Q: My home has just been grouted for the second time. Our home although we are fixing it again at the request of the insurance company has lost value. Is there anything that can be done?

We addressed the question of whether you can sue an insurance company for lost value in our last post and generally the answer is no. There are unique situations where you may be able to. For example, we have a case where Citizens told our client she had sinkhole coverage, performed an investigation and then actually filed the sinkhole report with the county. Later down the road, it was discovered that she did not have sinkhole coverage and the carrier pulled the offer to repair off the table. The problem is the report had already been filed. This was now a publicly known sinkhole home that has never been repaired and would never be repaired unless the homeowners came out of pocket to do it themselves. The home plummeted in value and had no chance of recovering without being repaired. The only reason the home lost value was because of the mistake and lack of diligence on behalf of the insurance company. It is a rare situation where the insurance company actually created the problem. We will be suing the insurance company in that case to either fix the house or to pay the lost value. It is a unique situation and unique argument and we will see how it turns out. It will be a long road ahead for this homeowner.