Legal Question in Legal Ethics in Indiana
Okay! So I will try to keep this to a minimum, basically about sept 2012 we had a tiny microwave fire. It did no damage except to the microwave and stove below it, and filled the house with fire sot. Like not even drywall needed replaced. The microwave was one month out of it's 1 year warranty, So I was trying to deal with Frigidaire which is who we bought our appliances through.During this time we was trying to clean the sot out of the house. We cleaned walls and mopped the whole house about 3 times, but it seemed like the sot would never completely go away. When you walk in the house it would look fine but when you would walk barefoot, rub a wall etc you would get black on your feet etc. Finally I decided to just call our insurance company. Long story short they brought in a company to do the fire restore. The owner of the company came in to asses everything, told us he would OVERCHARGE the insurance for the new appliances so we wouldn't even have to pay the deductible ($500). We move out to a hotel, they come in to do their thing. Basically they were the worst company I have ever had to deal with. Their work was so half a$$ excuse my language but it was seriously pathetic. I had to call them back 3 times just to clean the kitchen where the fire started!! They did things that I didn't personally think needed done, like painting all the trim in our house, changing light fixtures etc. I mean the fire wasn't that seriously, really. But whatever fine I thought it was all free. So long story short there work was pathetic! They painted all of our windows shut, got paint on our appliances, and didn't clean like anything! After 3 weeks in a hotel I was just done, the insurance was done paying for the hotel, and I just wanted to be back in my house so we signed off on their crap work and was done. They told us we didn't have a balance when we signed. They didn't clean any of my kids' toys and we basically threw them all away. All of my pictures are still covered in fire sot, and I still have a couple of boxes of stuff that never got cleaned.
Fast forward to a yr and a half later and we get a letter from a lawyer in Dec saying we owe them $1200. We never once was told we had a balance in that year and a half, never got a bill phone call nothing. We explained our side of everything to the lawyer and they sent us a packet showing the charges. Basically we have to pay $1200 for our deductible, and the appliances to be replaced. The thing is they replaced the appliances without even asking us! They just went and bought the exact same ones, I didn't want the same ones! The old ones caught on fire!! And if I knew we was going to have to pay full price for them, I would have just got used or dealt with it on my own but they didn't ask us what we wanted to do, or even tell us I just walked in the house one day to new appliances. They charged us $6000 to repaint one cabinet that didn't even have damage! Um hello I could replace every cabinet in my kitchen for that price, really? Their cleaning was ridiculous, I mean I call you back to clean the kitchen 3 times and your going to tell me they cleaned a closet that was 1200 sq feet away with the door closed then charge us $300 to clean said closet. No I don't think so!
So anyways I do have boxes of stuff that I was charged for that they supposedly cleaned and they clearly didn't. I do have all of my pictures covered in fire sot that they charged us to clean and they didn't. I do have pictures of the pathetic job they did. So what do I do hire a lawyer? I don't know if it would be worth the money to hire a lawyer, but they are charging us for things they never did! They did a horrible job, and charged the insurance like over $15,000 and didn't have to replace drywall! Another thing is I'm curious why the insurance didn't pay to replace the appliances? Anyways, I would be willing to pay the deductible just to squash it and be done, but I really can't see paying anymore then that, and that would be WITH them cleaning the things they already charged us for cleaning. Advice?
1 Answer from Attorneys
Shame on you. You agreed to enter into an agreement that sought to defraud your insurance company. This should have been an enormous "red flag."
Whenever repairing a car or your home, through insurance, REFUSE to accept any money and REFUSE to enter into any contract. Leave that between the insurance adjustor and the contractor or shop. This way you can NEVER be liable for anything beyond your deductible.
First, seek relief from your insurance company.
If they are unhelpful and any of the charges are for work that was NOT done, simply go to small claims court but have lots of pictures. Also bag and any actual objects that were not cleaned.
If the $1200 invoice is for appliances that you did not want or need, you should have refused them.
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