Catleen,

You wrote, I read an article about mold, houses and insurance. Apparently mold problems are growing every year. This article stated that if you had one water problem and went through your insurance it went on your permament record. Then when those poor souls tried selling the house, the buyers couldn't get insurance and the deal went south because of one leak.

Which is really kind of silly when you think about it.

My house is over 30 years old. There's no such thing as a 30+ year old house that hasn't had some kind of leak. Even a toilet overflowing would qualify, since it can cause mold damage.

Both of my toilets have overflowed since I bought the house in '88. I've also had a tub leak into the wall; the a/c condensation drain has overflowed; I've had at-slab and below-slab sewer leaks; and I've had a waterbed slashed during a robbery. The insurance company became involved in two of the incidents. I suppose my house is now unsalable.

The only water damage the insurance companies know about are ones that were big enough for them to pay on. The irony here is that a good number of houses never have water damage claims that are big enough to consider and many people don't bother to file anyway because it would cause their rates to rise, so the insurance company's records are essentially meaningless in this regard.

- Joel