Oct
09
2008
God and Real Estate
By Charles Turner
Photo credit: Mike Zacchino, The Oregonian
Portland has made national news. CNN has clips running of the house in SW Portland that slid down the hill. The Today Show, incorrectly according to local reports, is saying that the slide was caused by recent rain. Geologists on Last night’s KGW report said that the house is built over an old drainage ditch. They are back on the scene this morning. Insurance experts are saying that this may be considered and Act of God and the slide might not be insured! There are six family out of their homes as of right now.
It’s enough to pause and dig out your policy? What is covered? What isn’t? Would you be covered? Do you need to make changes to your policy so that you are covered?
Was the house insured by AIG? No one’s around to answer the phone about the claim. They’re all at the spa getting facials.
I can’t wait to see who the insurer is, if they really aren’t going to pay. The national headlines will provide them lots of free advertising about the quality of their coverage.
As a side note – if my apartment slid down a hill, I’d just rent another apartment. Problem solved.
Insurers will always claim an out, it’s the nature of the beast.
However, this was no act of God, it was an act of gravity.
Of course, it could be an act of God, so long as you don’t believe in “law” of gravity and instead assume that we are all kept from flying off into space by the grace of the noodley appendage of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
Reports last night and this morning make it sound like there was a pipe with a slow leak that saturated the soil. Doesn’t sound like an act of God to me.
Well if it was an act of God maybe Jesus can help them get it fixed up, he was a carpenter right?