Attention: Your Insurance Doesn't Cover Damage From Corpse Fluid
Let's say you have an apartment. One night, you wake up to find that a liquid is dripping from the ceiling onto your face. When it turns out that the liquid was bodily fluids from a decomposing corpse, your insurance lets you know that the damage to your belongings will not be covered by your policy. Yes, this happened to someone.
Her neighbor had died... his corpse sat there rotting, he was dead for days.
The autopsy report found the 34-year old likely overdosed"... His body was "moderately to severely decomposed."
And over time, the decomposition allowed bodily fluids to leak, onto his floor, through the ceiling, eventually onto Sylvia and her things."The smell is nothing like you've ever smelled before. It's not like a dead animal, it's not like rotten food or something.. it's just something beyond... You can't even describe it," says Sylvia. A biohazard team removed furniture and deodorized the place. But she says the smell of death lingered. It already had seeped into clothes, bedding and her mattress.
Her insurance company put her up in a hotel for two weeks until she could move — but refused to replace her belongings. Apparently, corpse fluid is just not covered.
"Unfortunately, the blood and bodily fluid damage to your contents is not one of the 17 named perils covered in your policy," said the letter she received from Farmer's Insurance.
CBS13 interviewed Farmer's spokesperson about the issue, and he said that there really isn't an insurance policy that covers corpse fluid damage. It just doesn't happen very often. In this case, after being contacted by the media, they decided to make an exception, and are now considering a change to include bodily fluids.
Call Kurtis Investigates: Corpse Un-Covered (With Video) [CBS13]
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Comments:
As usual, coverage is denied until the media gets involved and the company faces extreme negative publicity. Coerced corporate ethics for the win!
...he said that there really isn't an insurance policy that covers corpse fluid damage. It just doesn't happen very often.
Makes sense to me. How many residents of "Crackton" have renter's insurance?
If you are interested in coverage for something like this ask your insurance agent if they offer Special Form coverage for your personal property. This will change your contents coverage to all risk (except for what is excluded). Corpse fluid would definitely not be excluded.
It's understandable that corpse fluid is not a covered liquid, but still, you'd think they'd use a little common sense there?
Seems like every day there's more and more circumstances insurance DOESN'T cover...
Despite all of my logical inclinations, this is definitely going to be on my mind the next time I'm apartment-searching. I would rather carry my groceries upstairs than to never want to fall asleep because I fear corpse fluid dripping on me.
Yeah--I'll be that guy: they shouldn't have covered the claim. The link to the news story gives a link to a copy of the actual rejection letter (with a poorly blacked out address, no less) and it includes the "named perils" the policy covers. Sad to say, this just isn't there. I know I'll get a lot of flak for this, but insurance premiums are contracts that are priced given the actuarial risk of the hazards cobvered, they aren't magical ATMs for when something terrible happens. Generally, I'm against the big, bad insurance company, but they got this one right the first time. As bad as I feel for this poor woman, there is absolutely no reason the insurance company should compensate her.
Better call my agent and have him add the Neighbor Liquification rider to my policy...
Couldn't they just call it flood/water damage? It's basically the same.
"The smell is nothing like you've ever smelled before. It's not like a dead animal, it's not like rotten food or something.. it's just something beyond... You can't even describe it,"
She is correct. A decaying corpse produces two amazing substances called Putrescine and Cadaverine. I only know that b/c I read an article on how they train corpse dogs. From what I read, the training material they use is triple bagged and sealed, yet once you get past the 1st seal, the smell will fill a room quickly.
Insurance policies vary by state, but in Texas we have two major home owners and renters policy categories.
The most common (but hasn't always) is a stated peril policy, and if it isn't listed its not covered.
The more expensive coverage has exclusions, and if its not listed and you suffer a loss of the covered property, it is covered.
The difference in cost between the policies can be over 50%.
why do i have this insatiable craving for chicken-in-a-can all of a sudden ??
1. Her policy might cover damage due to illegal trespass. Neighbor's bodily fluids might count for that.
2. Next her med insurance will deny coverage for having to deal with the mental/emotional distress of having her liquefied neighbor's corpse dripping on her face.
3. BLECH!
I see dead peop-I mean Lawsuits against dead people.
Great now every time some rotting corpse drips through the floor and causes damages it will bankrupt all of the innocent insurance companies.
-Fat Bloated Insurance Dude
@tripnman: I disagree. She had a named perils policy. Ergo, anything not specifically covered on the policy is excluded. If she wanted coverage for random things like this, she should have paid a few extra bucks and got an all risks policy.
@H1N1_GitEmSteveDave: Just the thought is absolutely disgusting. Man I'd had to be one of those dog trainers...
I wonder if they have insurance protecting you from denied insurance claims...*light bulb*
@pb5000: I've never heard of a policy talking about "liquids." Usually it's "water," and how the water caused damage. If she wanted coverage for random things like this, she should have gotten an all risks policy; that way if it's not specifically excluded, it's covered.
Did this really need to be posted at lunch time?
@pb5000:
What exactly is the common sense here? If she only had fire insurance, should they also cover a meteorite strike? She bought a limited policy that only provided protection against certain situations. Why in the world would she get more than what's covered and have that chalked up as 'common sense'?
