Allstate Agent 007: Gene Harper

Gene Harper from Allstate just left our house. He came out to reassess our flood claim, and he's the 7th Allstate adjustor we've had in this mess. Allstate back in November 2005 paid us $70,000 for flood damage, and we feel that they owe us an additional $80K just for the flood damage. But none of this really matters until the structural damage is addressed, and we're handling that part of our claim in court. Gene and I went over the earlier flood estimate, and he agreed that there were some major mistakes. For example, our kitchen is not two feet wide as originally calculated by Allstate, but 12. He went around the house taking pictures and measuring rooms. He said that with flood they would only cover painting the part of the house that was under water, which didn't seem fair. We'll have to repaint our entire house, and that will come out of our pocket. And if you had cabinets that didn't flood, they're not covered, only the ones that did. But to match the cabinets you'd have to replace all of them. Like the other Allstate adjustors, Mr. Harper was a nice enough guy. He empathized with me about the house leaning, and how he sadly realized that we can't move a single step forward towards fixing out house until that is addressed. He kept repeating in his Georgian accent "Your house is seriously leaning" and I said, "I know it is." He had read the Haag Engineering report, and on our porch he said there were obvious signs of fresh separation in the front of the house, and he couldn't believe those were not addressed in the report. He also noticed the obvious fresh saw marks on the doors that I made to get them to open and shut after Katrina, and he just shook his head when I pointed out that these doors were used as evidence by Haag to claim that our house was leaning before Katrina. He said he'd write up his renewed estimate and get back to us in 10 days. I have no idea how this will play out, but in dealing with Allstate, I can even imagine a nightmarish scenario where they claim they paid us too much money with the $70,000. Oh how fair bankruptcy seems on many a day, where we could just walk away from this property and our mortgage. We'd have been so much better off if we were renters.