Cast Iron Pipes | Attorney Mark Nation

I'm attorney Mark Nation and over the last 29 years I've represented literally thousands of policy holders in claims against their own insurance companies. And so when the cast iron pipe epidemic came to my attention, I immediately thought, "Well, I know that homeowners' insurance policies and business owners insurance policies cover claims that result from cast iron pipes. But more importantly, they cover the cost of tearing out and replacing cast iron pipes." There are several problems created by an aging and deteriorating cast-iron pipe system. The most obvious one is they cause backups into the house. If that happens, your insurance company probably owes for the damage caused by the water, as well as the cost of tearing out that old cast iron pipe system. That cost often can be 50 to 100,000 or more than $100,000 to tear out and remove that old cast iron pipe system. This is an important coverage that almost all homeowners policies and business owner's policies have. I'm often asked, "Why do I need to have the old system torn out?" There's a real good answer for that. One is, it's a health problem, obviously, for people living in the homes or in the businesses. Two is, your system is not only corroded. Often they have breaks in the system and that results in sewage going into the wastewater underneath the building. Three is, if you don't do it now, when you go to sell that business or home whoever's buying it is going to realize through their realtor, or attorney if they have them, that this home or business has an old cast iron pipe system. And then they're going to ask for a reduction in the price for the cost of replacing that system. Now the reason for that is simple. A lot of purchasers can't find insurance if the building's plumbing hasn't been updated. And so if you have a problem with your cast iron pipe system now, you need to report it to your insurance company now. Unfortunately, often when people submit claims that are caused by the cast iron pipe system, insurance companies either ignore the cause, or they say that the cast iron pipes are not the cause or that there's no coverage for your claim. There's something else they do also. Sometimes they try to apply a limited water damage endorsement to the claim. We have been successful in helping business owners and homeowners overturn those types of denials or lowball offers from insurance companies. If this has happened to you, let us help. Now what do you do if your insurance company won't pay for water damage resulting from your cast iron pipe system, or won't pay for the cost of tearing out and replacing the old system? That's a good case for us to take a look at. I've literally handled thousands of cast iron pipe system cases throughout the nation. And often I see insurance companies send out engineers or plumbers who will say that the cast iron pipe system is fine, or that the damage is excluded even if it's due to the cast iron pipes, it's excluded under the policy. Often, those statements by the insurance company are just plain wrong. If you have slow drains, if you have backups that are due to a cast iron pipe system or caused by your cast iron pipe system, let us take a look at that case and I'll let you know if there's something we can do for you and we can help trigger that coverage for the cost of the tear out and replacement or not. We work on a contingency fee basis. There are never any upfront costs or expenses, never any attorney's fees unless we win. And if we do win, then it comes out of the recovery. There are never any out-of-pocket fees or costs for you. The time to act is now. And there's some good reasons for that. First is, as your insurance company, as your policy comes up for renewal, sometimes insurance companies are requiring that their insurers go out and replace these cast iron pipe systems on their own before they'll renew the policy. There's another good reason the insurance companies know that these claims are coming and because of that they're changing the policies to take out this very valuable coverage that you currently have and replace it with something that is much less valuable. And there's a third reason why you should act now. Your insurance policy has a requirement that you provide the insurance company with prompt notice of any claim. And so if you have any problems concerning your cast iron pipe system you need to let them know now and we'll help file that claim for you if you qualify.