You Called the AC Guy. Nobody Called About the Water.
The air handler closet was wet. Or the ceiling below it was stained. Or the carpet in the hallway was soaked and you couldn’t work out why.
So you called the AC company. And they came out, and they cleared the drain line, and they charged you a hundred and fifty dollars, and they left.
And that was that.
The AC problem got fixed. The water damage never got claimed by anyone. It didn’t occur to you, because it wasn’t a flood and it wasn’t a storm and nobody’s pipe burst. It was an air conditioning issue, and you’d handled it.
It wasn’t an AC problem. It was a water loss.
A backed-up condensate line is a sudden, accidental discharge of water — which is precisely the thing your policy covers. The AC technician fixed the cause. Nobody addressed the damage.
And in Florida, this happens constantly. Every house in this state has a condensate line, and they back up. Algae, debris, a clogged trap. It is one of the most common water losses there is, and it is almost certainly the most under-claimed, because it arrives disguised as a maintenance call.
The water goes where you can’t see. Into the drywall, down inside the wall cavity, under the flooring, into the subfloor. Depending on what your floors are made of, the damage under them can be many times what you’d guess from the stain you can see.
And then, six months later, it becomes mold. And by then you’ve forgotten there was ever water at all, and the carrier calls it a long-term maintenance condition, and you have no idea how to argue otherwise.
That is not a coincidence. That is a claim that was never filed, growing.
Free claim review — tell me what happened
No cost, no obligation. If it isn’t covered, I’ll tell you straight.
What that gap has been worth
Homeowner. AC drain line backed up. Water through the house.
Insurance paid $8,000.
And depending on the flooring, that figure can be considerably higher — hardwood and engineered floors are unforgiving about water, and the replacement of a continuous floor is not a patch job.
I’m Robert Mack. Licensed Florida public adjuster, License #A161638. Thirty-plus years in claims. I work for policyholders, never for the insurance company. I don’t get paid unless you recover.
Central Florida. Based in Montverde.
If your AC has ever backed up, call me.
Even if it was a while ago. Even if the AC company fixed it and you moved on. Even if it doesn’t look like much.
Five minutes tells you if there’s money in it. There usually is.
And Florida’s deadlines are real. The clock started the day the water came out, not the day you noticed the damage.
Free claim review — tell me what happened
No cost, no obligation. If it isn’t covered, I’ll tell you straight.
Related: Water damage claims · Mold insurance claims · Underpaid claims · Central Florida public adjusters