Emergency Water Removal

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Ms. was quoted $7000 solely for water mitigation and informed that our professional opinion was that it was not likely that it would be covered by her insurance due to long term microbial growth. No additional services were quoted or indicated on the work authorization form.

After informing her of the inspection findings, and the following procedures, Ms. chose to pursue coverage through her insurance company at which time we mentioned if covered, the provider may interpret the conditions as "un-livable" in which case temporary lodging could be provided while the work was performed. At that time she stated that in any case, she would not leave the property as she had numerous medium to large dogs living in the 1184 sq ft single bathroom home. We informed her it would be extremely challenging, however we would do our best to accommodate her. This is the primary reason the job took over a month (11/19/19 - 12/31/19).

We also explained to her, although it did not seem to be related, we would be glad to remove as much of the growth covered sheet-rock in the garage as possible with out the removal of the HVAC unit and water heater.

We performed the demolition and drying in the closet, bathroom, garage, and removed a small amount of insulation in the crawlspace.

We contracted with this customer on 8/15/2017 to perform partial mold abatement of the hardest affected areas of the customers crawlspace. She was made aware at the time that she had a ground water intrusion issue and it even stated on the contract she signed. She stated that she wanted us to get rid of the mold on the floor joist but was not going to be getting the foundation issues fixed. She was explained in the beginning that even if we remove the microbial growth that if the issue is not fixed the microbial growth would in fact return as there is still moisture being introduced to the environment. We also explained that with us moving forward with the mitigation and the source not being fixed we would offer no warranty on this work as it will come back. We have before and after photos as well showing all the work that was performed during the mitigation process. As mentioned in the comments above by the customer they had to add french drains, a sump-pump, do gutter repairs, and add a moisture barrier which customer was fully aware needed to take place in the beginning.

8/15/XXXX X:XXPM - EWR Project Manager arrives on site to inspect property for damages after getting verbal confirmation from *** that it was ok to do so. Time verified from photo upload into customer file.

8/15/XXXX X:XXPM - EWR Project Manager notates the customers account stating that he has discovered microbial growth on the insulation and floor structure in the crawlspace of the property and has determined that the source of the microbial growth is water entering the crawlspace from the foundation.

8/15/XXXX X:XXPM - EWR Project Manager enters the following note into the customer file. "At this time the customer doesn't have plans to correct the ground water issue. With the cause of the water intrusion EWR *** not issue a warranty for the work provided."

8/15/XXXX X:XXPM - EWR Project Manager and *** enter into contract to perform the work discussed and the following note was entered into system by EWR Project Manager: "In crawlspace area remove insulation bag and dispose. Clean floor joist and subfloor to remove microbial growth heavily affected area is the flooring system under the living room next to the garage."

8/17/XXXX X:XXAM - EWR Crew arrives on site to perform work discussed. Time verified from Photo uploaded into customer file.

8/17/XXXX X:XXPM - EWR Crew completes work to the property. Time verified from photo upload as well as notation in account from Lead Technician on site.

We did have a contract signed with customer before any work was performed on this loss and it was explained that we bill using a software call Xactimate. Xactimate is a software created by insurance companies to prevent price gouging. As for the time we were scheduled to be onsite it was scheduled between the hours of 6-8pm and is even stated on the contract the customer signed beforehand. we did contact the customer before the scheduled time to let them know we were running about an hour behind their scheduled time and we showed up to the property at 8:50pm as shown in our date and time stamped photos of their property. As far as the billing issues that the customer doesn't understand, as we bill though the software Xactimate there are items that are set by the billing software that are based off set pricing regardless of what actually occurred. For instance...... say we place 4 air movers at a property. The software is set up to bill for .25 hrs per piece of equipment regardless if it take 5 min or 1 hour per piece of equipment then it calculates the same time for pickup. As for the billing of 24 pieces of equipment, that goes back to the simple fact that we bill for each piece of equipment per 24 hr period as the software requires. So if we had 2 air movers for 2 days the xactimate invoice would show 4 air movers. Like stated above we do not give written estimate before mitigation is complete if going through insurance as we are required by the insurance to use xactimate for billing. We going through insurance the bill is reviewed for accuracy by a state licensed insurance adjuster before it is approved. As for stating that the mitigation bill is out of line due to the fact that the rebuild cost less than the mitigation would be wrong. If you only are replacing and painting drywall it would be less expensive as regardless if we remove we have to dry the property out properly. So the cost of replacement off the materials in no way affects the cost to dry out the structure. We requested that the customer return the check that the insurance company paid them based off our documentation submitted and we will resubmit the documentation for review again be the adjuster. The issue seems to be that now the customer would like us to reduce our invoice, as they do not understand the insurance billing software, and they would like to keep the addition insurance monies instead of returning them, thus committing insurance fraud. We are more that happy to submit our documentation back to the insurance company for another review but the insurance company will not allow another review until the funds that have already been submitted to customer have been returned.

I apologize for any inconvenience you may have incurred due to the water damage at your property. We did offer to start the mitigation process on the day the contracts were signed but were told by home owner that they would prefer to wait until the weekend, which was 4 days later. We had to do asbestos testing to the property due to the age of the property. Once we received the results back we waited until the weekend to start mitigation. The property tested positive for asbestos in 1 area of the home. We were able to complete mitigation the same day we came out to start. All equipment that was set on day 1 was picked up 4 days later except the equipment in the area that tested positive for asbestos. We submitted the paperwork and documentation to the insurance company for the asbestos portion per their request. Due to the asbestos containing materials we were unable to remove those items from the home so it took longer to dry out those areas. We tried scheduling a pickup of the equipment before the date we actually pick it up but were unable to get a response from our calls and voicemail. We did have a pickup crew contact home owner after they were done with their route to see if they would be available to have the equipment picked up. The response as stated above was a no. We were finally able to get it arranged for pickups later that week. As for the insurance company stating that we caused extra damage to the property due to the fact we removed the tile that was in good condition, We follow the IICRC guidelines when dealing with Category 3 Sewage contaminated tile. We had to remove the tile to be able to clean and treat the sub-floor below due to the fact that if we left it it could cause numerous health concerns. The mitigation was complete following the IICRC guidelines. When removing Tile and Hardwoods that are attached to the sub-floor it is common that the sub-floor will get damaged due to the sub-floor being wet and having to pry the items from the sub-floor. This sort of damage is covered by the insurance company due to the fact that it is a known risk when dealing with these types of materials.

Customer requested a cash price for the work to originally be done. He was given a quote for $2200.00 after hearing the quote he decided to allow his insurance company to handle the claim. When dealing with insurance companies we are required to run all work through a billing software called Xactimate which is an industry standard billing software. We enter what was done on the property per square foot. The software populates the price that we send over to the insurance company. During the restoration process the customers property re-flooded due to the customer tripping a breaker. We came out and extracted the location again which also caused the equipment to be necessary to leave for extended days. Once the dry out was complete we walked the location with the insurance adjuster from the customers insurance company and checked all location with a moisture meter and determined the property was dry at the time of completion. We have photo documentation to support. We have submitted the invoice to the customer as well as the insurance company. As of this moment the job was completed to industry standards and the insurance company has sent the customer the funds for the restoration services provided and verified by the insurance company.