The Troubleshooter 06-10-26

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
Forty five years strong, solving your problems, answering questions, taking complaints.
This is the Troubleshooter Show. Now Tom Martino.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
Hey, good morning. This is not Tom Martino. This is
John Fuller filling in for mister Martina and mister Mark
who are both out today. But joining me in the
studio are mister Dimitri, always a pleasure, and also in
studio Attorney Brad O'Brien. So, as most of you know,

(00:35):
I am a personal injury attorney here in the Denver area.
So you have two attorneys and Dmitri, which is more
detail oriented than most attorneys I know, and so we
aim to be a wealth of knowledge for you today.
There are no rules today. We're here to answer questions,
say complaints, solve problems. But we're here to help you,
and so we ask that you call in. We are

(00:58):
here to answer your questions about insurance, about accidents, about lawsuits,
about real estate, about landlord tenant, things about anything under
the sun that we can help you with. We are
here to help today. The phone number to get a
hold of us is three oh three eight one three

(01:20):
seven two five five. That is the number right into
the studio. You can also get a hold of us
at help at troubleshooter dot com, and we are here
for you, so give us a call. We're going to
bounce around today and talk about a number of other
things while we don't have callers on the line, so
the lines are wide open. We want to we want

(01:41):
to open the lines up to your call. So let's
go with those. Brad, longtime, no see. Tell me about
your what's new in your world?

Speaker 3 (01:50):
Well, as you know, I'm a real estate attorney helping
people bind sell real estate, also getting into things like leases,
but also in addition to transactions, disputes involving real estate.
So if there's a contract dispute, you know, in a
purchase of a home, or a land dispute, a fence dispute,
or an access issue, I can address all those kind

(02:13):
of things involving real estate transactions or real estate related disputes.

Speaker 2 (02:18):
Who do you typically represent? Do you represent owners, tenants, landlords,
purchaser sellers? Do you have kind of a niche that
you think most of your people fall into.

Speaker 3 (02:29):
I represent both sides. So whoever calls me first a
buyer or a seller, or a landlord or a tenant.
Whoever calls me first. I'm happy to represent them.

Speaker 2 (02:37):
Okay, how important do you think it is for any
landlord in Colorado to have a relationship with an attorney
like you? In today's crazy world of landlord tenant laws.

Speaker 3 (02:49):
You know, things have changed in the landlord tenant world
in Colorado in the last ten years. Previously you could
just sort of wing it without an attorney. That's no
longer the case. The laws had become so complex, so
tenant friendly, and that you just have to have an
attorney to guide you through. It's even tough for me
to keep up with the changes in the law every

(03:10):
It seems like every year the tenant laws in Colorado
change and new requirements, new restrictions apply to landlords, and
you can get in trouble as a landlord really quick
if you do something that historically did. For example, you know,
you might have just thrown for late fees. You might
have just thrown some random percentage in there. Okay, this
I'm going to charge a ten percent late fee or

(03:31):
a twenty percent late fee. You know that would fly,
you know, fifteen years ago. But the law has changed
and there's a limit that you can put in your
lease for what a late fee is and if you
exceed that, there's penalties and attorney fees in favor of
the tenant and against the landlord if you do something
like that. So a lot of ways to get tripped
up if you're a landlord.

Speaker 2 (03:52):
Do you find that the tenants these days are far
more educated than they ever were about all these little
potential landmind that that landlords can step into.

Speaker 3 (04:02):
Yes, because the Internet is out there now, and there
are certain tenants who frankly gained the system and are
there to get some free rent with no intention of
ever paying, And there are websites instructing how to take
advantage of a landlord, and there's tenants out there doing that.

(04:23):
I've seen the actual playbook. One one tenant who's doing
this accidentally sent their outline that they downloaded from the
Internet about how to take advantage of the landlord and
get months of free rent by tying everything up in court.
I accidentally sent that to our side. Just you know,
their game plan, and that's it's out there.

Speaker 2 (04:43):
So were you able to take advantage of that?

Speaker 3 (04:49):
I know about it. But just the fact that there's
instructions out there, step by step how to take advantage
of a landlord.

Speaker 2 (04:55):
Amazing? Was this mainly from the COVID era? Is that
kind of really what brought about most of the changes?

Speaker 3 (05:02):
No, the changes actually started before then. The things changes
changed in the Colorado legislature since twenty fifteen where in
fairness to tenants who were being taken advantage of by landlords,
because there are landlords out there who were doing things
like illegal addictions, lockouts, and not giving tenants the number

(05:23):
of days notice that were required for certain things. So
you know, there were certain protections enacted in the law.

Speaker 2 (05:30):
Right. Okay, we're going to get back to that in
a little bit more detail. Let's quickly go to the
phone here. We have Nikki on the on the line
here to talk about an issue from yesterday with plumbing
an insurance. Yeah, John, let me bring you up to
date on that call.

Speaker 4 (05:43):
Niki called us pretty close to the end of yesterday's
show and to kind of encapsulate it for you, she
lives in Denver. She has a house, and this house
she has a warranty she bought her a service agreement
to fix or replace the sewer service line if it
ever bad. And you know that's a pretty expensive kind
of a project. Well, a few months ago, it did

(06:05):
go bad. Sewage backed up into her house. It damage
the house, caused all kinds of problems, including poisoning her dog,
and Nikki is she was having problems with getting her
insurance company to cover the costs the mitigation and the
repair costs to her house because, as Niki told us,

(06:26):
Nicki's insurance company indicated, they're waiting for some kind of
a report from the plumber. Now, we didn't have enough
time at the end of the show to kind of
dive into what this report is, so we did ask
her to come back this morning and kind of fill
us in on this. Nikki, did I did I summarize?
Did I summarize this pretty accurately? Is there anything important
missing from what I just told John?

