Update: Insurance Meeting

Way back in December our insurance agency, USAA, told us that they wanted an ‘examination under oath’ for both Julie and I to tell them what happened.  We had already done this 2 or 3 times, but hey, whatever.   It took quite some time for USAA to find the people to facilitate this meeting here in UT.  It has been aggravating to be in limbo for so long, but that’s life I guess.

Well that meeting finally took place yesterday (April 12).   It was basically the same set of questions as we were asked after the fire in Oct by a fire investigator, and to the set we were asked by another fire investigator here in UT in early December.

The entire thing took about 4.5 hours.  About 3.5 of those were spent with me, and about an hour with Julie.   I was the last one to leave the house back in Oct and so they had all sorts of questions for me, and then only had Julie fill in holes that I didn’t know, or to verify that what I said was true.

The whole thing would have been really easy and stress free if it weren’t for the PTDS issues I have.  For months now I’ve been having major anxiety attacks and nightmares about personal safety that all center around the fire, and so trying talk about what happened was stressful because of the raw emotions that come from those attacks.  I had to excuse myself a few times to compose myself because of the emotions that come from recalling the details.   Otherwise things went fine.   Julie, as always, was a rock upon whom I could rely to help me calm my emotions and steady my thinking.   I love that woman!

One bonus of the interview this time was that the Insurance investigator (Roger) handling the claim was present.  This gave us the opportunity to talk with him in person about what their process is going to be now, and try to get an approximate time frame for a decision.  He explained to us how now they’ll go back and compare our statements, review all the information, gather more if necessary, have meetings with their legal teams, and come to some decision.

Unfortunately we couldn’t get any approximate time frame.   He wouldn’t say anything about days/weeks/months/years.   Even something as vague as “these things can take a few months” or “this almost never takes more than a year” or “hopefully we can be done quickly.”   He wouldn’t give us anything.  It will take as long as it takes, and that’s it.   So being in limbo has become a permanent status for us.

There were a disturbing revelation made to us though.   Roger led us to believe that we should brace for bad news about the decision they might make.   He said that if he had to make the decision today, he would choose to not cover the claim.   He said that that isn’t an official decision and they will obviously still go through the process, but it didn’t sound to me like there was much of a chance of them covering anything.

So we are stunned and confused.

That news makes it nearly impossible to make any plans for the future.  Not only do we not know when they’ll make a decision, but it sounds most likely that the decision will leave us impoverished, homeless,  and yet still responsible for a house debt for a house that no longer exists.   You can guess how our emotions were yesterday/last night.   I’m filled with doubt, confusion, depression, and a touch of anger AND  the emotions rubbed raw by the interview.   You’d be correct to guess I’m not doing very well.

But that’s where things stand right now.

If you have any encouragement or advice, please feel free to share below.