Flooded basement should I call insurance ?

Question

So the city was changing some piping outside of the house for the collection of rain and they had a pump to take all the water to another location, in the meantime at one point the pump stopped working they got clogged and my tenant calls me and says there’s a flood in the basement they send me a bunch of pictures and what happened was that the water kind of backflow to the house we had about and 2 inches of water in the basement it wasn’t all over the place I would say about half of the basement was affected it was in the evening so I couldn’t call the insurance company and when I called the 24 hour line they weren’t much help, I ended up calling an emergency company they came to the house vacuumed and mopped up all the water they cut about 4 inches of the walls where the water has seeped under the walls, placed a few dehumidifiers to make sure things dry up. This morning i call the insurance company and explain to them the situation and how the city was at fault for this, They said I am covered to get everything fixed but they would obviously bring my premiums up they didn’t say how much the premiums would go up, I went to the house today and took a few pictures of the damage is not that bad I had installed some vinyl flooring directly on the concrete so that’s not going to be an issue it will dry out and it’s not going to swell up. Also because the walls are kind of like old-fashioned wood panels that you can’t find today the contractor suggested you could put a moulding like a baseboard to cover up the 4 inch that was cut off. So the insurance company said they would cover everything to get it all repaired my deductible is $500 we’re going to get an estimate to see how much it cost to fix it but again the premiums will obviously go up even if it’s the city’s s fault, they said they will sue the city to try to get some of the money back but usually the city won’t pay all of the money back specially if I didn’t have a check valve on the house to prevent the backflow, Just the emergency company that came to clean up will cost about $1000, i’m estimating it will cost me another thousand dollars maximum to get everything repaired, I’m just pissed off I have to spend this I didn’t need an unexpected expense and I would rather have the city pay for it, we pay enough taxes right, my question is is it worth it to have my insurance handle it and then get screwed over by having my premium raised for six years or cough it up and spending $2000, and then try to sue the city but I have a friend that had the same issue and he said that’s not gonna get you anywhere, I have another project going on at the same time so obviously it’s not fun to have to spend this money it’s tempting to just pay the $500 and forget about it, i’m actually very happy as it could’ve been much worse if I had laminate flooring it would’ve all swollen open I would’ve ended up maybe with five to $10,000 worth of work to be done and then I would’ve definitely went with the insurance, I guess I just want to know if the insurance company will really raise their fees and screw me over the next five years. Thank you all in advance!

Nicole Assali · Answer

@Pat L.You’re right about that the city will not do anything past your basement wall. I looked into some rental equipment and you can actually rent those commercial dehumidifiers for about 130$/week, they are much more powerful than regular ones. I guess if someone wanted to do the cleanup themselves they could rent some of this equipment it’s just not always feasible unless you do this full time or have a team that can do it.

Pat L. · Answer

From our experience in Ontario the City will NOT renew the sewer pipe past your basement wall. Our plumber had to interface our inner sewer line to just beyond the basement wall. Our back flow valve was installed in our basement floor replacing an old small diameter P-trap under the flooring that would hold sludge.

Nicole Assali · Answer

@Pat L.Thank you, what do you mean part of the sewer upgrade? The city won’t eat that bill I think

Pat L. · Answer

The part was about $200 but your plumbers time should be part of the sewer upgrade.

Nicole Assali · Answer

@Pat L.I know I will be looking at installing the valve ASAP, any idea how much that should cost ?

Pat L. · Answer

We had the same thing but it was $22k damages we fought both the city & the insurance companies. Ins paid minus $4500 deductible & then dumped us.Whatever you do install a back-flow valve in the sewer drain to avoid any further flooding because it happened several times to our neighbors since we did ours.Yours is a very cheap repair.

Nicole Assali · Answer

So the funniest thing happened, the bill for the cleanup is 1300$, they put antibacterial stuff in the walls, etc 3 hr employee time minimumx2 employees and then 2x1hr time to pick up equipment, basically getting screwed over, the verdict: there is a bit of water under the floors, so they recommend ripping everything out and pressure wash foundation and replace new flooring and walls, the estimate for repairs? 10,000$ !!!!!! So convenient :) same as my insurance maximum, man it’s infuriating how people are screwing over insurance companies and clients as well. I decided to cancel the claim and do the repairs myself, thank god the floors don’t need to be replaced. I asked him what would happen if I didn’t replace floors, he said it would cause the foundation to become rugged underneath the floor, I asked if it doesn’t anything deeper he said no..... they are removing dehumudifiers in 2 days, should I place more units for a few days ? Also how do I test for humidity in the basement ?

Nicole Assali · Answer

@Peter T.Hi Peter,Thank you for your input, but we don’t all have a property management company or construction company at our disposal.Also, I have a commitments/family so it’s not possible for me to go clean up sewer/rain backflow in the middle of the night, but thanks for your suggestions.

Peter Tverdov · Answer

I wouldn't have called them or the clean up company. Something like that you can clean up within a few hours and then run a dehumidifier for a few days and you'll be okay.Also please try using paragraphs next time, good grief.

Nicole Assali · Answer

@Dennis M.Hi Dennis, thank you for joining us, I cancelled the request to open a claim, I guess we have to take the hit this time.