Speaker 5 (06:49):
Yeah, I mean I think I think the biggest problem
is that because we have the servants playing warranty service,
we have to use their contractor, who is Kronen Plumbing,
and we're at the mercy of their schedule, and they
have no sense of urgency. You know, they're not great communicators.

(07:11):
They did replace the sewer line, but they were negligent
and left human feaces on the property which my dog consumed,
which I ended up having THHT in it because I
take those edibles to sleep at night, so he got
really sick. He's fine, but it's just it's just been
a rough road and they still have not come back
to resolve the issue to finish the job, which is

(07:32):
jetting the line. And now they're not calling me back.
They're not answering their phones. They're not They were supposed
to come today. They're not telling me in they're coming.
They have completely stopped all communication now.

Speaker 4 (07:43):
VICKI fire, remember right, what's required to complete the sewer
line service, which apparently is covered by this warranty company
of yours. Cronin Plumbing replaced the broken pipes, and what
they have to do now is come back to jet
the rest of the sewer line.

Speaker 2 (08:00):
Is that right?

Speaker 5 (08:01):
And it wasn't the pipes inside the house. It was
the sewer line that was. It was offset and so
it was backing up. So they did replace that, but
they realized when they did it it was there still
like a soft clog.

Speaker 4 (08:15):
Right, So they're going to come back, come back, aren't
they supposed to come back today to jet your pipes?

Speaker 5 (08:20):
They are, okay, they are, but they're not answering my calls.
They won't give me a time window because because I
have to go back to the property and let them in,
and so far it's been radio silence.

Speaker 2 (08:32):
Okay, And I think.

Speaker 4 (08:33):
The second issue you're having is your homeowner's insurance, not
not the sewer line warranty insurre company, but the actual
homeowner's insurance is waiting for you to get some kind
of a report from the plumber before they cover your damages.

Speaker 2 (08:50):
Is that did I did I remember that the right way?

Speaker 6 (08:52):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (08:53):
Yeah, So the the homeowners it's just waiting for uh,
you know, they're they're not going to cover the sewer
line part of it, but in order for the water
mitigation company to come and start their work where they
demolish in my bathroom because I have water damage. That's
really when the coverage kicks in. But the sewer or

(09:15):
the plumbers were supposed to send a report, and apparently
this guy's just sent in complete pictures. He didn't send
a full report. And I've talked to the guy at
my homeowners He's very easy to communicate. There's no there's
no disconnect in what he's telling me. And I keep
trying to urge this guy to send it, and he's
just not giving them what they need.

Speaker 4 (09:36):
Did you did your homeowners insurance assign an adjuster to
this and has the adjuster come out?

Speaker 2 (09:41):
Has the adjuster come out to inspect your property?

Speaker 7 (09:44):
No?

Speaker 5 (09:45):
No, it's it's all been remote so they do everything
via a like an app. Now, so I took like
three sixty sixty pictures of all of the water damage,
and really that that doesn't say much. The whole story
is when they demolish in the bathroom, it's the water
damage that the pictures of what's happened underneath that. That

(10:06):
George from the other place that's doing my water mitigation.
Once he provides that, it goes in. But you know
he's with.

Speaker 2 (10:16):
He's the only restoration.

Speaker 8 (10:18):
You know.

Speaker 4 (10:19):
It's it sounds really odd because typically the insurance company
would send an adjuster. The adjuster would eyeball the damage
and either approve your claim or deny it on whole
or in part. But what insurance company is that that
doesn't even want to send an adjuster out.

Speaker 9 (10:34):
Liberty Mutual, Oh.

Speaker 2 (10:36):
Well, listen, we can help with that. X.

Speaker 4 (10:39):
Could we get Brian Burns from Compass Insurance on the phone.
He works very closely with Liberty Mutual, and Nikki, I
have a feeling he's going to be able to kind
of short circuit this report thing and tell us how
you can actually go forth with your claim from Liberty
with Liberty Mutual without any undue delay. Yeah, yeah, So

(11:00):
do you have time to hang on while we get
while we get Brian And he was here yesterday.

Speaker 2 (11:05):
He's quite familiar with your case.

Speaker 4 (11:07):
You may recall he weighed in on it a couple
of times, so he's going to be super helpful for us.

Speaker 2 (11:11):
Okay, all right, Nikki, so hang on the line. We're
going to take our first break here for just a
couple of moments. We'll be right back. Sarah, you'll be
up next. We'll get to you in just a moment.

Speaker 10 (11:26):
Go with a sure thing Denver's Best roofer Excel Roofing
dot com.

Speaker 11 (11:30):
You don't pay a cent until you're content than.

Speaker 10 (11:35):
Time for an insurance checkup free no obligation comparison call
Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens of
insurance companies find out now three O three seven seven
to one help. You'll think you're his only customer when
you choose Frank durand the real estate man dot com
to list your home with Remax Alliance three oh three
nine two zero sixteen twenty two.

