How Much Do You think You Need to Retire? What Age Will You/Spouse Retire? General Retirement Issues (Part 2)

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9049

I imagine it will vary on what state you live in on what makes sense in considering state and federal taxes.

We have lived in our current state (AL) since 1983 (we live in N AL). DDs live in FL and TX, with all the grandkids in TX. DH is not interested in living in FL or TX, but as long as he is heavily involved in specific activities where we currently live, we are staying put.

So now our house is getting ‘refreshed’ in 3 rooms (some under insurance, and some by us) – May 9th, a storm (or a prior storm) we were unaware of severe hail damage on our roof. A hole developed next to a drain line vent of our master bath, and rain water ran down that 2nd floor wall down to the wall of our formal dining room – a room we just don’t go in and out of; I noticed some pink mold along the line between the ceiling and the wall of that room when I was in the connecting formal living room on May 18th, and investigated further as well as filed insurance claim with USAA – yes water and mold. Cleared stuff away, ran a box fan on area – the damage was done (although sitting for these weeks since while getting insurance going properly and lining up the necessary contractors of course causes the mold to spread). DH was away for about a week, during claim filing but had returned a day before the first insurance inspection on 5-22 (which was an inadequate interior inspection, by USAA hired inspector) - the inspector did declare the roof had severe hail damage and needed to be replaced. Handy DH then caulked around that drain line vent and the other two on the roof to make sure no more water comes in the house before the roof gets replaced. As we got contractor estimates, USAA realized the size of the claim needs a senior adjustor, and also another inspection by a senior property field adjustor - this guy came 6-14. I was helping DD/grandkids on 2 week arranged trip that couldn’t be canceled, but was pushing things on phone and online, while DH was at the house handling things there. Our estimate for our roof was done 5-31, but our special gutters (Gutter Guard, purchased in 2020) needed to have ‘remove and replace’ service by Gutter Guard, and after lots of follow up the guy finally did a quote/estimate 6-24! Yes, 3 weeks later. With continuous flooring from formal dining room to living room, both rooms needed to be packed up and cleared – the packing was done 6-24 (gal worked all day, with dining hutch/crystal/china, and bookshelves/books in living room) and the movers are coming today to clear those two rooms and the Master Bath (I moved much of master bath items in bins for us to use our stuff in another upstairs bathroom while master bathroom is torn up). Our contractor did correct readings of moisture in master bath area, while 2nd insurance inspector did moisture reading at only a wall high spot (and not in the wall area below the built-in vanity where the wall is exposed with a sit-down space). That lower wall area now is covered with black mold and the cabinet has some of the wood bulging – I took pictures and sent to our senior adjustor. The plan was to ‘look up’ from the tear out dining room wall to inspect for mold - but obviously that plan has now changed. Our policy has a limitation of $10,000 covering damage from mold. Even though things would be replaced under the general policy due to water, I suspect we will have to pay out of pocket for some stuff. Yuck. At least our deductible is $2,000 (would have been $1,000 w/o the roof), and we paid for a special endorsement for updated IBHS Fortified Roof standard (that policy addition was only $90/year, and we added that as soon as that became eligible in our state with USAA in 2022). The new roof won’t protect against hail damage but will protect against higher winds. If our home was going to ‘stay in the family’ we would have investigated a metal roof, but we plan to be here potentially another 8-10 years (nicer smaller commercial buildings here have metal roofs). I told DD1 in TX “in 10 years, dad and I will be 78, you will be 40, and your oldest DD will be 16” - how is that for putting things in perspective?

We had refreshed the formal living and dining rooms in 2017, so now getting refreshed again.

Seeing all the work our younger neighbors did to clear out their home (built in 2007) to relocate has us now doing more now to get rid of stuff (we built this home in 1992, and we have a lot of storage areas too). Have to just work at it every day - have stuff in the garage to get rid of to have room for ‘nicer stuff’.

Once DDs do own their own homes, we can get rid of more stuff - there are some things they may want – and if they don’t, we can get rid of here. Both DDs want the crystal, but don’t know if either will have a formal dining room or want the china – we would keep the formal dining room furniture ‘intact’ until staging/sale of the home.

Roof was replaced due to hail damage in 2009; we always used 30 year roofing material. It is definitely worth making sure you have the right insurance coverage and making sure if roof has storm damage to have insurance replacement.

We felt some ‘anchor’ with our general contractor who we have used before. The estimator is also the same, and he is a relatively young guy. Very fair and good. That has kept us ‘grounded’. We also found what we believe is a good company for doing the tear out/mold work (we will see how well they are during the actual work tomorrow). We had a delay with the initial packing company (didn’t come up with their quote in a reasonable time) - and new company was excellent on getting quote, communicating, having a very good packer (she has worked for them for 3 years).

9050

I think USAA has screwed things up for you with the delays. We have Armed Forces Insurance, and we have had 5-6 major water leaks at rental properties, and one at our house. Every time we have called, they sent out a contractor immediately to figure out where the moisture is, put in fans, and rip floors/walls out that were affected. That’s before an adjuster ever came out, they want to immediately stop any mold from spreading.

