Washington County homeowner fights insurance company after house partially collapses during renovations
CARROLL TOWNSHIP, Pa. (KDKA) -- After years of renovations, a Washington County family said they were on their last project in their home when the worst thing imaginable happened. The Camerons said their home on Fourth Avenue in Carroll Township partially collapsed, forcing them out of it.
"It's hard to look at it. Yeah, it's going to be hard. You know, every time I think about when I got to start tearing it down, it's going to be hard," said homeowner Rick Cameron.
Over the last three years, Cameron said he's spent tens of thousands of dollars on renovations, including a new kitchen, floors, walls, fireplace, staircase, siding and a roof. Their last project was in their basement.
"We did a lot of renovations inside, outside, but recently we decided to dig down the basement, to get a little more headroom in the basement and something happened," Cameron said.
Cameron said they were getting ready to pour concrete when the walls started cracking.
"The front wall here, in front of the house, just pushed in a little bit, and so, it was all right," he said. "We just put some bracing on it and just continued with the project. We continued digging everything out. We were down there for a few more days, and we had the whole basement dug out. We were getting ready to pour concrete the next day and start bringing the walls back up, and the other two, two of the other walls collapsed," Cameron said.
He said he believes the home was built in the 30s, but as an experienced construction worker, he was qualified to do the job.
"Sometimes things happen that are out of your control," Cameron said.
Cameron said he and his wife and five kids have lived in the home for about 15 years.
"I wasn't here right when that happened, but one of the guys that was here called me on my phone and said, 'Hey, you better hurry up and get back here. Something happened,' so at that time, they ran upstairs and got my wife and kids out of the house," Cameron said. "It was terrible. We just, you know, I just started taking measures to try to save it. We started putting supports underneath and additional supports to keep it in place. I just kind of was still in the work mode, trying to get everything together and try to keep it from getting any worse."
But Cameron said the damage just progressively got worse.
"It just got to the point where it was unsafe for me to have people under there," Cameron said.
Since then, Cameron said he's been battling his insurance company after getting a denial letter in the mail that his insurance wouldn't cover the cost of the damages. He hired a public adjuster to help.
"First thing I got to do is basically read the policy to see, you know, what he's entitled to," Stephen Hnat said, a public adjuster.
"So, at that point, you know, it became a real battle. Just trying to talk to [State Farm]. We asked them several times to, you know, explain your position on this, and they just refused. He would not respond. He wouldn't do anything," Hnat said.
KDKA-TV asked Hnat if Cameron's insurance policy would cover something like a house collapse.
"In his policy, there's additional coverage, and there's additional coverage for collapse and collapse during the course of construction. If your house collapsed or partially collapsed, you have coverage even if there is fault with, you know, even the homeowner -- as long as it's not intentional, it should be covered," Hnat said.
"I think, you know, they look at these things, it's a large loss. I mean, it's a complete loss -- the house, even if you wanted to try to save it, it's not safe. So, I think, because it's such a large loss that they're hesitant to pay out on it," Hnat said.
"That's been the hardest thing to deal with is is not knowing," Cameron said.
KDKA reached out to State Farm who said they have been in conversations with the homeowners this week. They also sent this statement:
"In any claim our goal is to help our customer by reviewing the facts of their loss, identifying the damages and applicable coverage, and providing any payment available under the policy. With any claim, State Farm seeks to provide our customers all benefits to which they are entitled within the terms of the insurance policy."
Now, as the Camerons wait to see if the insurance will cover the costs, Rick said the next step is to tear down the home, per the township's orders.
The township supervisor told KDKA during their August meeting with the solicitor engineer and zoning officer, it was approved to proceed with emergency demolition if the homeowner would not tear it down.
The supervisor said the homeowner was issued a demolition permit on Aug. 13. Cameron told KDKA that demolition is expected to start Friday.
He and his family have been renting a home down the road as they work to decide on the next steps.
