Family says clerical error a $100,000 mistake

CABARRUS COUNTY, N.C. — A Cabarrus County family lost their house in a fire. They have insurance, but say they can't build a home like the one they had because of a clerical error.

The Battens watched last May as their log cabin went up in flames.

• VIDEO from family of the fire

"All of it. Every bit of it," Angi Batten said. The family survived, but lost three pets and many memories. "All the baby pictures are gone. All of the videos are gone. All the scrapbooks from my children and my grandchild. Everything's gone."

Batten said the home was 3,100-square-feet. But, for some reason, their insurance policy listed it as just 1,800. "What a lot of people don't realize is when your square footage is wrong, everything else is wrong, too," she said. So the company paid out far less than she expected. She thinks roughly $100,000 less. "We're going to have a home, but it's not going to be our dream home like we had," she said.

Avoid same problem

Insurance agent Paul Cooney, with Kesner Insurance Agency in Davidson, is not tied to this case and said there's not much homeowners can do in this situation. "If that limit was wrong at the time of the loss, that consumer's going to -- nine times out of 10 -- be holding it themselves, be holding the loss themselves," he said.

He said your insurance company should know your square footage. But you should still make sure you review your policy carefully when you buy it.

Once disaster strikes, you can't go back and make changes.

At that point, you can sue your insurance company for not researching the footage better and you might win, but there's no guarantee. "The insurance agents are going to be held to a much higher standard in court," he said.

Here are four ways to find out your home's square footage:

• Your closing papers
• County tax records
• Trulia
• Zillow

Even if your square footage is right

And even if your square footage is right, make sure you buy more coverage if the cost of building materials skyrockets.

When something like a natural disaster occurs, the cost of building supplies can go up dramatically. So if you lose your home during that time -- it may cost more to rebuild than usual and the insurance money you get to rebuild the same home may not cover the cost at those "shock" prices.

You may want to get a temporary increase in coverage during that time period.

Cox Media Group