Don’t think there are limitations on mold damage in WA, as a couple of our claims were over 20K. Hopefully yours won’t be much over 10K, but that sounds like a lot of damage, and could be very expensive. That doesn’t seem fair that you might have to shell out extra money because of USAA’s delays. They should have stopped the damage from spreading immediately.

9051

Now (just got a phone call from our senior adjustor) USAA is wanting to ‘make sure’ the water damage in the master bath is all from the roof/water – sending out a 3rd inspector.

I am sending them more pictures (to show it is very highly unlikely from plumbing), but it will delay that master bath tear out. Yes, the delay is causing the mold to spread. However, based on some other people’s insurance claim experience, I believe we are in OK shape with USAA. We have a very good contractor. I believe the mold people (doing tear out and mold mitigation) will do a good job.

I discovered things on a Saturday (May 18th) - and the water damage was already done. But had I known that I needed to put a fan on that master bath knee space area… I do think USAA will be fair about their delays and the additional mold damage.

IDK why USAA handled things at the get-go like they did; way under what their response should have been and also their first estimator way underestimated interior damage.

USAA is ready to pay for costs with current delays, but IDK about their past delays.

I do think a company like USAA, which has properties all over the country, will offer the proper coverage – and inform us of endorsements we should have being in the south…like more coverage for mold.

9052

I agree, you would think that a national company like USAA would have a handle on exactly what to do. I don’t understand why they aren’t completely on top of stopping the mold from spreading. It isn’t your job, it’s theirs. Mold is like an open wound, you need to pack the wound, put pressure on it, stop the bleeding. Even if you have to put a dirty sock on it (or at least that’s what I read yesterday). It seems to me that they should have, the very day that you called, sent someone to put in fans, rip out everything wet, and put a temporary patch on your roof. Your husband shouldn’t have had to do that (though good for him for doing it). Their delay in taking action could be the cause of a medium sized problem becoming a big one.

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9053

Something that freaks me out when I hear talk of black mold……we called AFI about a condo unit that I thought was showing some black mold spots in the pantry. When the inspector came by, he laughed and said,”That’s dirt”. He also told me that some people don’t even want to test black mold to see if it’s the deadly kind, because that can condemn the entire condo unit. I’ve been paranoid about mold ever since.

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9054

Most insurers are cautious when it comes to water damage as most policies don’t cover water damage from flood which includes all sorts of rain damage but it does cover physical damage from hail or wind. And it covers leaks from plumbing. We represent a lot of insurance policyholders and as soon as there was a “ storm” involved insurers tend to do a lot of investigating.

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9055

I totally get why the insurers want to investigate, they don’t want to cover anything they aren’t obligated to. But our insurer was very intent upon doing the water mitigation immediately before figuring out the cost/responsibility. I’m sure that saves them plenty of money in the long run.

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9056

My sister had a toilet valve break and it flooded her bathroom into a bedroom. She has AAA insurance and they also sent someone out the next day with fans. They were very proactive.

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9057

The word “storm” sets off blaring alarm bells for insurers since they don’t cover flood damage. Make a claim that a pipe or toilet leaked? They will get in there right away and help you mitigate and figure out exact coverage and deductibles later because there is almost always some coverage . But once the word “storm” is tossed out there, every insurer I have dealt with puts the brakes on big time and investigates first. Their guidelines tell them to do this. It’s the one area (direct damage from natural water) that regular homeowners insurance does not cover at all (National Flood insurance only will). No other experience with an insurance company will be comparable to one where a claim is made and a “storm” is mentioned.

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9058

Right, and if I’m reading SOS’s post correctly, the 3 week delay was due to the Rain Gutter company getting out to see if their take down/replace Warranty applied.

9059

This is 2nd floor master bath - right in line with the formal dining room wall below and the roof above where the leak has come from. I now have taken extra pictures to show that the bathroom sink plumbing below and along the cabinet have no water leaking showing/no damage there.

USAA failed to do things right, and now they are being cautious. OK, but hope the guy is here while our other guys are still here and make the determination – so our USAA adjustor can ‘turn on’ our tear out/mold mitigation people to the master bath while they are still here. We already know our adjustor is out of the office on Friday, and we don’t want stop and start up when we can have the start and continue going…

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9060

The roof was delayed with the Gutter Guard people. The young gutter guy person (we didn’t know he was relatively young until he finally came out on Monday) gave both DH and me all kind of excuses. But as soon as insurance said our roof needed to be replaced, DH was home and did the caulk work to prevent any future rain coming in. We had no rain between the time I saw the interior damage and when DH did the caulking work.