Speaker 2 (12:01):
All right, good afternoon, John Fuller here getting back to
you at the Troubleshooter Network. We are live in studio
with the esteemed Dimitri and Attorney Brad O'Brien, which is
you can reach at olslaw dot com. That's olslaw dot com.
He can also be reached at seven two oh three
seven zero seven three eight eight. We've got a couple

(12:23):
of callers on the line. We're going to go back
to Nicki here in just a moment. We're waiting for
for Brian Burns to join us from Compass Insurance, and
when he joins us, we'll go right to Nicki. So
hang on the line. We're also hoping that you'll call
in with some of your problems and issues today. I
am a personal injury attorney and Brad here is a
real estate attorney. In Between the two of us, we've

(12:46):
got a zillion years of experience and we're here to
help you with everything that you can think of related
to accidents, insurance, your landlord, tenant issues, real estate transactions
by sell title issues, complaint. Everything under the sun like that,
So take advantage of it. While you have the two
of us together, we would appreciate your phone calls and

(13:08):
enjoy the opportunity to help you out. So in the meantime,
we're going to go to Sarah. Who's on the line.
Who Sarah? Did you call us a month ago? It says,
and are following up now?

Speaker 7 (13:19):
Good morning, John, No, I called last beef.

Speaker 2 (13:21):
John. Okay, help me out and tell me what's going on.

Speaker 7 (13:25):
Yes. To make it short, a company in Colorado had
a seminar in Colorado. They were selling medical great equipment.
I was hoping that they would help me with my
health issue, so I purchased it. It was fifteen thousand
dollars at the time of sale. They said there's a

(13:48):
six month money back guarantee and lifetime baranche on the
equipment and all of that. After they a couple of
weeks I received the equipment. It wasn't for me. It
phrased my blood treasure to really high levels. So I
tried to contact the company to tell them that this

(14:09):
is not working for me. It took many, many tries,
so anyone to.

Speaker 2 (14:14):
Respond, Sarah, hold on just a second, Let me help
me understand. So you purchased this equipment at a live seminar.
Was that seminar here in Colorado?

Speaker 7 (14:23):
Yes?

Speaker 8 (14:24):
It was?

Speaker 2 (14:24):
And what kind of equipment are we talking about? Durable
medical equipment or electronics or what exactly are we talking about?

Speaker 7 (14:31):
It was actually a medical grade light panel, light therapy
panel and vibrating machines. But they were not for me.
They didn't help me for.

Speaker 2 (14:46):
Fifteen thousand dollars fifteen thousand or fifteen hundred.

Speaker 7 (14:51):
Fifteen thousand after after I finally got a hold of one,
they said they would charge fifteen percent re fucking feet.
After I returned the equipment, they sent me shipping labels.
I packed the equipment to send it to them, and
then they sent me the check that was returned unpaid.

(15:14):
I contacted them again. They sent another check, and again
it was unpaid. Their bank would not cash it.

Speaker 2 (15:22):
Wait, are you saying they're sending you checks that are bouncing?

Speaker 12 (15:25):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (15:29):
Yeah, which is a felony. So where Sarah, where is
this company located? Are they here in Colorado?

Speaker 7 (15:39):
No, it is in Florida, Florida.

Speaker 2 (15:43):
What's it called? I'd like to look on my question.

Speaker 7 (15:45):
My question is would I be able to file in
since the checks bounced in Colorado, they sale happened in Colorado,
with a county court in Colorado have jurisdiction over this.

Speaker 2 (15:58):
Yeah, I believe that they would. And that's just based
on their presence in the state of Colorado, their transacting
business in the state of Colorado. You can double check
whether they've availed themselves of the jurisdiction of Colorado by
checking on the Secretary of State's website because all out
of state businesses are required to be registered on the
Secretary's site. And John, I'll be happy to look them up.

Speaker 4 (16:21):
If, okay, Sarah tells us the name of this company,
I'll start researching them right now. And hey, you on, Sarah,
and also correct me if I'm wrong, John, But isn't
the bounced check victim entitled to three times the damages?

Speaker 2 (16:33):
Yeah, they sure are, and and attorney's fees they are,
That's correct. The only trouble is going to be getting
jurisdiction over them and and you know, being able to
pursue it in the court. So it's important that we
look up and do the diligence on the secretary side. Sarah,
once again, what is the name of this company. What
is their full legal name?

Speaker 7 (16:52):
Wybrant Help Systems?

Speaker 2 (16:54):
Can you sell that first Namebrant the I B R
A N T Vibrant Health.

Speaker 7 (17:05):
Systems. I looked up in Florida under Secretary of State
and it is registered under a Frying Oak in Florida.
But he doesn't. And every time I've gone to the
bank with their check, they say contact the center and
he doesn't return calls. He doesn't want to give money back,

(17:29):
even though they have received the equipment back, and they have.
They have emailed me that they have received me and
I have tracking.

Speaker 4 (17:37):
How did you pay? How did you pay for this device?
I hope you're going to say credit card?

Speaker 7 (17:42):
Well I didn't. I've actually partially credit card. Partially. I
put it to KET out of my savings because I
was hoping that it would actually help me with my health.

Speaker 8 (17:54):
How much?

Speaker 2 (17:54):
How much was on a credit card?

Speaker 7 (17:57):
About twelve thousand and what on a credit card?

