Dozens of Connecticut homes must fall down to be eligible for coverage, insurers say

HARTFORD >> Connecticut residents whose home foundations are crumbling are facing a perplexing problem with their insurance policies: The damage won’t be covered unless their homes collapse.

More than two dozen insurance companies being sued in federal court by 40 homeowners recently filed court documents asking a judge to dismiss the class-action lawsuit for a variety of reasons, including that the plaintiffs are only covered if their houses fall down.

The motions to dismiss the lawsuit filed June 2 are adding to the dismay of the homeowners, who face living in potentially unsafe homes with plummeting values that can’t be sold and would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars to fix.

“A house has to fall down before it’s covered for anything? That’s just preposterous,” said Jeannette Lesperance, a plaintiff in the lawsuit whose Manchester home’s foundation has large cracks. “There’s nothing you can say to that.”

State officials say possibly 30,000 or more homes and condominiums built in central and northeastern Connecticut from the mid-1980s to 2016 could be affected by the problem, which has been linked to the mineral pyrrhotite. The mineral naturally reacts with oxygen and water, causing concrete foundations to crack and crumble.

Read more: http://www.nhregister.com/general-news/20170702/dozens-of-connecticut-homes-must-fall-down-to-be-eligible-for-coverage-insurers-say