Damage Claim Denied by ASI
 

We have a premier home in The Villages and since moving here have had our home owner's insurance with American Strategic Insurance (ASI). Our hot water heater and air conditioner air handlers are behind closed doors in the garage. We use annual filters for the air conditioning system and installed them last in August of 2014. Therefore we had no reason to check them again until August of 2015.

When we moved here we were downsizing from a home almost twice the size of our new home, and therefore we had a lot of things we just could not part with that ended up in the garage in plastic containers. These we stacked against the wall adjacent to the hot water heater/air conditioner closet. At some unknown time in the last few months, the pressure valve in our hot water heater failed. This resulted in a leak which then results in black mold. We were completely unaware of the leak or mold until one day we moved our dirty clothes hamper in our bathroom linen closet. The mold was on the wall inside that closet and in trying to figure out where it came from, we opened the door to the garage closet and found the leak and mold. The mold extended to the wall behind the plastic crates and was only visible when the closet door was open or when we moved the crates. We immediately replaced the pressure valve ($16.00) and notified the insurance company.

The adjuster who came to the house understood that the ongoing damage was not visible and wrote up his report that way. Wednesday the company notified me on the phone that they were denying our claim and were not prepared to pay anything towards the mold eradication or rebuilding that will be required to return the house to it's original state. The reason given on the phone was that we did not take action to stop the leak within 14 days of when it started.

This is unacceptable given the circumstances. Right now we are faced with what could be as much as $30,000.00 in damage and an insurance company attempting to escape honoring the claim. I am expecting a letter officially notifying me that we are SOL in the next few days. We will not accept this and will fight it as long and hard as it takes. I'll keep you informed.