Speaker 2 (18:02):
Almost?

Speaker 7 (18:03):
Sorry, Oh, it's on.

Speaker 4 (18:05):
A debit card. Look, you gotta file. You gotta file
a dispute with your bank now. And John, here's why
I say.

Speaker 9 (18:11):
That that.

Speaker 7 (18:14):
Was back in March.

Speaker 2 (18:16):
It may not be too late. It may not be
too late.

Speaker 8 (18:19):
John.

Speaker 2 (18:19):
Here's why I say that.

Speaker 4 (18:20):
It is common knowledge that if you're dissatisfied with your purchase,
you can dispute it on your credit card. Now what
A lot of people don't know that you can also
dispute it with many debit cards as well.

Speaker 2 (18:31):
It's it's really up to your bank. Now.

Speaker 4 (18:34):
I have a debit card which I used, and you
made fun of me before for that same reason. But
I did check with my bank. In fact, I got
a pamphlet from them when they printed out my debit card,
and I'm it's subject to the same protections that credit
card would offer. So, Sarah, the first thing you gotta
do is go to your bank and see if this
is the kind of dispute.

Speaker 2 (18:55):
You can file over there. Now, John, I'll.

Speaker 4 (18:58):
Keep its well, twelve thousand is still the bulk of
the purchase.

Speaker 3 (19:04):
I mean.

Speaker 2 (19:05):
The beauty of twelve thousand is what is your refund
check in the thirteen range?

Speaker 7 (19:10):
Or they have sent me a check for twelve thousand
and seven fifty Yeah, I think they're playing games. John.
I want to go to the court and ask for
table damage.

Speaker 2 (19:22):
Well, I understand that, but at this point I would
have to tell you if you got your money back,
you should consider yourself extremely lucky. I mean, that's a
huge purchase, you know, for this item, and the fact
that they're even willing to entertain taking it back even
though they're writing you bad checks is a step in
the right direction. So if I were you, my goal

(19:44):
would be to get my twelve thousand dollars back anyway
that I can. The problem you're going to have is,
even if you go to court and you get a
judgment against them, you're trying to collect from the same
company that's out of state and that's been writing you
bad check. So there's no indication that you're going to
ever be able to collect a dying from these people.
I mean, a judgment is just nothing but a piece
of paper, and then you have to do all the

(20:06):
legwork and the hard work to go to Florida and
domesticate the judgment down there and then try to collect
on it.

Speaker 7 (20:13):
Would that be the case even though their bank is
a national bank, it's Chase.

Speaker 2 (20:17):
Bank, it's still going to have to be pursued in Florida,
where that company is located.

Speaker 4 (20:24):
So, and unfortunately, John the car To Secretary of State's
website is malfunctioning right now, so likely, And I've had
this experience with him quite a few times, so I
can't look up right now if they have a registered
agent in Colorado. But this is a well known guy,
you know, Tom Martino is actually familiar with him. Yeah,
Brian Auks operates Vibrant Health Systems and they also go

(20:45):
under the name Vibrant Tech and trade show sales that
kind of stuff of this red lighte therapy.

Speaker 2 (20:52):
Have we dealt with them before?

Speaker 8 (20:54):
Now?

Speaker 4 (20:54):
This is the first I recall, But I'll keep researching
whether or not they have a registered agent here.

Speaker 2 (21:01):
But in the meantime, she needs to drive strip to
the bank. I think that's really the advice that we
have for you, Sarah, is I would call your credit
card or your bank immediately and attempt to dispute the
charge on it for the full twelve thousand that you
put on the card, and you can tell them all
the other information, but absolutely file that claim, and if
they're able to reverse that in some way against that

(21:24):
account and that business, you're almost as good as you
could ever be without having to go through the hassle
of going to court, perfecting service a process against them
and everything else, if they're not registered in the state
of Colorado, you've got an even bigger challenge, and that's
to get jurisdiction and get service over them, and then
convince a judge that jurisdiction is proper over this foreign entity.

(21:48):
And I think you'll prevail on that. But it's an
extra several steps that you'd have to go through to
get to get the green light to go forward on
your single bad check charge here in Colorado. Likelihood, I
would guess that they probably default judgment on it and
you'll get your piece of paper. But if you can
collect anything out of the dispute process on your credit card,

(22:09):
you are way better off in this world to do that.
And John correct me if I'm wrong. But there's nothing
to stop her from doing both.

Speaker 4 (22:16):
If she gets money back on her debit card, she
still has a completely separate claim against against Brian Ox
for the bump check, so as a hobby at least
she can try to sue him and see if she
can get a judgment for damages for the bad check.

Speaker 2 (22:31):
Right, that's a good point. I think he could probably
do that. So, Sarah, does that sound like a plan
for you?

Speaker 7 (22:38):
I guess, But I doubt very much that I can
do anything with the bank because at the time of shale,
I have to call the bank I ask them to
release that amount of money.

Speaker 2 (22:49):
Yeah, but that's fine. That's just because your that's just
because your bank has limits on what they'll do without
calling and talking to you directly. So that doesn't change
the fact that there are there are issuer protections in
place for MasterCard and Visa cards, even if they're debit cards,
that will provide some protection against fraud. And so even

(23:10):
though you fully intended to purchase this product, which you did,
and if it had worked, you would have kept it
and been a happy camper. But for the fraud, it
was a completely legitimate transaction. So I don't think that
really changes the fact that you need to call the
bank and put them on notice and file a complaint
about the fraudulent transaction and see what protection they can

(23:32):
offer you. And then by all means, we will continue
to look here and see what we can find out
about whether they have a registered agent in Colorado and
whether the pursuit of that in court would be an
easy or a hard challenge for you.

