VIRGINIA BEACH – $30,000 – that’s the damage to Scott and Caroline Thietje’s home in Virginia Beach and insurance won’t cover it.

For several months, they’ve been fighting with USAA over what they consider a sudden disaster in their home.

Early one summer morning, Caroline heard water dripping somewhere in the house but she couldn’t determine where. At sunlight, they called a plumber who found the mess underneath the house. A water pipe had ruptured and water was everywhere. Most of the first floor has to be ripped up and replaced.

The next day, a USAA insurance adjuster arrived to look at the damage and told them the pipe itself would not be covered under the policy but the ensuing damage would be.

That soon changed and the adjuster gave them the bad news.

“He said by the amount of damage, he said this has been going on longer than 14 days. We’re absolutely not going to cover it,” Scott Thietje related.

That led to many more questions than answers for the Thietjes, particularly about the 14-day time limit.

“They’re saying that if there is a leak for more than 14 days, then it’s maintenance. What determines the 14 days - the beginning of it?  Once we heard it, we reacted right then and there as any reasonable homeowner does,” contends Thietje.

The exclusion in the policy is clear. It states “…repeated seepage or leakage of water or steam over a period of 14 days or more.”

That language takes SL Nusbaum Insurance Executive Vice President and past president of the Independent Insurance Agents of Virginia Cindy Amick off guard. She and her team assembled a number of homeowner’s policies and couldn’t find one with that same exclusion.

“It says 14 days. If you are on a three-week vacation or 15-day vacation and you come home and find the washing machine hose has burst and flooded your house, gee, according to that, you’ve got no coverage,” says Amick.

Since USAA is one of the insurance companies of choice for military families, Amick and Thietje wonder about what would happen if a servicemember was deployed and couldn’t catch a problem in that two-week limit.

USAA is defending its policy and boasts a positive record with the military.

In response to questions by the 13News Troubleshooters, Roger Wildermuth with USAA corporate communications issued this statement:
“We are confident that USAA settles water damage claims consistent with the guidance provided by the Virginia Bureau of Insurance and our policies. You asked how USAA would apply this provision to a member who is deployed in active duty military service. USAA has been dedicated to serving members of the military community since 1922. To our core, we know and understand the sacrifices and special needs of our service members deployed around the world, and are uniquely positioned to respond to those needs. USAA settles claims on a case-by-case basis, taking into account each situations unique circumstances.”

As far as the Thietje case, USAA spokesperson Clay Allen says, “The damage was clearly caused by plumbing leaks that occurred over a long period of time as well as a lack of proper ventilation in the crawlspace.”

That, according to USAA, makes the Thietje case a maintenance issue, not sudden or accidental.

Neither Allen or Wildermuth with USAA specifically addressed the 14-day language in the policy.

Another reason the claim was denied was because the engineer who inspected the home noted the burst pipe was mounted against a gas pipe causing the eventual rupture. He called it a construction defect.

Thietje is in the process of filing a complaint with the Virginia Bureau of Insurance. A favorable outcome could force USAA to pay the claim or at least a portion of it.

Amick feels Thietje has a good chance. A spokesperson with the bureau won’t address the case specifically but encourages Thietje to file the complaint so a full investigation can take place.