KENNESAW, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - A Kennesaw homeowner discovered someone filed a fraudulent insurance claim for fire damage on her renovated home, sparking a months-long battle to clear her record and avoid higher premiums.
The ordeal started in March, two years after Renee Arbogast finished a massive home renovation. Her husband received an alert on his phone about an insurance claim filed for fire damage at their home.
“My initial thought was, is there a fire?,” Arbogast said. “[I asked,] where are you? And he said, ‘I’m at the house. There’s nothing here.”
There was no fire. For weeks, Arbogast pleaded with her insurance company to investigate the claim as fraud. She said her insurance company never sent an adjuster to her home to verify a fire happened.
State investigation reveals verification failures
The Georgia Office of Commissioner of Insurance and Safety Fire investigated and found Arbogast’s insurance company “did not confirm the property owner’s name” when it accepted the claim. The investigation concluded, “if this information had been verified, a claim would not have been initiated.”
However, the false claim had already been recorded in the Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange (C.L.U.E.), a database accessible to nearly every insurance company in the country.
Every time a consumer starts a home or car insurance claim; is denied coverage; or receives payment after submitting a claim, the information is uploaded into the database. C.L.U.E. reports...
KENNESAW, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - A Kennesaw homeowner discovered someone filed a fraudulent insurance claim for fire damage on her renovated home, sparking a months-long battle to clear her rec...