Speaker 4 (23:46):
Yeah, and I'll continue to research this company in the background.
But Sarah, once you talk to the bank today, can
you call us back and let us know what they said?

Speaker 7 (23:54):
Yes, yes, I can do that. But also, if they
are not registered in Colorado, what did it make a
difference As for as jurisdiction of the court.

Speaker 2 (24:04):
It will make a So here's the deal. Their jurisdictional
presence in Colorado was established when they held a seminar
in Colorado, they transacted business in Colorado, and now they're
sending mail back and forth. I mean they have availed
themselves of the jurisdiction of Colorado. They have a website.
I'm sure that you know that is reachable by consumers

(24:29):
in Colorado. I don't think you'll have any trouble getting
jurisdiction over them. But if they're not physically here and
they don't have a registered agent in Colorado, you will
have to fight that battle. You will have to assert
the grounds that make them subject to the jurisdiction of
the Colorado courts. You will have to serve them and
satisfy all the venue requirements through Florida to get service

(24:52):
on them for your Colorado suit. So the first step
is always to see if you can go the easy
way which is to see if they're if they do
have a registered agent here in Colorado, and you know,
our subject to being sued here without you having to
go through all those steps. So Dmitri's gonna check into
that with the Secretary of State and we'll find that

(25:13):
out and we'll go from there. Okay, Sarah, I appreciate
the call. Best of luck to you, and I hope
you can get some relief from these people. We're gonna
go to another break. We'll be right back.

Speaker 10 (25:25):
Go with a sure thing Denver's Best roofer Excel Roofing
dot com.

Speaker 11 (25:29):
You don't pay a cent until you're content.

Speaker 10 (25:33):
Leave time for an insurance checkup free no obligation comparison
call Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens
of insurance companies find out now three all three seven
to seven to one help. You'll think you're his only
customer when you choose Frank durand the real estate Man
dot com to list your home with Remax Alliance three
all three nine two zero sixteen twenty two.

Speaker 2 (25:59):
Hey on Fuller here back on the Troubleshooter Network with
Brad O'Brien with O'Brien Legal Services and Dmitri here live
in the studio. We're here to help solve your problems.
Take questions, solve problems, take complaints. We're here for you.
We have a wealth of knowledge on everything from personal injury, accidents, insurance,

(26:19):
real estate, landlord, tenant, the whole nine yards, and then
the ever amazing Dmitri's wealth of information. But we are
here dealing with Nicki, who called in yesterday and just
to kind of reset, Nicki had a blockage in her
sewage line and had a warranty program that provided coverage

(26:40):
for that, and so they have in fact fixed that,
but the secondary part of it involves her home owner's
insurance and involves a plumbing company that needs to jet
out the lines and clean everything out. And we're talking
about the fact that Nicki is having difficulties getting them
to come out and do that, but she's also having

(27:01):
a lot of difficulty communicating with her Liberty Mutual adjuster
and in terms of getting the information they need to
move forward on the claim. And we thought nobody would
be better able to address those concerns than our resident expert,
Brian Burns, who welcome to the show right now. Hey Brian, Hey,
are you Oh, doing great, doing great. I know you
were here yesterday. I think you heard some of Nicky's

(27:23):
call or maybe even chimed in on it. Nicky, share
with us the communication you've had with the liberty adjuster.
You said they've not come out to your property. Everything
has just been over the phone. What challenges are you
having getting information to that adjuster?

Speaker 4 (27:39):
It sounds John it sounds like she doesn't even have
an adjuster.

Speaker 2 (27:42):
No, I think she said she did that. He was
pretty laid back and easy to work with, but never
came out to her property. Okay, which one of us
is hearing you? Right there? NICKI? Hello, Nicky?

Speaker 5 (27:55):
It makes Can you not hear me?

Speaker 10 (27:57):
Now?

Speaker 2 (27:57):
We can hear you?

Speaker 9 (27:59):
Okay, Sorry.

Speaker 5 (28:00):
Liberty Mutual makes you do everything through an app. They
don't send adjusters out, they make you take pictures. It's
all virtual now. And they did assign me an adjuster,
and I have been talking to him and he's very nice,
but his hands are tied. He can't start the claim
for me to get coverage for where I'm staying at
the hotel until he gets documentation for the inside water damage,

(28:24):
and the water mitigation specialists can't begin their work until
the plumbing sewage line has resolved because we don't want
the water backing up and damaging the brand new work
you know that's been done in the bathroom. So we're
all just waiting for Cronin Plumbing to do their job.
And I did get some communication while I was on

(28:45):
hold with the manager, Jason, and he said that he
said that somebody fell up. It's always something with them,
that somebody fell off the roof, which is terrible. I
feel bad for that person. But now they're not coming
out to jet the line until Friday.

Speaker 4 (29:00):
Okay, Hey, Brian, I think the crux of the problem
here is that Liberty Mutual. It sounds like they won't
start paying for her hotel and they won't accept responsibility
for paying for the repairs to her house until they
get some kind of a report from a plumber.