The interior was delayed at the start by USAA not having anyone come out to dry out and get damage control. Their first inspector 5 days later did a poor job with interior scope of work. Then when our contractor (we brought out after the insurance inspection) said the rooms had to be emptied, with first packing company then not providing a timely quote. Once USAA had the claim bumped up to a senior adjuster, time also lapsed. I kept documenting on the communications claim center, and USAA had some problems with their center/IT as well, from our initial filing of claim (USAA had to assign us a new claim number because their system wouldn’t do the linking it was supposed to), and later when some of my posts on their claims communication center were not showing but the claims adjuster told me he could see them (later, IT must have fixed so a few days later I could then see posts). Our new adjustor’s title is “Dedicated Catastrophe Claims”.

Our contractor for interior work will also be our contractor for the roofing work.

9061

The original call had them/USAA call the damage ‘wind’ damage from May 9th. They knew from the get-go that we had the insurance coverage for our damage, and could have/should have tried to get interior dried out right away. Maybe because I already saw mold, made them decide it all could ‘wait’ for inspector which got scheduled but scheduled for days away/wait.

9062

Yes, you dry up the water quickly to keep damages more limited.

Clean water versus rain water. Even clean water into carpeting, even with quick dry out will usually mean replacement.

We have dealt with a large house area with clean water (city water pressure blew out hot water heater on main floor - it ended up the water heater company’s insurance paid the claim after homeowner’s, so we received our deductible back), and a small leak that damaged a corner of a carpeted room - entire room flooring was replaced.

We were also first told our mold limit was $2500, then were told it is $10,000. Now it seems the $10,000 won’t cover to the letter of the policy. How much over, we shall see. Will do the best we can with the situation as we now face, an evolving/dynamic thing.

9063

USAA wants to make sure we don’t have ‘two claims’ instead of one, with a secondary source of water damage in master bath (highly unlikely!) Well it is just costing them an inspection cost from a local leak detection company. It is causing another delay for us with master bath tear out.

9064

Our contractor says they need to tear out 3’ beyond the mold.

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9065

It’s amazing what you find when you do a little upgrade. We were replacing our built in double ovens about 5 or 6 years ago and when the replacements were being installed the company pulled the old ovens out and said the entire back of the cabinet where the ovens were was damp and had water damage and had warped so much they could not install the new ovens. They pulled out the back of the cabinet to show massive mold. Right in the middle of the PVC water pipe from the bathroom above was a nail hammered in through the back of the cabinet that was soaked. Apparently, this nail had been there since the house was built (we had it built) and that was an 18 year old slow leak. USAA covered it because it was from the original construction and we had no way of knowing that it had happened until we decided to upgrade our ovens. They did a complete mold mitigation which is not covered under their typical homeowners insurance so somehow this was different. Previously they covered my wood floors that were ruined due to a leaking refrigerator, sued GE, and returned my deductible a year later when they won their case. They are definitely not the least expensive but they appear to take care of their customers.

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9066

I agree with you about USAA despite our mold limitation which might cause us to have a bit more out of pocket - and hopefully not a lot more out of pocket. We have a lot of missed things on USAA end. We will see if there is more than one source of damage - but it is unlikely.

Wow on your finding the nail in PVC pipe/slow leak years later.

Our friend with a new house (they had it built) had a bad water PVC joint (the subs with the plumbing/builders) and had a big water problem from upstairs bath through the ceiling of their formal dining room within a few years of building when the joint gave way.

Although we have had State Farm for two claims on the home and did ok – we had an arrogant young claim guy in 1998, who didn’t tell us he was going to Europe for 2 weeks (weeks of Christmas and through to New Year’s) - he told our flooring contractor. When he returned, I faxed to him 9 pages of detail from my work site/contractors (everything was done on the list). On the phone he asked me what was done, and I said everything; he asked who authorized (he said they had other claims people to handle), and I said he never told me he was not going to be available and another person who I should call - so we had everything done. He approved everything ‘after the fact’. I had no sympathy for him. We had children ages 2 and 4, we both worked full time; as soon as we got home we had to whisk the kids upstairs due to the damage on the first floor - and I had end of year financials to do as CFO of the physician group I managed. My in-laws came for Christmas, and my MIL was a dream for me – she made sure the contractors did everything right at the house while DH and I had to be at work and the kids were in daycare. She was no pushover, and we were a phone call away. I can’t remember if our carpeting work was done before Dec 24th or if it was completed Dec 26. There was one day when they did a lot. We required that they screw down all the subfloor before the pad and carpets were laid (initially we were told by our contractor with initial construction the subfloors glued down right away and nailed down would be fine w/o squeaking floors and we found they indeed needed to be screwed down – live and learn, and stick to your guns is our lesson learned) - and I gave MIL one of the screws to make sure the flooring guys screwed everything down before they laid anything. So the crew had to do as instructed.

9067

We found out more about this water leak detection from our contractor - it turns out they find any leak with ‘sound’, and the company coming are reputable.

Gutter Guard was ‘concerned’ if the pitch of the new roof would have the gutter system work well - and contractor answered that for us - their gutter system will work fine, so now have to prompt Gutter Guard guy to get the estimate in…

Frustrating. It will just take what it takes.

9068

Please lets get back to talking about retirement. Folks are welcome to start a new thread to discuss leaks and gutters. Thank you!

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