Problem with presenting a homeowners claim

[uwishtoo]

This is a question concerning a difficult claim process I am going through on homeowners. I live in Illinois - this is long - sorrybut alot of factors here.

In May, 2005 I came home to find someone had broken into my home – my back door was and still is – clearly spilt down the middle and the hinges were torn out of the door frame – I now have a deadbolt that prevents anyone from coming in that way again. At the time I had been packing to go on a weekend trip alone and I had my bags packed on my bed with some clothing starting to get filled up and I also had gathered a lot of stuff that I was going to take with me on my vacation – a laptop, IPOD, golf clubs and bag, and a personal pocket computer – whatever else you call them I don’t know. They were all in my extra bedroom together so I could grab them as I was packing up my car in a few days. When I looked through my home those items had all been taken.

Now here comes the part that the insurance company denied my claim on -

I had been dating someone from November time frame until April that lived out of town – he traveled for business and he would come through my home town and drop off gifts – he had a key to my home so he would just drop them off with notes – I kept all the notes and they all related to the time frame that I received the gifts and what they were – for instance – “Merry Xmas – I know your laptop is about shot so I thought you could use this one when you feel better” (I was going through major surgeries at the time – and the same pattern for Valentines Day and my birthday and one gift that he gave to me with the intention of us using it together on trips we had planned on taking this past summer. I had no receipts of course since they were gifts, all I had were the letters from him corresponding with the gift and the occasions. In late April I found out that he had not left his marital home as I had been led to believe and I ended the relationship immediately. I have since been told by friends that he is with his family and has moved to Arizona, I don’t have any way of contacting him, nor do I really want to.

When the insurance company sent an investigator to my home they actually sent 2 – and these guys grilled me and I do mean GRILLED me for 2.5 hours with totally off the wall questions that had NOTHING to do with my home invasion. They brought up a false police report that someone had filed against me when I was selling refurbished laptops on EBay – and this one guy – (I later found out it was a ring of three men) – put in a police report that he hadn’t received one of the items I sold. I showed the police the proof of the item being sent and that was the end of it. There were three men in total that claimed to have not gotten their items and I disproved them all. I even had emails from my satisfied buyers that they forwarded to me with these three guys mentioned or in a couple of cases, their actual emails where they had written all of my buyers and said mostly ha ha – we got our items – this woman is a fool – just file a police report against her and you can easily get your money back and keep the items just like we did. Turns out they all lived in the same area. Anyway after the investigator got done taking a taped statement of over 2 hours he then turned OFF the records and brought up one of these men’s names and I went OFF – I asked what in the heck did he have anything to do with my home being broken into ? He tried to tell me that they had to differentiate the laptops I had sold on EBay against the one I was “claiming” to have had stolen – I went into my bedroom and produced all the email proof that I had given to the police in their investigation of the EBay selling and the guy didn’t even look at any of it – he just tossed it back on the table and said yeah well, whatever – we need more proof. This idiot even asked me – off record of course, where this man and I met for our dates and what hotels did we stay at since we usually met half way in a town away from both of our homes that was convenient for us both. I told him I HAD no more proof – I had the letters from my ex friend and that was it – I had the back door broken and off the hinges – I am not strong enough to do that to my own home especially with all the upper body surgeries I had just had and was still recuperating from. The investigator told me he found it “suspicious” that all the letters I had given to them from my “supposed friend” had all been folded the same way – and I said uh yeah so what ? I made COPIES of the originals and I folded them into my purse to give to you ? What’s wrong with that ? Then the last straw before I tossed them out of my house was when he gave me a suspicious sideways look and asked me what did “such and such” address mean to me and I said uh, that happens to be where I lived FOURTEEN years ago with my ex husband – he still lives there, do you want to talk to him too ???? So I told them to get the hell out of my house and I said a few other choice words.

I finally decided to have them reopen the claim since the items were worth over 6000 that had been stolen and my back door is still not fixed, I didn’t have the money and don’t have the money to even fix my home. So when I reopened the claim last week they had the SAME investigator call me up and set up an appointment with me and I said for WHAT ??? You already have over 2 hours of a taped recording from me and you already have all the documentation that I have to give you- if I didn’t have something in June when you asked for it then I sure don’t have it now – if I did I would have given it to you in June. He kept saying back in June that he found it “suspicious” that the guy moved out of town and I said oh well, I can’t help that – and on and on.

I have now decided to file a complaint with the State of Illinois Insurance regulations on the grounds that # 1 – my EBay selling activity had no bearing on my home being broken into # 2 – my home address from fourteen years ago has no bearing on the claim - # 3 – the fact that this man was married (unbeknownst to me – he said he was separated) – had no bearing on the claim.

What exactly are the rules of appropriate questions people are allowed to ask ? I don’t feel that my sexual behavior and where we met in what hotels had any bearing on this claim. What might the outcome be ? Does the state usually enforce insurance companies against improper behavior?

[Mr. Knowitall]

Insurance companies have the right to investigate claims they view as suspect, and there's no law that I know of which requires their investigators to be polite. You were the one who brought up the missing boyfriend as an alibi, so it shouldn't be surprising that they want you to provide at least some evidence that he exists.

[uwishtoo]

Insurance companies have the right to investigate claims they view as suspect, and there's no law that I know of which requires their investigators to be polite. You were the one who brought up the missing boyfriend as an alibi, so it shouldn't be surprising that they want you to provide at least some evidence that he exists.

wasnt an "alibi" - it was an honest answer as to how I had the items in my possession since I couldnt produce receipts I produced what I could, which were letters from him - I will just sit back and wait and see what the state says - I have a friend in that department that has been there for over 25 years that I talked to the other nite and he said that the insurnace company was out of line with asking me where I lived 14 years ago - if it had been less than 2 years in my current residence then yeah - but not 14 years. I guess I just have never dealt with rude insurance people or been treated as the cause rather than the victim. But oh well, time will tell what the state will do about it - I will either get a fair resolution to this or I won't - if I dont I will change insurance carriers for sure. I am sure they won't care one way or the other. As I told the lady from the state this morning I had cooperated to the fullest of my ability and that was all I could do - I couldnt give them what I don't have.