Speaker 2 (29:16):
Have you ever heard of such a thing?

Speaker 4 (29:17):
Couldn't they just send their adjuster out so he can hear,
she can see with his own eyes what the problem is,
and then accept responsibility for it. What do you reckon?
Does it sound like this is what's going on? And
if so, what can be done to kind of get
the plumber out of the loop.

Speaker 13 (29:32):
Oh, I know.

Speaker 9 (29:33):
I mean, I it does seem like they should be
able to send an actual adjuster out, and she's saying,
he's saying that that that's just not possible. I do think,
you know, she's feeling like she's not going to get
anybody out there, like this person's going to keep on delaying.
I mean, she could get a plumber out to give

(29:54):
a you know, a lost condition, something that shows proof
of loss. I'm probably pushed back, or you know, if
you're living somewhere else, are you just worried that these
bills are compiling and you're not able to afford it.
I'm imagining that they're going to backdate when the coverage
is going to start as soon as they get the
proof of loss.

Speaker 14 (30:14):
Are they saying that?

Speaker 9 (30:16):
Yeah?

Speaker 5 (30:16):
Yes, And you know, we were saying we moved into
the hotel last Thursday because my dad and I started
to show signs of sickness from inhaling whatever was in
the air in our house. So we just left and
I've been putting it on the credit card. But yeah,
I mean, it's not cheap to stay at a hotel,
so yes, I would like to make sure that we're

(30:38):
not going to be on the hook for all these charges.

Speaker 2 (30:40):
It's understandab by anxiety, right, Brian could Yeah.

Speaker 9 (30:44):
Totally because you know, as much as I think they
will end up having to pay for all this, it's
it's very difficult to just fork out this money without
knowing that you're going to get this back. So I
do understand that.

Speaker 15 (30:56):
Well he confirmed.

Speaker 9 (30:58):
I mean, is he saying, Hey, is this truly water
damage that was caused that, Yes, we're going to pay
for that. Are you even able to get that much
out of them?

Speaker 5 (31:06):
No, he's he's being very careful about what he says
to me. You know, they said they can't approve the
claim until they get the documentation that they need basically,
so he's he's sort of just saying, like, we haven't
approved it yet, and until I get the documentation, I
can't say yes or no.

Speaker 4 (31:22):
And Brian, and the documentation is supposed to come from
Nikki's own plumber, but this plumber is less than reliable,
at least in the context of paperwork, so it doesn't
seem fair for the insurance company.

Speaker 8 (31:35):
I agree.

Speaker 9 (31:36):
I would push against this claim, adjuster. I mean, you shouldn't.
This shouldn't be your responsibility to get a plumber out
there to look at the damage. They should be doing this.
You know that production make you rely on yourself here.

Speaker 2 (31:51):
Yeah, I mean if they need a plus or they
can say yeah, they could absolutely do that.

Speaker 4 (31:56):
So how do we how do we politely put a
little bit of pressure on Liberty Mutual to actually, you know,
start start start being more proactive in this matter?

Speaker 9 (32:06):
Yes, so can you ask for a claim supervisors where
I would go next?

Speaker 5 (32:12):
Okay, yes, I can do that. I haven't done that yet,
but yes, and I was.

Speaker 9 (32:18):
I can put something together of what I would actually
state to that that claim adjuster.

Speaker 14 (32:24):
Why don't you why don't you.

Speaker 9 (32:26):
Give me her email off error and I'll send something
to you that I would I would send to a
claim supervisor to try to get this uh moving.

Speaker 4 (32:38):
Oh that's great, Brian, thanks so much. Compass Insurance, that
is that is just awesome.

Speaker 5 (32:43):
Yeah, thank you, thank you for your help. And I
think I think the moral of the story is the
people at Cronin Plumbing have been treating me like I'm
an acting, acting like a crazy person. And I don't
like being treated like this. I'm you know, I'm just
I'm just asking them to do their job and they
won't even talk to me on the phone now, they
only text me, And so Liberty Mutual is just stalling,

(33:06):
you know. It's just like it's been so much work
and we pay for this insurance, and I think we
should get, you know, the coverage that we need, especially.

Speaker 4 (33:14):
In a high stressed situation like there's damage to your house,
the damage hasn't been repaired, you're stuck in a hotel.
There's anxiety of how much is this gonna cost me?
And is Liberty're gonna pick up the tab like you
feel they're supposed to.

Speaker 2 (33:25):
Hey, do us a favor.

Speaker 4 (33:27):
After you and Brian talk and put together your game plan,
talk to this adjuster's supervisor and mention to the adjuster that, hey,
the Tom Martino Troubleshooter Show is waiting for an update
from you.

Speaker 2 (33:40):
All right, So Nikki, hang on the line. Brian will
get with you in just a moment. We're gonna take
a quick break. We'll be right back.

Speaker 10 (33:50):
Go with a sure thing Denver's Best roofer Excel roofing
dot com. You don't pay a cent unto your content
time for an insurance check up free, no obligation. In comparison,
call Compass insurance pay too much your coverage at dozens
of insurance companies find Out Now three oh three seven
seven to one help. You'll think you're his only customer

(34:12):
when you choose Frank durand the real estate Man dot
com to list your home with Remax Alliance three oh
three nine two zero sixteen twenty two.

