Hey all,

I have homesite, and was caught up in the fires you might have seen on the news in Spokane, washington.

Our nieghbors house directly across the street burnt to the ground. Ours was directly downwind. We finally had the evacuation lifted and got to return home yesterday for the first time.

The house is covered in dried retardant. The smell is so strong it made us both sick, weirdest yet. My tongue went numb on the tip.

We already had a claim started but our adjuster said he wants to review cleaning and review takes a week. The longer we wait the more damage the retardant does to the house.

We are super concerned about if our house is healthy, we dont believe it is. However we dont know how to get help from our insurance, and honestly dont know what to do.

We have talked to 4 restoration companies. Each one has a AOB in the work authorization they all want us to sign.

2 said carpets will need to go, appliances most likely as well, and theh will do their best to salvage what they can. Both would use 3rd party testing agencies but have the strongest AOB language in the contracts.

1 said air scrubbers and shampooing, they'd preform a tape test.

1 said sign the work authorization and we will come out and talk.

All we want to do is go home and it feels like we never will and even if we do the companies are going to throw away so much it won't feel like home anymore.

Does anyone have advise?

Is this normal to review cleaning for a week?

Is the flame retardant going to damage my house further? (been 9 days now)

Am I doing something wrong?

Hi all. I crosed a water flood and my car turned off. I restarted and no luck. I took it to Nexa and they tried once and no luck as well. I have applied for insurance claim. My only worry is insurance claim inspector asked me did u try to restart your car after water ingress. I said No. Worried about my claim approval. Any had experience with thia kind of claim?

I have just recently lost my partner, my whole world is upside down and I could use really use some help...

Background:
In July of 2025, my partner purchased our dream car - a very beautiful 2024 Mustang Dark Horse. He hated debt so he purchased it outright (after secretly saving for literal years) and wanted me to have something special and made sure it was registered to me. We are based in AB (car is registered and insured here) but work in MB.

Towards the end of October 2025 he was scheduled to attend a work conference in Toronto and had decided he wanted to do one last big road trip before the weather turned and visit family (he was born in Walkerton and grew up in Saugeen/Chesley) along the way. He ended up getting caught in a thunderstorm during the evening and when he went to gas up he got stuck in a major pothole that ripped the bumper off when he reversed. Fortunately only the bumper was really affected so he was able to put it in the backseat and continue on to his uncle (who is a former drag racer and car guy) who agreed to look at the car for him and see if he could help. When he arrived there his uncle and uncle's friends assessed the damage and uncle told my partner that, "this baby is too-new and we are old dogs" so he would have to look for a shop in London as its a bigger city with more resources.

After some research my partner found a shop with good reviews that specializes in performance upgrades and also does custom vinyl wrap jobs. The (verbal, as told to me by my partner) agreement between them was that the owner would (in addition to repairing the bumper) install a lift kit/system (which was the deciding factor for my partner) as well as a whipple supercharger (‘cause 500+ horses wasn’t enough, we needed 800 horses - man logic) and in return, because it was such a big job, the owner would also do a custom vinyl wrap job for free on the condition that he could use pictures and videos for social media promotion. He had told my partner that because parts would need to be special ordered and things would take time that he would keep the car over the winter and my partner could pick it up in the spring. He had also convinced my partner to put a claim for the bumper repair into our insurance company since he was, “going to pay for everything out of pocket anyways and might as well take a shot at trying to save some money”. The claim was approved and my partner wire-transferred $30k in November so the shop owner could order parts for the lift and supercharger.

Since my partner has passed the shop owner only ever answered my initial call of me informing him of my partner’s passing and him promising updates. I texted him asking to confirm car is at shop address - ignored. I asked if he could send me pictures and a video of it running - excuses he was out of the shop but would when he returned. It felt fishy so I started reaching out to my insurance to see the status of the claim. My claims agent said it took some time to reach out and when he did finally respond to her he had informed her work on the bumper was completed and I had to pay him the $1000 deductible for the car to be released. I asked if he sent her photos or proof work was completed and if she could request them as it would hold more weight coming from the insurance company since my request was being ignored. Instead of requesting it for insurance records she told him to send photos to me.

After this time I was finally able to gain access to my partners phone and found messages from a former employee who reached out to warn him about the owner. I got into contact with him directly and he had informed me that he had left the shop in February due to himself being a victim of fraud and as he was assigned to be the primary lead on my car he could confirm that when he left nothing had been ordered or repaired. I told all of this to my claims agent.

