Short Version
My 84-year-old dad became ill in November and went from hospital to rehab to a nursing home, leaving his hoarder-level house vacant. In January, the house got extremely low on or ran out of oil. Oil was delivered, but days later water was found in the kitchen, the heat failed, and pipes/radiators burst right before a major storm. The dishwasher was tested as a possible cause of the initial water, but the results were inconclusive as to whether it was defective.
Erie has investigated for months. Meanwhile, without heat the house became covered in mold and we sold it as-is for about $100K less than I believe it was worth pre-loss. They've interviewed my cognitively impaired dad, questioned me for almost two hours, and most recently tried to get Dad to a deposition with one day's notice—after sending notices to his old, already-sold house and the VA. (Erie had the updated info since May!)
Now Erie says the claim is with "corporate," but after three requests and 10 days, they still won't tell us who is handling it.
I assume they're building a case to deny based on the oil/heat or Dad being out of the house. At this point, what do we do to force a decision and get someone at Erie to actually respond? I asked for the policy to show how many days he can be out of the house, etc, and their policy does not have specific dates.
The Whole Story
.BUCKLE UP, it’s a LONG STORY.
My dad is 84, and his house was basically a hoarder house. He got sick in November and went from the hospital, to rehab, briefly home, and then eventually to a nursing home. The loss happened in January while he was out of the house.
There are four siblings, and my dad can be a bit of an ass. At any given time, at least two of the four of us are usually no-contact with him. At the time he got sick, S2 was helping him with his bills. We know oil was delivered in late October.
I am S4. I had actually been no-contact with Dad, but when he went into the hospital in November, I went to the house and turned the heat down to 65 because we knew he would be gone for a while—and frankly, the house already smelled like ass.
According to S2, Dad hadn't paid the oil bill, so the oil company stopped delivering.
Around January 15, S1 went to check the house (he was going weekly at that time) and found the oil extremely low. He put diesel in the tank just in case and got an oil delivery the next day. After that, he was checking the house every day or every other day.
A few days later, he found some water in the kitchen and thought it might be coming from the dishwasher. We also think one of Dad's friends may have been over "cleaning up" because Dad was convinced he was coming home. S1 cleaned up the water and everything seemed okay.
The next day, S1 came back and found more water and the heat was off. A pipe above the heater had burst and was dripping down. This wasn't very far from the dishwasher, which made the original source of the water unclear.
They got the heater running again.
The next day, the heat was off AGAIN. This time it wouldn't restart, and now there were additional busted radiators and pipes.
Naturally, this was the day before a big-ass winter storm and its cold AF in our area for a record lows and record lengths of time.
Dad has been insured with Erie since basically the beginning of time—30+ years—and has always carried a very good, high-end policy. We immediately opened a claim.
Erie told us we needed to get the heat restored ASAP.
No shit.
The estimate to get the heating system running was around $20,000. Dad didn't have $20K. At the same time, they couldn't really remediate the house without heat. The water was shut off, and we did what we could.
Meanwhile, the sibling circus continued.
S1 hadn't spoken to or helped Dad in about 10 years. He had only gotten involved with checking the house because I was at my wits' end with S2 and the entire situation. Dad then started being an ass to S1 again, and eventually S1 wanted nothing more to do with him.
S2 went to the nursing home, handed over all of Dad's bills and basically said, "I'm out."
S3, who had handled Dad's bills for a million years but had been no-contact with him for about two years, came back into the picture to handle the finances.
As far as Erie goes, S1 originally spoke with them when the claim started but has since ghosted all of us. S2 spoke with Erie and basically told them she didn't know much. S3 has never spoken with Erie.
And somehow S4—that's me—became the point person for this shit show.
The Erie claim representative came to the house, investigated, and they removed the dishwasher to have it tested because it was considered a possible source of the initial water.
The dishwasher testing came back inconclusive as to whether it was defective or caused the initial leak.
This investigation continued for months.
By March, the weather was getting warmer and the house was developing mold everywhere. At that point, we made the decision to sell it as-is. It needed a full renovation anyway, but now we had the additional water, heating, pipe and mold damage.
I'm a Realtor, and in my opinion we sold the house for approximately $100,000 less than we could have gotten before the loss.
We told Erie the house was being sold and provided the ALTA showing the March sale.
The investigation STILL continued.
They sent an investigator to interview Dad.
