I once had a claim with a person that claimed what the heading suggests. The person was convinced there was an alien landing strip on their roof. Of course, the roof was not damaged because the aliens were covert. They also only chose her home to land on.
As you can imagine, that is not the easiest person to deal with. Reason went out the window for her sometime before she filed the multitude of claims. The landing strip wasn’t the only thing these aliens were doing. They would also move her furniture precisely 2 inches to the left, knowing she would trip over her coffee table.
The claim ended up in a denial of a new roof, but it took me about six (6) months to get to that point. The person was not all there, but she understood her policy language. When we moved to deny the claim on the basis of no actual damage to her roof, she claimed the saucer made her home sink. In response, I had to hire not only a structural engineer, but a soil engineer.
It turns out that California soil, much like Nevada,regularly moves is expansive and moves regularly for earth movements. The bill for that little endeavor $10,000. $10,000 to prove a home in California was shifting over time because of earthquakes.
For those of you that question why your premiums go up constantly, that is why. You see, the $10,000 to prove that the earth moves and that her house hadn’t suffered any “trauma” from a saucer were not chargeable to them. That ends up in the pool that everyone pays. It is that way because insurance is set up not to punish people when a claim is filed as much as it demands your insurance company investigates all claims to the fullest.
So after 6 months of fighting with her, guess what? There was a freak hail storm in Chico, and she got a new roof. That is exactly right. People at the Mineral County School District may say I am impossible to work with or that I somehow deny things. This is one of the countless stories where although I can be rigid, something that deserves attention gets attention.
A saucer on a roof is not actionable; her hail-damaged roof was. The best part is she called me personally to file that damage. Naturally, most people would be averse to calling someone that wouldn’t fix their alien landing strip. She called me because I did my diligence under the law and disproved everything she said. When I keyed her hail claim, she told me that although she disagreed with my assertion that aliens didn’t land on her roof, she sincerely appreciated that I did everything required to disprove my insurance company owed for it.
I can’t tell you how many accolades I have received throughout my career for saying no, but doing so with empathy and patience to explain it for hours. It wasn’t just an employer’s decision, and it was my decision backed by my employer. I never wanted anyone, including a flying saucer lady, to think that I dismissed her accusation. It was thoroughly investigated, as required by law, and I told her in a 20-page letter why I couldn’t pay for a saucer.
When the same person presented a valid claim, they got a new roof in 2 weeks. I sent someone to look at the roof and paid her. The fact may have had some mental instability was a zero bearing. I will never know if she thought that aliens landed on the roof or if it was an attempt at a free roof. What I know is I won her trust that she called me personally when something actionable happened and was given kudos for even denying the alien claim because my letter was very factual.