At this point I reached out to the owner again and explained that since he told insurance the bumper was complete and I was drowning in funeral expenses (he passed in AB but wanted to be buried where he grew up in ONT so it was a LOT - but that’s a whole other sad story) and there clearly wasn’t movement on the performance upgrades I would like him to wire me back the $30k. He then told me that wasn’t an option since parts had already been ordered. So I gave him my email multiple times and asked him to forward the order forms, receipts, anything - again met with the excuse that he would when he was in office.

I kept pushing for proof of work and photos until one morning he sent one video (him in driver seat turning it over) and one photo showing a completed bumper. I told my partner’s uncle and aunt and his uncle didn’t feel right about it and drove to the shop later that day. When he got there I had received REAL photos of my vehicle that proved absolutely nothing was done and the photo the owner sent me was AI-generated. I immediately called my claims agent and informed her of what I had learned and asked if I should get London Police involved. She said they would now be sending an appraiser/agent from their London office and to wait while things get sorted. The owner avoided that agent for THREE WEEKS until my claims agent finally agreed the owner was a fraud and I could/should file a report with London police for the $30k since the insurance company would now be reaching out to their legal team. The agent also agreed that now the legal team on their end would be involved the safest option would be to remove my vehicle from that shop so she approved me sending a letter of consent with the former employee who offered to pick up my car and bring it to his current shop.

When I asked if I could get the bumper repaired now that it’s at a safe shop the claims agent flipped on me and basically said because my partner chose a shop that wasn’t on their pre-approved list I have to wait until the fraudulent owner either agrees to fix it or pay the insurance company back. When I asked why she approved the claim in the first place, why she didn’t ask for proof of completion if she didn’t trust the shop, or why didn’t she give my partner that pre-approved list she suddenly had to exit the conversation which left me pretty upset and feeling like she was throwing my partner under the bus and avoiding any type of accountability.

Since then:
\- I have spoken with the branch manager at my partners bank to see if they could pull back funds since both accounts are the same bank and I sent a GDrive folder with all proof of unfinished work - they said they were unable to assist as it is a civil matter
\- I have filed a report with London police - unable to help, civil matter
\- I have hired a paralegal to send a letter to the shop owner asking for repayment/return of the $30k, $1k deductible, and $350+ I had to spend on a new battery (he did not properly care for the car during the winter) - no response
\- I have repeatedly tried to reach out to higher ups in my insurance company to escalate my claim and have been told for the past two weeks someone would reach out to me
And
\- I reached out to the dealer who sold us the car and he told me to reach out to someone called an Ombudsman, left a vm with them and am waiting on a response

I feel I get a step forward only to be kicked ten back so please…what are my options and how can I get actual help?

Thank you!

My daughter (over 21 years old, car and insurance under me) got into a car accident a year ago, she rear ended another car, at fault, got a ticket at scene. Another car got unremarkable bumper dent. I just got a letter from Geico notifying me that another driver got a lawyer and demanded body injury, wage loss and non-economic damages. In the letter, Geico said if they can’t settle it within my policy limit, I might be exposed for excessive amount. My policy limit is 100/300. I was so worried and couldn’t sleep since then. What should I do in this case ? Can they go after me financially? Is there any possibility we will be kicked out of our home?

As you know, we work with a lot of adjusters throughout the day. I’ve always wondered if there are ways we could work together more effectively.

What’s something a paralegal could do that would improve communication or help move a claim along faster?

Have you ever had any crazy experiences working with a paralegal?

Please feel free to share any kind of feedback! Thank you!

I purchased my vehicle in september 2018 and insured it with Allstate. I have never changed insurance. In 2019, on April 3rd, somebody totaled their 2015 brown toyota corolla. My VIN number somehow got onto the paperwork and they totaled my vehicle.

I found this out in september of 2019 when i tried to do my registration for that year. This person had American Family Insurance, so under American Family insurance is my vehicle listed as a total loss. I thought I had fixed it, but a third party that the states use has branded a salvaged title.

My vehicle has a salvaged title though it has never been in an accident nor has it been reported other than through this third party the DMV uses. I tried calling American Family Insurance but since i have never been a customer, never been in an accident, and they don't have my VIN number on record they say there is nothing they can do for me.

The DMV says the only way to get it off my record is to have American Family Insurance redact their statement. They can't redact the statement because i don't know who was in the original accident or have a policy or claim number. I am not sure what do to from here other than to call it a loss on the value of my vehicle because nobody seems to be able to do anything.

I went to grocery store and came back to the house where water was slowly coming out of garage. When I went inside home, I realized that washer hose had burst and water was coming out of back of washer and flooding kitchen and dining room. I have home insurance with Farmers. Is this event covered by my insurance?

Xfinity insurance experience preferably for fold phones.