT have to pay for a diagnostic - that's the owners responsibility. But without a diagnostic of how the water entered then the absolute truth of sudden and/or accidental isn't fully known.
Did you have any violent thunderstorms recently? Could the water have entered thru a window left open accidently? If a window was left open it could be covered. Did high winds peel back some caulking allowing the water in? It could be covered.
Simply put - without knowing where the water got in then the coverage is up in the air.
Ask for a formal denial letter. Ask your adjuster to list who determined the cause of the intrusion and quote the policy specific language the denial is based. Then, pay CW there pound of flesh and go find another reputable repair shop and have them read the denial letter and see if they agree with the diagnosis from CW. If the new shop finds that the intrusion "could" be sudden or accidental you're back in the game by asking the adjuster to re-evaluate the original denial.
90 out of 100 adjusters don't know the first thing about RV construction. They absolutely rely on reputable shops telling them how and where the damage occurred.
BTW - I know a little about how insurance companies work.

How many of you check the plumbing under your shower? I noticed something running down the right rear tire cover. When I pulled the cover to see under the shower there was the p-trap just hanging there. The factory had glued the connection together instead of the correct way. We have vinyl floors never noticed any water (no carpet to get wet). Over time the floor in the bathroom, hall and out toward the kitchen area got soft. Very costly repair. I repaired the shower drain with a rubber coupling. Sure would've been nice to get some help from insurance for the floor repair. I don't believe it was a lack of maintenance on my part.

Jeff

rvsue1985 wrote:
Of course I wouldn't expect the insurance company to pay for lack of maintenance. Really nice how most of you can just determine that was the problem. Even Camping World hasn't determined the problem yet. My problem is that the insurance company lets you think you are covered but then comes back and says that you dont meet the criteria. Their other than collission requires specific circumstances. Even their water intrusion is only valid for flood. Then why dont they call it flood.

I certainly don't want to be a part of the wolf pack here, but your original post seems to say you thought you had a certain level of coverage, but when you needed to use it after paying on it all these years, you don't have the coverage you thought you did.

The only responsible party in that situation is you. Read your policy and understand your coverage. No insurance company is going to prod you into doing so as they happily cash your monthly check.

It's OK to be PO'd though. Sorry for the trouble your having. Get it fixed, get a policy with the coverage you desire and then go camping.

rvsue1985 wrote:
Of course I wouldn't expect the insurance company to pay for lack of maintenance. Really nice how most of you can just determine that was the problem. Even Camping World hasn't determined the problem yet. My problem is that the insurance company lets you think you are covered but then comes back and says that you dont meet the criteria. Their other than collission requires specific circumstances. Even their water intrusion is only valid for flood. Then why dont they call it flood.

No offense here, but you are quite lost when it comes to what you bought (an insurance policy) and what you erroneously think it should be paying for (a lack of maintenance, and/or workmanship or design issues with your rig). "Most of us" can determine that a lack of maintenance IS most likely the issue, because leaks and damage are not only common, but in the vast majority of the cases, they ARE due to a lack of maintenance.

In some cases, the RV is just scrap from the moment it left the assembly line, and there is no maintenance regiment that will save it. I experienced this with a Fleetwood travel trailer that was built with defective cargo doors. The doors allowed hidden water intrusion, and the rig was destroyed within two years. My dealer then forced the company to rebuild the unit. This was also something that would of resulted in a denial by my insurance company, since, much like a lack of maintenance, it has nothing to do with the insurance company's contract with the RV owner.

Finally, it is no surprise that Camping World can't find the source of the leak. Two issues come to mind. First, finding the origin of a leak can involve extensive demolition of the interior, to track the source. At $120/HR and no real idea if the insurer, or owner will be willing to cover what could be a very large bill, there are limits to how far a repair shop is typically willing to "dive into" this kind of problem. Second, there are many, many seasoned RVers out there that wouldn't let CW touch their rigs, either based on a really bad previous experience, or the reputation that CW has developed when it comes to the quality of their work. Personally, I don't mind dropping in to a CW to spend a few bucks on items that I don't have the time to find online, but there is no way that my rig will even end up in their shop. So the question is, do the have somebody that is competent and experienced carefully investigating your leak problem, or is their a semi skilled, low wage helper stumbling through the job, while his boss peeks in, every hour or so, to check up on him?

I have never seen a Insurance company pay for water intrusion from lack of maintaince

Had a 3 year old travel trailer totaled out due to water damage. Being a newbie, I had no idea about caulking.

Strange how insurance companies supposedly don't pay for overloaded vehicles, no maintenance, etc, but will pay when I go drunk thru the stop sign at 80 mph!

mich800 wrote:

johnnyrv wrote:
you should have been covered just like the homeowners who got damage from ice dams this last winter.

That is still an acute water intrusion problem. Not a leak that may have occurred over a protracted period. I do not know of any insurance that covers a leak of that nature. Call it lack of maintenance or just a leak that was not discovered timely but good luck getting insurance to cover it once it is classified as this type of water intrusion. If the wood is rotted enough to need replacement it is probably not something that just happened.

That's what I mean by lack of maintenance I have the same problem with a slideout. By the time you discover the damage it's to late.

johnnyrv wrote:
you should have been covered just like the homeowners who got damage from ice dams this last winter.

That is still an acute water intrusion problem. Not a leak that may have occurred over a protracted period. I do not know of any insurance that covers a leak of that nature. Call it lack of maintenance or just a leak that was not discovered timely but good luck getting insurance to cover it once it is classified as this type of water intrusion. If the wood is rotted enough to need replacement it is probably not something that just happened.

rvsue1985 wrote:
Of course I wouldn't expect the insurance company to pay for lack of maintenance. Really nice how most of you can just determine that was the problem. Even Camping World hasn't determined the problem yet. My problem is that the insurance company lets you think you are covered but then comes back and says that you dont meet the criteria. Their other than collission requires specific circumstances. Even their water intrusion is only valid for flood. Then why dont they call it flood.

You stated that you pulled out your RV from winter storage and it had extensive water damage... Unless you put it away with extensive water damage, it happened during the time in storage. That means either the storage company is at fault for failing to keep water out of indoor storage; or you didn't make sure your RV was properly sealed before storing it in an outdoors storage area.

you should have been covered just like the homeowners who got damage from ice dams this last winter.