I am in CA with a renters insurance policy from lemonade. We had a water incursion that began the weekend of memorial day, which we did not discover until the evening of memorial day when returning to our apartment.
There was damage to many items in our storage closet amounting to a claim of about $2,700. I sent it in, and lemonade is claiming that they are unable to pay out since the damage is the result of mold. I agree that there is mold, and understand that our policy has an exclusion for mold unless it is "hidden in the walls, below the floor or floorboards, or above the ceiling."
Does anyone know if there is anything I can respond to them with? My understanding, this isn't explicitly stated in our policy, is that mold is not covered due to the tenant being reasonably able to prevent damage through regular maintenance and inspection. We weren't home to learn about the water leak, and even so, the damage was to a storage closet which we don't regularly go into. We learned about it after seeing water coming from it when we got home.
Also, the majority of items I made the claim for contain electrical components, and in their boxes included desiccants/moisture indicators, all of which are showing the presence of moisture/water. Is there a reasonable rebuttal that the damage was caused by water, and the growth of mold isn't related to the initial property damage?
Lastly, for all of the items, the boxes contain mold, but the items inside do not. Given this, is there value in suggesting that the items weren't damaged by mold at all, since there isn't any growing on the items themselves?
Any info would be helpful.
Renters insurance claim denied due to mold.
byu/Cora1Tron inInsurance
Posted by Cora1Tron
5 Comments
Denied. Correct decision was made. And as an FYI yes you do now have a claims history.
It doesn’t sound like any of the “except when” situations apply here. The contract verbiage will apply. There’s not a section that says “unless you don’t go into that room”
I think the denial was proper.
I don’t particularly like Lemonade, but they appear to be correct here.
Lemonade’s denial seems unfair, especially considering the circumstances. It might be worth pushing back and emphasizing the hidden nature of the mold and the water damage’s direct impact on your belongings.
You need a covered loss to get mold covered. How did the water get into the unit? If it simply seeped in or Leaked it’s coverage is doubtful. You’d need physical damage to the structure first to get the rest covered (wind or a tree crash).