Our claim began on Monday, Feb 6th 2023. We had a leak coming in from our laundry room and it took us about a week to see if this was an insurance or home warranty issue, but when we found out this would be an insurance claim we contacted my ex husband who referred Alex with Slate.
We called him on March 15th, he came out on the 17th and let us know the steps and process of what to do. He said to call our insurance (State Farm), assured us that they do a lot of work together and to make a claim. He said to tell State Farm we are working with a restoration company (Slate) and to start the claim.
Alex did not give us a quote at this time but wanted us to process the claim in which we did. When that was done he started planning on his equipment arriving and getting the job started. Since she had told us that State Farm is a tricker insurance where he has seen claims like this get approved but also has seen claims like this get denied, we were VERY hesitant to start work and voiced our concern. We also told him we do not feel comfortable starting this process without the approval many times but he assured us by saying Don't worry, I wouldn't accept this job if I thought it'd be denied It's okay, that we don't have the approval because if we don't, it's my job to get the approval because that is how we get paid.
Our trust in him got our better judgment and we signed the papers to start work without getting a number estimate but again we have voiced that we want to stop at the threshold of our insurance deductible at $2500 because without approval we did not want to come out of pocket that much. We made it very clear financially we will not be able to go above that as well as move forward without being approved by insurance. Again, he was reassuring us that there is no way that this could be denied. (Texts messages attached of us asking for estimates and saying we need to stay with our deductible threshold)
When the crew came on the 20th and started to pack up we had a conversation with the team because they were telling us how they would have to put plastic tarps up, cut out the cabinets (in the areas where the leak was not at.) I could only say okay cause I do not know what is right and wrong, what is wet and needs to be dried, I can only trust the company we hired. But when Thomas heard all of this, once again he questioned why do you need to pull out all these cabinets? The leak is now there? What do you need to cut out the drywall that far? Why do you need to hang up tarps? That will be an additional cost.
Which again, at this time Alex and his crew mentioned that they needed to test for asbestos, that they testing would be to our cost. I said, okay but if it is hot for asbestos, would that make this claim more expensive? Because again, we have not gotten approval and if what is done so far is MORE than $2500 if it is hot for asbestos how much would that add on?
Alex said, If it's hot for asbestos that will probably be an addition $1500
I then reminded and asked him again, Okay Alex, remember we do not want to go over our $2500 if we are not approved yet. What are we at right now, cause if we are hot for asbestos and that adds $1500 we are already really close to our deductible. Shouldn't we stop until we get approved so Thomas will not be upset with the total?
Once again, no, no Michele I am confident we can get this covered
Well, they ended up gutting our kitchen, ripping out the cabinets and ruining them that we can not put them back together, they told us no matter what they would do everything in the least invasive way possible because they needed to take pictures for the insurance company but again with the confidence that they would get this covered explained to us,it's okay if they are damaged because if the insurance can not find a comparable match to what you have they will need to replace not only the cabinets pulled out but replace the entire kitchen.
All of the review in pictures