Speaker 4 (34:22):
Brian Burns from Compass Insurance Group three oh three nine
nine six nine thousand ortheinsurancehelp Center dot com. Brian, thanks
so much for making yourself available to help us with
Nicky's call, and thanks for offering to kind of coach
her in the background how she should proceed with this
claim at Liberty Mutual. What's going on at your company?
Can you tell us about what about SOLA?

Speaker 9 (34:45):
Oh yeah, yeah, that's hail coverage.

Speaker 8 (34:48):
So with all this.

Speaker 9 (34:48):
Hail season coming in, it's a it's a policy that
you can purchase a certain dollar amount so that a
hail hits over one inch in size and.

Speaker 14 (34:58):
Does damage, it will pay it out.

Speaker 2 (34:59):
So it's a really.

Speaker 9 (35:00):
Cool product that we've been been working with Mark On
and Brian.

Speaker 4 (35:04):
Ifinder stand it correctly, that doesn't go on your homeowner's
clue reports, so you don't get penalized by by paying
a higher premium on your homeowner's insurance in the future
after making that claim.

Speaker 2 (35:14):
Is that right?

Speaker 14 (35:15):
That's right.

Speaker 9 (35:16):
Yeah, there's no surcharge to it after you file acclaim
and there it doesn't show up on the clues. So yep,
it's a really cool thing.

Speaker 4 (35:23):
I did not know how many products Compass Insurance actually offers.
I write your sign on your website Wedding and Events Insurance.

Speaker 10 (35:38):
Go with a sure thing Denver's Best Roofer Excel Roofing
dot com. You don't pay a cent until you're content.
Time for an insurance checkup free, no obligation. In comparison,
call Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens
of insurance companies find out now three O three seven
seven to one help. You'll think you're his own week

(36:00):
customer when you choose Frank durand the real estate Man
dot com to list your home with Remax Alliance three
all three nine two zero sixteen twenty.

Speaker 1 (36:08):
Two, forty five years strong. Solving your problems, answering questions,
taking complaints.

Speaker 2 (36:16):
This is the Troubleshooter Show. Now, Tom Marzino, I, Hey,
this is John Fuller filling in for Tom and Mark today,
I am in the studio with Brad O'Brien of Olslaw
dot com. Brad is a real estate attorney. I myself
am a twenty five year veteran of the personal injury

(36:41):
law trade, and we are here today to help answer
your questions, solve your problems, take complaints, do what we
can to help you work through those issues. We've got
some calls lined up here, but we're going to quickly
go through them. First is a question from Mike. What's
going on today? Mike?

Speaker 12 (36:59):
Question number one? Are you familiar with the case where
someone has gotten the transportation infrastructure thrown out of court
on the planting of the trees on the neutral ground
between the sidewalk and the street. I am not telling

(37:20):
you that on the basis of that the roots are
going to grow up under the sidewalk and break the
concrete up and cause the section to move out up
of alignment. And also possibly a person could get out
of a car on the passenger side in the middle
of the night and stumble or stub their toe or

(37:42):
spring their ankle on the trunk of it, or get
an eye andrew from one of the branches.

Speaker 2 (37:48):
Is that a case that's fending somewhere.

Speaker 8 (37:50):
Mike.

Speaker 12 (37:50):
No, I'm not familiar with one, and I'm asking you
if you've familiar with one.

Speaker 2 (37:56):
I have not heard of that case to a degree
make sense to me. Is there a partakular location you're
concerned about, or just in.

Speaker 12 (38:05):
General, Yes, it would be in front of my house.
And I'm just wondering if a person got an injury
or getting out of a car in the middle of
the night goes ay park on the street, that they
might be able to hold me liable for it.

Speaker 2 (38:23):
Brad, what do you think.

Speaker 3 (38:25):
I'm not familiar with any specific law on this point,
but just as a matter of general law, if you
can show in court that there's an impending risk of
imminent bodily harm. For example, if there's a tree that
is now teetering because of a storm that just passed through,
and that tree is precariously leaning over a house, you

(38:47):
might be able to at that point go to court
and get a court order ordering the neighbor whose treat
is to take it down.

Speaker 2 (38:54):
But you're getting into governmental immunity type issues for what
the caller is calling about.

Speaker 3 (38:59):
Yeah, but you're talking about the tree they just got
planted in decades from out from now, maybe in that
kind of a situation, But I'm not familiar with any
restriction on from the governmental side that would apply to
the situation.

Speaker 2 (39:12):
Well, it'd be a design defect type complaint, but it
would have to happen after the route actually created the
it would have to manifest itself as a dangerous condition.
I don't think you can hypothetically claim potential risky conditions down.

Speaker 3 (39:28):
The road and you certainly that's not imminent.

Speaker 2 (39:30):
Right, Yeah, I think that would be pretty challenging.

Speaker 12 (39:33):
There, Mike, Okay, And number two, Uh, are you familiar
with the case locally where it has been established that
the driver was distracted by either a cell phone or
an AP screen in the vehicle and the loss control
and crashed into a home or business and someone was

(39:55):
either injured or killed. Do you have you heard of
a case where they were charged with either a vehicular
assault or vehicular homicide because it was established they were
distracted by either a cell phone or an AP screen.

Speaker 2 (40:10):
Well, I think that you know you're you're crossing a
couple of different boundaries there. Certainly, what you've you're describing
would be negligence and negligence would would open the door
to those people being held civilly liable for, you know,
for for their their actions and the consequences that flowed
from it. The other issue is is these criminal charges.

