Fire Update - Subhed Red Tape

Not exactly.

At 9 am, six hours after the fire -- when I had been awake for 27 hours and
still in shock from the loss of my house -- I signed a contract with an
adjustment company. Adjustment companies are middlemen who "handle" all
the paperwork and negotiations between you and the insurance company, for a
4% fee.

I did this on the advice on my aunt (whose house fire a few years before
was handled in stellar fashion by her adjustment company), and my brother's
lawyer, who said he advises all his clients to use adjustment companies in
these cases.

(When I went to sign my name on the contract, the pen ran out of ink. If
you're the kind who believes in omens, that should have been a warning
right there.)

Well, it turns out that the adjustment company is "partnered with" (they
say partnered, I say "a front for") a construction company that as luck
would have it specializes in rebuilding houses damaged by fire. A month
after the blaze, I was handed a building contract. I said I preffered to
find my own contractor. From that moment I was emptor non grata with the
adjustment company.

A second email from them today claims that I never returned their phone
calls. Little do they know I'm a geek lunatic who downloads his phone
records every month, and can show that they haven't called me since
December.

But that's beside the point. The real question is, am I better off without
them? they claimed they would negotiate with the insurance company on my
behalf, but I have no evidence that they ever did. We know how useless
they were at finding me a place to live after the fire.

All this really means is that I'm going to have to start negotiating with
the insurance company on my own.

Fire Update - Subhed Red Tape

After a year of jerking me around, I just got word
that the adjustment company has closed my case file. No explanation, no
reason, just a curt email saying they've closed my case file.

It's probably for the best, I think -- their incompetence (deliberate or
actual) has essentially kept my life on hold for a year, and with them gone
perhaps something will actually get done.

It appears that their entire goal was to get me to use their construction
company to rebuild my house -- the minute I shied away from that, my calls
became low priority, and activity on my claim slowed to a crawl.

I'm betting that they're going to claim that I owe them for the demolition
work they did, gutting the interior of my house. We'll see.

Fire Update

Insurance adjuster: "there are some elements with this building contract
I don't like. Can't talk now. later"

Building contractor: "WHY did you show the contract to the insurance
adjuster!?! They should have no problem with it! We've done business
before!"

Someone is going to die. Soon.

Fire Update

There is no news, which in this case is not necessarily good news.

The builders are reported to have accepted the contract. However, they're
not returning my phone calls and emails, and they have not (as of Friday)
sent me the contract by mail. So for the life of me, I don't know.

I've thought of going to their office and standing in the doorway, yelling.
But it's a two-hour trip to get there, and there's no guarantee the right
people will be in the office. I am unusually patient, but this is getting
annoying.

Fire Update - Subhed Rebuilding

Well, part of the problem is that for the last two weeks, the insurance
agent, the insurance company adjuster, and the private adjuster have all
been on vacation. Not one of them told me they were leaving, but for the
first time I understand their earlier desire to have everything underway by
the end of August.

I haven't seen the contract, and I'll be going over it to see if a comma has
been misplaced. Before that happens, I'll see about the materials -- my
ceilings were lath and plaster, and all my doors were solid. I intend to be
very hands on during the building process.

Fire Update - Subhed Red Tape

Laydeeeeez and Gentlemen! In this hand, I hold two bright red slips of
paper, indicating that a Consolidated Edison Emergency Crew turned off the
electricity and gas service to my house at 3:18AM on May 9, a few minutes
after the fire department left.

In THIS hand, I hold a brand new ConEd utility bill, indicating that my
house used $63 worth of electricity and $46 worth of gas in the billing
period from 05/17/06 to 06/16/06.

Stay tuned for further tales of ass reaming.

Fire Update - Subhed Rebuilding

I scanned the contract and sent it to my brother-in-law to look over. He,
on his own initiative (and his own dime, bless him), showed it to his
lawyer. The lawyer agreed that with the exception of the "owner will
irrevocably transfer all insurance proceeds to the builder" section, it's
not a bad contract. The lawyer added some penalties for work delays, some
requirements to follow New York city and state labor laws, and to get all
permits. Nothing that I find too unreasonable. Now we have to see if the
builder agrees.