Aftermath of September flooding in Boulder, CO, after neighborhood creeks overflowed their engineered drainages during an unprecedented rain event.
Last September, a slow-moving rain storm dumped almost an entire year’s worth of rain on Colorado’s front range in just a two days. The storm washed out roads and swept away entire buildings. The damage was unprecedented in the state. Thousands of Coloradans lost virtually everything they owned in the ensuing floods.
In the wake of that disaster, thousands of Colorado homeowners are getting hit with denial letters from their insurance companies, which are turning down claims left and right saying they don’t cover damage caused by “surface water.”
That shouldn’t be happening, says Boulder attorney George Berg, a partner at the law firm Berg, Hill Greenleaf and Ruscitti in Boulder, Colorado, which specializes in insurance law. Berg has been giving free talks to front range homeowners as a public service, to tell policyholders that insurers are taking advantage of their ignorance about a 1990 Colorado Supreme Court ruling that practically guarantees most flood victims coverage under their policies, and makes insurers liable for treble damages plus attorneys fees if they don’t pay.
The case is Heller vs. Fire Insurance Exchange, a Division of Farmers Insurance Group. It resulted in a state Supreme Court ruling that greatly favors policyholders who make claims of water damage to their property.
