State Farm denial for water damage

I recently found that State Farm modified our homeowners policy phrasing about 4 years ago. Something about changing "ground water" and "surface water" to just "water". As a result we had a claim denied for water damage when a lawn sprinkler pipe broke and caused some minor basement flooding. Probably aorund $5-$10k in loss. We submitted copies of case law to the state of Colorado insurance board showing the original plumbing break was covered so any resulting damage from the break should have been covered. The state side with State Farm without any real explanantion. Any experience out there fighting this type of denial. For now it isn't worth the headache to me unless it's a sure thing to recover from them.

BTW-Great website. Very informative.

State Farm is one of the few companies that still write their own policy language. Most insurers now subscribe to ISO, Insurance Services Office, which writes standard policies used nationwide.

Very, very few attorneys are suited to deal with a first party property claim such as yours and I don't take them myself because of the time, effort and documetation required.

Assura Claims specializes in 1st party claims and in particular the State Farm policy. I have used them as experts in other complaints. They are not lawyers but collectively they know more about insurance law than any defense counsel I ever dealt with.

You might try to google them. They are licensed in many states.

Good luck

Gosh, Colo-Tech, your loss sounds very much like mine, only mine is worse, dollar wise.
I was away caring for a sick relative when the valve on my icemaker broke, flooding the inside of the house. State Farm waited a full week before sending an adjuster. She determined that the "flood" had continued for more than two weeks, which made my claim invalid. She claims that State Farm had adjusted my policy to deny claims of "recurring" water situations. This was only one instance, not many. It happened while I was away. My damage amounts to around $30,000.
I am having to rent a place to live and continue paying these Jackasses my premiums through the mortgage escrow.
How frustrating is that??

Twonaught7
What state do you live in?
W S Cook

I TOO HAVE HAD MY BOUT WITH STATE FARM. MY NEIGHBOR'S WATER LEAK FLOODED MY KITCHEN. IT TOOK 2 YEARS TO SETTLE ON REPAIR COSTS ONLY. THEY WOULD NOT COMPENSATE FOR MY HEALTH ISSUES. MY LOSS OF WORK (STILL NOT WORKING AFTER 3 YEARS) AND PROBABLY WON'T BE ABLE TO GO BACK TO WHAT I USED TO DO DUE TO MOLD. YES, I HAD AN ATTORNEY, HOWEVER, STATE FARM SAID THEY WOULD SEE ME ALL THE WAY TO THE SUPREME COURT BEFORE THEY WOULD HAVE A MOLD CASE IN FLORIDA! I WOULD HAVE BEEN DEAD BY THEN!