At Least It’s Not Identity Theft…

On Saturday we got a survey card from our insurance company about a claim that had been processed.

The thing is, we didn’t submit a claim.

A call to customer service could only give us a small portion of the information, since they do not have access to the details, but it was sufficient to warrant concern. Turns out there had actually been TWO claims submitted against the old house, and one of them was paid. We were never contacted, had notified the insurance company when we left the house (and that it was unoccupied), and had given them our new address (phone number stayed the same, since we use VoIP). Both were after we left, and both were actually after the bank had changed the locks.

On Monday we find out from our agent that it was the bank who submitted the claim (apparently they can directly) and had submitted it with our phone number being all 9’s, and to the old address. Despite having the correct info, the insurance company didn’t bother to cross-reference and just paid the first one.  The second one turned out to be a duplicate claim–from the bank who the original bank sold the property to…at least they caught that and didn’t let them double-dip.

The odd part about the claim is that it’s based off of inaccurate information that we would have cleared up had we been contacted. The bank submitted it as a theft…of the hot water tank. But ours was leased, and when we notified Puget Sound Energy that we were leaving, they sent someone to pick it up.  So it wasn’t stolen at all.

And yet the claims still stand, and still stand against us. They are working to remove the second (duplicate) one, but from their (very flawed) perspective, the first one was correctly paid out based on the information they had. So we’ll see what they do.

Because when they are done, I’ve just started. Two words: Insurance Commissioner.  🙂

On Saturday we got a survey card from our insurance company about a claim that had been processed. The thing is, we didn’t submit a claim. A call to customer service could only give us a small portion of the information, since they do not have access to the details, but it was sufficient to warrant concern.…