@dragonfire81: I disagree. She had a named perils policy. Ergo, anything not specifically covered on the policy is excluded. If she wanted coverage for random things like this, she should have paid a few extra bucks and got an all risks policy. With an all risks policy, if it's not specifically excluded, then it's covered.
Add this to the list when considering whether to rent or buy a home. Me glad I have a home (a detached home no less).
@Matthew Pettengill: Well, it is breakfast time on the West coast. And coffee-break time in the Central and Mountain zones. As for the rest of the world, someone might have gotten up for a midnight snack and decided to check in here and yeah, so much for pleasant dreams.
@nakedscience: Insurance doesn't just have "water damage" coverage. It specifically breaks down how the water caused the damage. Unfortunately "liquid escape from a decomposing corpse" isn't usually listed on a named perils policy.
@AustinTXProgrammer: That's quite a difference. Here in Ontario very few companies even offer "named perils" coverage for residential properties. Those that do usually only offer a very small discount (~15%) for a named perils policy as opposed to an all risks policy.
As an attorney, I'd love to read the entire policy to see how many of the stated perils this might fall under. Without reading the policy, it would be pretty hard to make any conclusion about Farmers. But, this might be the grossest cause of property damage I've ever heard of.
I've seen a few comments on here basically saying that the insurance company is wrong/unethical/bad for not covering this. There is a very good reason why this isn't covered: She had a named perils policy.
With residential property insurance, there's typically two types of coverage: 1) Named Perils; 2) All Risks. (Wording may vary)
With a named perils policy, only what's specifically listed is covered. With an all risks policy, unless it's specifically excluded, it's covered.
This isn't "water damage," as I don't think any policy has such wording. It's usually broken down to things like "water seepage," "water escape/rupture/freezing," "sewer backup," etc.
Therefore, unless this type of incident is specifically listed on her policy, it would not be covered. If she wanted coverage for these odd things, she should have gotten an all risks policy. She didn't, so she's SOL. It's unfortunate and I feel bad for her, but it's not the insurance company's responsibility. Insurance deals with risks, and she chose to save some money by taking a higher risk of not being covered.
I'm guessing the bodily fluids the insurance companies are referring to are the more common ones, like urine. So if you throw a party and one of your frat buddies who hasn't quite grown up yet has one too many and takes a piss on your couch, it ain't the insurance folks' problem, it's yours.
(Wow, never in my life thought I would be semi-defending the insurance industry.)
You know, legalizing cannibalism would solve 80% of these problems...
@downwithmonstercable: My brother and sister-in-law have trained search dogs for about ten years now. They have a freezer in the garage where they keep the "training materials." They tend to use dirt that was recovered from under a corpse that was found after it had decayed for a bit.
The dogs are pretty amazing.
That would be a cool name for a hot sauce.
@Matthew Pettengill: Wait, are you seeing pictures I'm not? I will admit there are some people who can eat while reading things like: "Tissue Decomposition: A Homicide Primer", and some that can not.
Does the policy cover "Acts of Nature", if so, the policy should cover it, as decay of a corpse is a natural act.
Typical insurance company. I am going to spend some time today talking to the devil-- I mean Aetna. They decided my fiancee's medical claim wasn't something they should have to pay, because, well, they don't want to I guess. I need to double check their policy to make sure she did everything right, but I'm pretty sure she did.
Hey, did Aetna get nominated for worst company in America? If not, I'd like to nominate them for next year's award.
@Matthew Pettengill: Since it was posted at about 9:30 AZ time ... it wasn't posted at lunch time here.
@pcyr: Actually, this seems to fit the best: "water seepage"
It's liquid (maybe if they changed the wording to "liquid" instead of water, or added "liquid seepage") seeping in from the ceiling...
@pcyr: The human body is about 60%-70% water and this was seepage. I get your point but one could argue that it should be covered.
If you 'get it,' why'd you ask?
@henwy: Commons sense is that if she buys a policy that covers liquid damage to her stuff. Then liquid damages her stuff and they claim it's not one of the 17 pre-approved liquids. That they'd be able to look at the situation and make a decision based off of it. That yes, it doesn't make sense for the insurance company to pre-approve bodily liquid, since it's so rare of an occurrence, but just because it's not specifically mentioned in the 17, it would make sense to have it covered because liquid damage is still liquid damage.
It's idiocy reasons like that where people need to put labels on food telling people to take it out of the wrapper before consuming.
Yep, right here in my homeowner's policy:
¶ XII.C.14.e[3]: We do not cover blood and bodily fluid damage to your belongings unless it can be proven the blood or bodily fluid came from Sasquatch or an officially recognized alien being, as defined elsewhere in this document.
For those of you who still believe that the renter's insurance should not cover her belongings because she either didn't have the right insurance or because "bodily fluids" isn't stated in her insurance, this article is a perfect example of why you read the whole article.
"I ask Farmers Insurance spokesperson Jerry Davis, "Have you ever heard of anything like this?"
Davies says he doesn't know of any insurance company that covers bodily fluids.
I ask him, "So there would've been no chance that she would've had coverage under any policy that exists out there, based on this unexpected circumstance?
"That's correct," says Davies.
And because it was so random, something his colleagues collectively have only heard about once in decades on the job, Farmers changed its mind.
"We are going to cover all of her contents," says Davies. "
"The Seventeen Named Perils" sounds like a plot device from a horror novel.
Ugh. I can't imagine. Dripping on my face. Ugh.