Class A vandalized on roof

[cnc0918]

Our RV is parked on our property & someone went up on the roof & threw a cement block into the roof at some point this Winter. It is a 34' Class A with a rubber roof. During that time, the roof had major leakage which we only discovered last week. The TV over the dash is barely hanging on in the cabinet, every electronic thing we have is right where the leak started. We drained about 3 gallons of water out, there's mildew on the ceiling, the water dripped down into the dash, & we have no idea what that could've done to the automatic levelers, or anything else in the dash.

My question is, do any of you know how much it costs to replace the rubber roof, the entire headliner, probably most of the wood, all the cabinets in the front of the coach, all the electronics we lost, the tv, & the dashboard as well. The water leaked down to the carpet & into the linoleum flooring by the entrance to the coach. Needless to say, it is a royal mess!

Thanks in advance for any comments you can give me.

[cnc0918]

wow - ok. thanks for the productive comments everyone.

[toedtoes]

cnc0918 wrote:
While I may be a novice when it comes to pricing vehicles of any type, my husband has owned several car dealerships in the past so I'm pretty sure he knows what he's talking about.

Car pricing is completely different from RV pricing. My family owned a car dealership and they would be the first to tell you that everything you think you know about pricing vehicles goes out the window with RVs.

[cnc0918]

While I may be a novice when it comes to pricing vehicles of any type, my husband has owned several car dealerships in the past so I'm pretty sure he knows what he's talking about.

[NCC-1701]

dougrainer wrote:
Average value for your model is 25k, not 35k. While it IS your baby, you have to be realistic on the real value of that motorhome. One thing novices do when they go to the Kelly type sites is they ADD all what they think is optional equipment. REAL NADA books already have those options as standard equipment built into the price listed, which is where the actual 25k value comes from. Doug

Better yet to find real value is to thoroughly search the unit on the web to see what it is selling for. Valuing at "Book"....even just the Base w/o option adders, can be a huge mistake. It varies by brand and model, but many actually sell for far, far less than book. PPL Motorhomes has good information on their website about this. The "books" usually just take off a certain amount each year because there aren't a ton of each brand/model length, etc. selling in any given year to get a good used market price. That practice can be quite inaccurate.

That said, I'm sure most Insurance Companies and Banks use the book value.

[cnc0918]

yes we made a police report. thankfully vandalism is covered by our insurance - we had no idea if it was or not. we are definitely getting a different insurance company after this is all settled. it's bad enough when something you've worked hard to obtain, pay for in full, & treasure time with your family in it gets ruined by someone else but to then be treated poorly just adds salt to the wound.

[2gypsies1]

Sorry you're going through this but I'd be leery about parking another RV on your property. I think you now need to find another option for storing it after it's repaired or if you get a new one. Just wondering if anyone else in your area received any damage like this over the winter. Did you make a police report?

[dougrainer]

cnc0918 wrote:
Husband went to a local RV mechanic today. He's coming out next Thursday to do a thorough inspection & do an estimate for the insurance company. He said there's no WAY to replace part of a rubber roof & part of the headliner. We also told him how bad it smells in the coach, that there's black stuff on the ceiling, & he said it would probably need a mold abatement which is thousands of dollars. He also said the roof would be completely removed, all the wood would be removed, an entirely new headliner put on the new wood, & new roof. He also told him that the carpet & linoleum would need to be completely removed from the entire coach & to really push for that with the insurance because they are put down in one piece & that it needs to be replaced in the exact same way. Could be interesting to see what he comes up with. He looked up the value, by the way, & average value is around $31,000 - with ours having such low mileage, it bumps it up to closer to the $35,000 range.

RV Mechanics have NO CLUE as to value. I AM a 38 year Master Certified RV Technician and still working and do not claim to know what RV values are. MY 25k (What we would be selling it for) came from our motorhome sales dept which they are pretty darn accurate. REAL world selling on used is what you have to take into account, not just what the Books state. Based on what your Tech stated needed to be done, your RV will be totaled. In its condition, I would not even think about buying it back to rebuild yourself. BTW, you do not get a 4k dollar jump due to low mileage.

[chuckftboy]

Sorry to hear about your troubles and how your insurance company is treating you. I recently had a claim and the accident was totally my fault. Did some under carriage damage and my carrier treated me great. Sent an adjuster 2 days after I reported it, he looked at it, said take it to whoever I preferred and get a repair estimate. I sent him 2 estimates and received a check for the higher amount 4 days later. Less my deductible of course.
After you get through this, you may want to find a better company to insure with.

[cnc0918]

Husband went to a local RV mechanic today. He's coming out next Thursday to do a thorough inspection & do an estimate for the insurance company. He said there's no WAY to replace part of a rubber roof & part of the headliner. We also told him how bad it smells in the coach, that there's black stuff on the ceiling, & he said it would probably need a mold abatement which is thousands of dollars. He also said the roof would be completely removed, all the wood would be removed, an entirely new headliner put on the new wood, & new roof. He also told him that the carpet & linoleum would need to be completely removed from the entire coach & to really push for that with the insurance because they are put down in one piece & that it needs to be replaced in the exact same way. Could be interesting to see what he comes up with. He looked up the value, by the way, & average value is around $31,000 - with ours having such low mileage, it bumps it up to closer to the $35,000 range.

[wallynm]

Time to contact an attorney. Insurance is low balling you. If final damage is more than book value they will just declare it a total loss. Take the money and run

[cross21114]

All,

They are "concrete" block, not cement block.

Sorry some stupid person vandalized your RV.

[dougrainer]

Average value for your model is 25k, not 35k. While it IS your baby, you have to be realistic on the real value of that motorhome. One thing novices do when they go to the Kelly type sites is they ADD all what they think is optional equipment. REAL NADA books already have those options as standard equipment built into the price listed, which is where the actual 25k value comes from. Doug

[dougrainer]

OH48Lt wrote:

cnc0918 wrote:
Our insurance is with Madison Mutual. One of the claims supervisors even had the audacity to suggest we'd thrown the brick into our motorhome roof.

Yep, thought they might try that. The damage was caused in a very suspicious, unusual manner.

Another thing they might try is to agree to pay for the roof damage, but not the subsequent water damage because you didn't check on the property often enough.

I'm not saying you did anything wrong, I'm just saying that insurance companies will do whatever they can to lessen their liability.

This is true with most Insurance companies. In Texas, we have a lot of Deer hunters that have RV's on their Deer Leases 24/365. We have had some claims denied or cut back due to the fact the RV, while the original damage was covered, the subsequent damage from water intrusion was NOT. Due to the fact the Hunter did not find the damage and water damage months after the fact. Policy holders have duty to mitigate damage from accidents and future claims. Doug

[cnc0918]

When we originally bought it a couple years ago, we borrowed the money from our bank, it's paid in full now & I think the insurance company thought we still owed on it so I guess that would be a 'reason' to destroy our own property but it's paid in full & we love it. We hope they'll fix it so we can have it back but we want it fixed properly. I don't think that's too much to ask.

[OH48Lt]

cnc0918 wrote:
Our insurance is with Madison Mutual. One of the claims supervisors even had the audacity to suggest we'd thrown the brick into our motorhome roof.

Yep, thought they might try that. The damage was caused in a very suspicious, unusual manner.

Another thing they might try is to agree to pay for the roof damage, but not the subsequent water damage because you didn't check on the property often enough.

I'm not saying you did anything wrong, I'm just saying that insurance companies will do whatever they can to lessen their liability.