Exterior repair cost

mobeewan wrote:
Your lucky they let you keep the trailer at home. They'll probably make a new regulation outlawing trailers in the future. At least you should be grandfathered.

Their rule allowing campers was the reason we built our house there, most larger lot newer subdivisions require them to be inside a building. I think the neighborhood would stage a revolt if they decided to outlaw RVs parked outside, probably half the residents have them. It was bad enough when they tried to give us a violation for a rule that they created after we moved in, that said campers had to be behind a 6' privacy fence to block the view from the street. Nevermind we live on an acre, with the required 4' split rail perimeter fencing, and our trailer is 12'3" tall (ie a privacy fence isn't going to hide anything). After the uproar from us and a few others that were in before that rule got created, we were grandfathered in since we told them our plan was to eventually build an outbuilding to put it in. They don't need to know that that outbuilding is probably 7-8 years down the road LOL

Your insurance should subrogate the claim and then go after the HOA for the full amount. It is up to your insurance company, I would suggest that you do NOT negotiate anything with the HOA on your own.

Your lucky they let you keep the trailer at home. They'll probably make a new regulation outlawing trailers in the future. At least you should be grandfathered.

Hi All, just coming back to update.

After my husband told the HOA what the estimate was, they said "Well, actually, we can't pay that". It is a new HOA and under developer control still, as someone else mentioned, and it is managed by a management company. They offered to pay our deductible for our insurance, which is a whopping $50. So we ended up submitting to insurance, and insurance originally said they'd pay around $1,500 and we received a check for that. But today we got a call saying they'll pay the total amount the dealer's body shop quoted, assuming they and the shop did some back and forth.

So, hopefully we can get the work done soon and get our camper back, we're just going to have them winterize it at this point. We're still going to see if the HOA will give us a bit more than $50 since this put our trailer out of commission for the last good weeks of camping time, and it's been taking my husband a lot of time to deal with it, but I'm not holding my breath. Funny how they're really quick to point out violations (like our trash cans being visible from the street) but not so much when it comes to when THEY make a mistake.

We'll see if the rate on our insurance goes up after this, but I'd hope not.

I would get a second estimate if possible. Hard to argue if there is more than 1 in the same price range. I also would not tell the 2nd place that you already have 1 estimate. Let them write their estimate for whatever they will charge. Not sure a body shop will do repair on the inside though, will have to ask them about that. The HOA probably has a large deductilbe - probably $5,000 or $10,000, so would be paying out of association funds.

JAC1982 wrote:

Tyler0215 wrote:
So if they say they don't want to pay that much, turn in a claim to your insurance company and let them fight it out. That's why you have insurance. Why have insurance if your afraid to use it?

Good question... you just hear a lot of stories about people having their rates raised after making claims. Our neighbor had a couple weather related claims and Allstate dropped them altogether because of "too many claims".

Rates get raised after people make claims for accidents that are their fault. Insurance companies generally don't raise rates for things like this.

You say the neighborhood is still under construction which usually means that the developer is still in charge of the HOA and it will be his insurance that will be paying the bill. I would submit the claim to the HOA and only escalate to your own insurance if they give you a problem. I doubt they will have any issues with paying the bill.

You say the neighborhood is still under construction which usually means that the developer is still in charge of the HOA and it will be his insurance that will be paying the bill. I would submit the claim to the HOA and only escalate to your own insurance if they give you a problem. I doubt they will have any issues with paying the bill.

qtla9111 wrote:
Depending on the location of the hole, you could also put some rv style cover over the hole and seal it. Something like a small round vent cover, electrical outlet cover, etc. Nobody will know but you.

It might also be a good spot for a reflector
Caulk around it and forget about it.
Put another one on the opposite side. ;)

Keep the money from the insurance pay off. :B

Depending on the location of the hole, you could also put some rv style cover over the hole and seal it. Something like a small round vent cover, electrical outlet cover, etc. Nobody will know but you.