Question for a friend......

[BassBoy]

Hi all,

This question is for a dear friend of mine. He is a member here, but has not been active and can not get to his computer at this time to post his questions here, so I'm asking for him and I'm curious as well.

His Ch.13 was filed in Nov. 2006 and he kept his house (and car). Well, this past week he had a near tradegy in his home. There was a natural gas leak in his home......15% consentration levels.....the highest level. He and his wife found out that there is a natural gas well right across the street from their (brand new) home and they were never disclosed about it. But that's another legal battle and doesn't pertain to his concern.

His concern is that he and his wife are out of their home. For now, it's indefinately because they do not know how long it will be until the problem is resolved. Anyways, he is concerned about what to do about his Ch.13 payments because they have been completely uprooted and have had to make arrangements, costing him and his wife uneccessary expenses. His question is has anyone on the forum had a life altering event happen and the Trustee was willing to work with you and suspend your Ch.13 payments in order for you to recover?

Any advice or suggestions anyone may have would be greatly appreciated for my friend.

[daisey]

I would suggest that you friend documents everything very well and contacts his attorney ASAP to have them communicate the situtation with the trustee involved in their case. Good luck to your friend.

[coma]

Definitely tell him to talk to his attorney or the trustee if he is without counsel. They can grant a temporary suspension of payments, or if it's going to last a long time, maybe look into a hardship discharge.

[IN-DEBT]

BassBoy:

What caused your friends leak in this newer home. Have they found the source yet? Depending on why the leak started they may have a homeowner's claim on their insurance policy. The cause of the leak would have to be determined to trigger coverage. However, this is worth looking into.

[BassBoy]

BassBoy:

What caused your friends leak in this newer home. Have they found the source yet? Depending on why the leak started they may have a homeowner's claim on their insurance policy. The cause of the leak would have to be determined to trigger coverage. However, this is worth looking into.

Without derailing the thread, the gas well is right across the street from his home and the gas came up through his basement floor. Some of you may know that last week, Northeast Ohio had a 3.6 magnitude earthquake and this may have created a fisher (the gas leak was just after that event). Unfortunately, with homeowner's insurance, there must be damage in order to file a claim. Well, there was no damage from the gas leak so his homeowner's insurance can not help him right now, but I beg to differ.

My friend did see an attorney yesterday and he does not have a case because there is no way to prove who is responsible (developer/builder went bankrupt last year.......how ironic), nor can it be proved if there was a cover up. There is more to this then he knows, so there needs to be more investigation, so until then..............

That aside, my friend's BK attorney has had his Ch.13 payment suspended for one month for now. He will have to take this one day at a time and if he needs to have it suspended for a longer period of time, then he will cross that bridge when the time comes.

My friend is still unable to get back into his home because there was a level of natural gas present yesterday. The level was not as high as it was when this happend, but still, they can not let him occupy the residence with any presence of natural gas.

From my understanding, there is work in progress to cap the well and expell the natural gas, but there are no guarantess that this will never happen again. His wife is scared to death to go back to the home and she probably doesn't want to live there anymore. Unfortunately, I think they would have problems selling the home right now because that would have to be disclosed, even though the attorney he met with says he doesn't have to say sh!t about the well, and again, I beg to differ.

For now, this is on the backburner intil some snooping around is done.

[JollyGG]

About 20 years ago I was evacuated from my home due to natural gas leaking into the basement from the ground. My whole neighborhood was forced to leave. At that time no one sold natural gas. Now of course if you drive out to my old neighborhood there are no homes, but are natural gas wells everywhere. If anyone is interested in the specifics they can look up info on Rawhide Village 1987.
Fast forward 15 years and my mother is on the city council and they want to allow a trailer park to be built right next to a natural gas well. The requirements are that all property owners be notified of the well and the potential dangers. Unfortunatelly, these trailers would be renter and there is no legal requirement to notify them. My mom fought the zoning but lost. She is no longer on the city council.
Your friend may have a suit against the city or the county. I know back in the 80s we managed to find a few people to sue. Never alot of money out of it, but I know of at least two law suits.
Also have your friend look into disaster funding. Our stay in the motel while we searched for a new home was covered by our state disaster assistance.

[BassBoy]

Thanks for the info and suggestions JollyGG. My friend will appreciate this being passed on.

My friend is probably going to keep persuing action towards the responsible party(ies), but for now, he is sitting tight until the attorney he spoke with yesterday does some poking around. My friend also has everyone he can get on the phone involved....so...he's shaking things up a bit.

[IN-DEBT]

earthquake

BassBoy;

This is where I was going with this when I noted the date and where you live. I did not know where your friend lives but I'm familiar with this fault and area. Some people in Northeast Ohio now have the earthquake endorsment added their policy as there is a major fault that starts under Lake Erie in Lake County and actually runs under the Perry Nuclear Plant. (great design) and continues for about 30 miles long.This is the same fault that the recent earthquake happened on about 20 miles south of the lake.

It is true that there has to be damage on site to collect from a homeowners insurance policy and they would also have to have the endorsment to collect.

However, in this state if they insurance policy is an all risk policy, and 95% are, they insurance company MUST find the cause of the leak before they could deny any claim. This is very common for the industry to hire an engineer at their cost to determine coverage. If you want more information on this please pm me. Later.

[BassBoy]

Again folks, without derailing the thread and getting into the insurance aspect and legal aspect, let me say.....if I haven't already.........there was NO DAMAGE to his home. No damage, no claim. Simple.