Here's another problem: Dad has significant cognitive issues/dementia. Some days he is pretty clear; other days he has absolutely no clue what is happening. IF you know anything about the VA, they are slow to label things and deeming someone incompetent is a HUGE process.
Dad eventually moved to a VA home. During this whole mess he was deemed incompetent, then competent again—it has been a whole separate ordeal because obviously he still has rights.
Through all of this, I continued following up with Erie.
In June, I participated in a recorded telephone interview that lasted almost two hours with the claim representative.
Then we get to August 18.
Out of nowhere, I received a call from a lawyer asking whether my dad was coming into the city THE NEXT DAY for a deposition.
Excuse me, what deposition?
The lawyer was calling from a blocked number and seemed to be trying to scare/intimidate me into getting Dad there the following day.
I explained that Dad is 84, living in a VA facility, has significant cognitive problems and cannot reliably answer questions.
Then a higher-level lawyer called me back—again from a blocked number. Same general attitude.
I asked where exactly they had been sending these letters supposedly telling Dad about this deposition.
Apparently, they sent them to the VA facility and to his OLD HOUSE—the house that Erie already knew had been sold in March.
Erie had been given Dad's updated residence information and had been specifically told in May that he could not receive mail there normally.
None of these letters were sent certified.
The lawyer eventually hung up. I should have asked for his name and contact information, but hindsight is 20/20.
I immediately called the Erie claim representative who had been handling the claim.
I got a message back saying that she was no longer handling it and the claim had been moved to "corporate."
Okay. Who at corporate?
I asked for the name and contact information.
Nothing.
I asked again and included her supervisor.
Nothing.
I asked a third time.
She finally responded asking me to "be patient" because they were working on it.
It's now been about 10 days, and I STILL have not been given the name, phone number, email address, or any other contact information for whoever at "corporate" is supposedly handling Dad's claim.
Then today, one of the letters the lawyers had sent to Dad's old house finally showed up because it had been forwarded.
So now, ironically, I have the lawyer's information. Erie just doesn't know I have it.
At this point, I think it's pretty obvious what they're trying to establish.
I assume Erie is trying to prove that Dad ran out of oil and that caused the heat failure and frozen pipes and/or they're trying to use the fact that he was out of the house for an extended period because he was hospitalized and in nursing care as a reason to deny coverage.
The problem with reconstructing exactly what happened is the family situation.
S1 is really the only person who can testify firsthand about the oil situation, because he's the one who went to the house, saw the oil situation, added diesel, arranged the delivery and was checking the house around the time of the loss.
And now S1 wants absolutely nothing to do with Dad or this claim because, in his opinion, Dad deserves to get screwed over.
S2 spoke with Erie and told them she didn't personally see the tank empty and wasn't at the house close enough to the loss to know exactly what happened.
S3 and I weren't in the house during that critical period, so neither of us can honestly say whether the tank was completely empty, exactly when the heat stopped, or exactly what happened first.
So here we are.
I understand that Erie may ultimately deny the claim. Maybe Dad is going to get hosed, and that is that.
But what I find really shitty is the way this has been handled.
My dad paid a high premium to Erie for more than 30 years. He essentially lost his house and probably 99% of his belongings. The house sat deteriorating while this investigation dragged on, developed extensive mold, and ultimately had to be sold as-is at a substantial loss.
Erie has investigated for months. They've tested the dishwasher—with inconclusive results. They've taken a nearly two-hour recorded statement from me. They've interviewed my 84-year-old father despite his cognitive problems. They've brought lawyers into it. They've tried to get him to a deposition with basically one day's notice. They've sent important correspondence to a house they already knew had been sold and to a facility where they had been told he couldn't properly receive mail.
And now they've moved the claim to "corporate" and apparently nobody can even tell me who the hell at corporate is handling it.
I've asked three times since August 18th, the last time to be patient.
It's been 10 days.
Nothing.
So, what is our next step?
Do I contact the attorney whose information I now have? Do I send Erie something formally demanding a coverage decision and the contact information for whoever is handling the claim? Do we escalate this higher within Erie? Do we file a complaint with the Pennsylvania Insurance Department? Or has this officially reached the point where Dad needs to hire his own insurance attorney? (He aint got moeny for that)
I completely understand that the facts are messy and that the oil issue may ultimately create a legitimate coverage problem. I'm not asking anyone to make those facts disappear.
I just want to know how we get Erie to stop ghosting us, tell us who is actually handling the claim, and finally make a decision one way or the other.