The Flames of Hell

We solicit your stories, anecdotes and observations. However, we ask that you do not reveal any names or identities. CDR in no way warrantees the accuracy of these stories and they should be classified as “urban myth”. But we do solicit your anecdotes in hope that people will see the number of ways that claims can go array in even the best of circumstances and, too often, the worse of circumstances 

Claims from Hell
“We had a house fire that never burned. It was a smoldering couch that ignited. Apparently, just after we both left for a 10 hour work day, couch smoldered for the entire day but never flamed. The fire department said it just cooked our house and so when my husband came home, he noticed that the door knob was glowing and he could feel how warm it was. He didn’t touch it, but as he got close to it he could feel the warmth and he noticed that the house looked funny, the windows seem clouded and thank god he didn’t open the door. The fire department told us that if he had opened the door, it would have put oxygen in the house and the house literally would have exploded. However, the smoldering got so hot that the fire department estimates that the house was 1000 degrees inside. And although there was no fire, no flame, the glass had literally melted in our windows and metal was melted and everything in the house was destroyed even though it never burned.” -Insured

“I’m a landlord who had some tenants who were taking in stray cats, these cats were actually feral cats, however, they didn’t take care of these cats and these people were practicing some form of white magic. This was not the first house they had done this to and these feral cats defecated all over the house. And the tenants kept drapes on all of the windows so the neighbors could not see what was going on. When my Public Adjuster came by, they wouldn’t let him in the house and he couldn’t see what was going on but finally they had vacated and the police are looking for them for animal endangerment. But we got in and the house was entirely inhabitable. It was a three story house and because of the urination and defecation all over the house, there were flies just all over the ceiling and floors. Even though we had called in Cleaners and Contractors and we had the house entirely cleaned, scrubbed and painted, and used a shellac to get rid of the smell and we deodorized, the smell of the urine and cats never went away. We tried this approach three times, tore out all of the sheetrock, lath and plaster, we stained, we used kills, we used everything we could think of as a primer coat to first remove the smell then cover the smell. We even used an antibody that is used by oil companies to get rid of that and it still didn’t work. Finally, we had to demolish the entire house down to the foundation was the only way to get rid of the smell. –Insured

“We had an Insured who lived just by a curb and every once-in-a-while someone didn’t make the curb. One time these kids were driving their Jeep way too fast and never even made the turn. They just kept going straight ahead even though the road turned and they landed in our Insured’s living room. The kids jumped out of the Jeep and ran away through the hole in the wall and our insurance company went out and we said we’d do the repairs and everything but we had to get the Jeep out of the living room. Well the Homeowner was so angry with these people who destroyed his house and caused so much damaged and never stayed to see if he was alright that he wanted to keep the Jeep there so that the kids would come back and get it. We assured him that it was covered and we would pay for it and we would let the police handle the kids who did this, he said “no, he wanted those kids and he wanted to talk to them”. This delayed construction by a couple of weeks until we finally convinced the man to let us get the Jeep out of there. We don’t know what happened with him and the kids.” -Adjuster

Adjuster from Hell
A Public Adjuster is working over-seas and dealing with a British Adjuster who is very pleasant, very sophisticated, never raised his voice, never unpleasant, was never combative. Except the British Adjuster lowered the settlement offer every time this Public Adjuster spoke, or every time there was a conversation. Every time there was a meeting, instead of moving closer together, the offer moved further apart. The British Adjuster would very pleasantly lower the offer without even referencing the previous offer. The matter eventually went to litigation.

“I had a claim and the Adjuster wouldn’t return any of my phone calls, wouldn’t answer my e-mail and I was forced to do temporary repairs. The Adjuster rejected those expenditures because the repairs hadn’t been authorized even though the Adjuster never responded.” -Insured

“My Adjuster came out with a Contractor and insisted that this Contractor was authorized by the insurance company and highly recommended that I hire the Contractor. So, the I did because I thought that it was the best thing to do. I found out three weeks later that the Adjuster had quit the insurance company and had moved on to work for the Contractor and that there was no such authorization from the insurance company. Apparently, my claim was a “gift” to the Adjuster’s new boss.” -Insured

