Fortunately, he's also a home-repair craftsman and auto mechanic, "having replaced my finished basement from floor to ceiling three times, and restored flooded trucks."
Here's some of what he (and his neighbors) want me to pass on to you:
The government keeps changing the rules. For example, redefining basement.
"I have a two-car garage below ground that leads into the finished part of the basement and my shop and utility room. That is called a 'walkout' basement because you can walk out of the basement through the garage."
After paying eight claims for contents and building damage to his basement, Bosch said, the government determined that "I do not, in fact, have a basement. That was accomplished by renaming my walkout basement a 'dugout' basement."
Nowhere in the policy or in any regulations does the term dugout appear, he said, but that didn't deter denial of subsequent claims. Only after years of fighting did the government finally agree that Bosch did, in fact, have a covered basement and paid the claims.
The day before Bosch contacted me, however, "a flood adjuster - private subcontractors who are paid a percentage of what I am paid - arrived at my house and immediately announced that I do 'not have a basement.' "
No damage outside the house is covered by flood insurance. "When my yard drain was crushed by the weight of the floodwater and had to be replaced, I had to pay $9,000 out of my pocket to have the old drain dug up and a new drain installed," Bosch said.
Seeing is believing. Apparently, cracks in the floor caused by hydrostatic pressure must be observed while they are happening.
"The first engineer to inspect the floor," Bosch said, "concluded that the cracks were caused by hydrostatic water pressure, but since he wasn't here the day of the flood, he could not state that these cracks were caused by that flood."