“I’m a Contractor who had problems with the Adjuster on a claim because he called all of my Sub-Contractors to negotiate a lower price on each of the sub-items.” -Contractor

Advocate from Hell
“I met with a Public Adjuster and was considering hiring him. The Public Adjuster said he didn’t care if I hired him or not. He’d either work for me or the other side. Whoever he worked for would win and the other side would be miserable. He said it was our choice. Ultimately we decided not to go with him because he was so aggressive and ultimately, we were very, very sorry. It was a miserable experience because he did go work for the insurance company.” -Insured

“We were under Examination Under Oath, and while we were being deposed, I noticed that our Attorney had fallen asleep. It was a long, tedious day with many questions that seemed to have no meaning or purpose. But, it did serve to make the Attorney fall asleep.” -Insured

“I was dealing with an Advocate who in being upset with the insurance company wrote a letter saying *@^! #%* with a strong letter to follow.” -Insured

“I had pleasant conversations on the phone with an Advocate. He seem reasonable, we seemed to be in agreement. I later received a letter from this Advocate that was nasty and combative and in no way resembled the conversation we had had. I was wondering what happened between the time of our conversation and the time the Advocate sent out this letter and why he is suddenly so unpleasant and angry.” -Adjuster

Claimant from Hell
“We had an Insured who were an elderly couple who didn’t have anything better to do than watch Evandualists on television. They were very religious, very fundamentally religious and they required everyone to come out to their house to accept Jesus Christ as their savior. I of course, told them that my religion was of no consequence and I would not discuss my religion or discuss my acceptance or rejection of Jesus Christ as my savior and if they didn’t like it I would go back to my office and they could handle their claim another way. They accepted that I didn’t have to comply to their provisions, however, the next time I was out I noticed the Electrician was down on his knees and appeared to be praying while he was talking to the Insured.” -Adjuster

“We had an Insured who was a pathological liar. This Insured was obviously a smoker who claimed not to smoke, who claimed that her finger nails were real, while they were obviously fake, and wore too much perfume and blamed others for wearing too much cologne as if she didn’t have anything on. This same person had been accused of murdering her husband in a previous life insurance claim. Had her store burgled, yet was the leading suspect and then had a house fire that was considered an arson.” -Adjuster

Heaven Sent
“An elderly couple wanted to throw a rug over their burnt floor even though they were entitled to have their entire carpeting replaced and I had to talk them into accepting the replacement for which they were fully entitled.” –Adjuster

“My Insured had a garage fire and they had said it was a bunch of old stuff that we had inherited from our elderly siblings. I looked at the claim and insisted that they had a policy limits claim even though the Insureds thought that they had a bunch of junk. Upon a complete and detailed inventory, the Insureds did indeed have a policy limits claim when they had thought it had be just a few hundred dollars.” –Adjuster

“There was a fire at a church that was scheduled to be torn down. The Insureds thought, at best, they were entitled to debris removal which they were going to pay for anyway when they demolished the church. The fire was caused by lighting so it was a God’s sent and they kept asking and the Adjuster first agreed to pay for the demolition then they agreed to turning the lot into a parking lot and then they agreed that the building was Insured and the cost far exceed policy limits. In this case, an accidental fire at a building that was scheduled to be torn down, that the Insureds planned on paying to tear down and turning into a parking lot, the church ended up getting a torn down building, a parking lot, and hundreds of thousands of dollars. It was money they had used to start a mission in South America.” –Advocate

Contractor/Cleaner from Hell
“A Contractor upon removing the contents from the Insured’s home found a sex video of Mrs. Insured having sex with various partners “as part of her therapies”. This video was copied and previewed by many of the friends and acquaintances of the Cleaning Contractor.” -Adjuster

“We hired a Contractor who worked until the money was gone and then he just left. As they were working the Insured kept asking if they had enough funds, the Contractor kept saying don’t worry. Well they apparently weren’t worried because the just quit working as soon as the money ran out even though the house was not completed.” -Advocate

“The Cleaners wrapped, packed, stored, and cleaned everything, including the garbage. In other words, they packed up the garbage cans and wrapped up the garbage and charged the insurance company for packing it out and storing it.” -Advocate

“An Insured showed up at the cleaning company and found a lady wearing her shirt.” –Advocate