(40:31):
I mean, you've got an intent element or certainly with
some of those, a knowing assumption of risks that it
was an unduly dangerous activity and you undertook it anyway,
and that could open the door to you know, those charges.
But we have cases all the time where people are
charged with, you know, with with careless causing injury, careless

(40:53):
causing death, reckless driving, vehicular assault, vehicular or homicide. I mean,
we have those cases all the time in Colorado, and
they all are some variation of somebody doing something incredibly
stupid resulting in somebody getting hurd or killed. Okay, so
hopefully that never happens to you. But I appreciate the call,

(41:15):
and we're going to move along. Here. We've got Peter
on the line that is holding with an issue with
the city of Evans, and Peter, go ahead and tell
us what's going on.

Speaker 8 (41:26):
Hi.

Speaker 15 (41:26):
So I called in a couple of weeks ago and
tried to get some advice on the city of Evans.
I have a home up there, and they did a
road widening project. Okay, well they bought some property from me,
and the building that was there had solar panels on it,
and they took the building down, took the solar panels away,
threw them away, never contacted me like they stated they would.

(41:46):
And they also cut all the power of the gas
and the water to my property. So now it's useless.
And I tried to go to the city council two
weeks ago because that's what Bow and Town recommended, and
talked to the city and they really didn't They didn't
do anything. They said that they don't listen to their
talk about that stuff there at council or whatever. So
I need to get a lawyer because this far something,

(42:08):
because this has been going on now.

Speaker 8 (42:09):
For over a year.

Speaker 2 (42:11):
Okay, you called the right show. We've got Brian in
the our Bred O'Brien in the studio today that can
answer all things to do with real estate, So Brad
take it away.

Speaker 3 (42:23):
Well, cities that provide utilities are allowed to disconnect utilities
under very strict circumstances. There are prerequisites for giving notice,
plenty of time, listening to your rights to have it delayed,
for example a medical situation or application for housing assistance

(42:45):
until that comes through.

Speaker 15 (42:46):
Ye, I do have answer, so and they knew that,
and I told the city long before they started. They
contacted me back in twenty twenty with this whole thing,
and they've screwed up the project so much. It's been
pushed for years.

Speaker 3 (42:57):
Actually two years ago in Colorado there's a change in
the law where utilities. We had strict requirements that applied
to privately owned utilities for disconnection, and two years ago
there was a bill that extended those very restrict, strict
prerequisites to municipalities. So now you municipalities have to follow

(43:19):
these very strict requirements, so they can so long and short,
they can cut off the utilities for non payment.

Speaker 13 (43:25):
But oh no, it's.

Speaker 15 (43:26):
Not for non payment. I didn't have a non payment.
The property was a rental property, okay. And like I said,
they were doing a world road widing project, so they
disconnected the power so they could do everything. And then
they were supposed to give me full movement access both
east and west, and they never did that either. And
I have that all on writing from their city engineer

(43:47):
that are tired about nine months.

Speaker 2 (43:49):
Ago, Peter, Just to be clear, were you a tendant
of this property or is this a property where you live?

Speaker 8 (43:55):
No?

Speaker 2 (43:55):
I own it, you own it, but you said it's
a rental property.

Speaker 8 (43:58):
What I owned?

Speaker 15 (43:59):
A rental property?

Speaker 2 (44:00):
Okay?

Speaker 3 (44:01):
Was the house condemned by the city No? No, okay?
And so even now there's no.

Speaker 13 (44:07):
You no power, never renter in it.

Speaker 15 (44:09):
Yeah, there's no power to it. They're done with the road.
If there's no power, there's no gas and there's no
water hooked up.

Speaker 3 (44:15):
And did they give a reason on the failure for
their not restoring power?

Speaker 16 (44:20):
Nope?

Speaker 15 (44:21):
Okay, didn't you really want to talk to me? I
have the video from the from the the meeting I
went to. I could send it to you, and you
can see just how disrespectful and non responses they were.

Speaker 3 (44:31):
Well, have they taken a final action to are they
saying that they're never going to restore the power or
is it just a delay or an administrative bro.

Speaker 15 (44:40):
When I was finished talking, the mayor said, thank you,
We don't discuss that here at the city council. I said,
are we going to do something? What are we going
to do with the property? They didn't say anything. They
just looked at me. We stood and stared in silence.

Speaker 8 (44:52):
That may be.

Speaker 3 (44:52):
True, it may be something to take up with the
city staff.

Speaker 15 (44:56):
Well, the staff was there, and he said, if the
staff wants to take it.

Speaker 2 (45:01):
So, this is a residential home that you owned, and
the city, through this expansion process has torn down part
of your property, taken off your solar panels, disconnected your
water and your electric, and it's just left you there
with no recourse and no indication of an intent to
hook it back up down the road.

Speaker 8 (45:22):
Correct.

Speaker 15 (45:23):
Plus, I was supposed to get a full movement access
both east and west because I bought it as a
investment property and I have that from the city engineer.
And they didn't do that either, and they said they
weren't going to so they said I would have to
pay for that, and I have it in writing from them.

Speaker 2 (45:38):
Brad, is this the kind of case that you would
consider litigating at this point or what is the next
st experience with.

Speaker 3 (45:44):
This kind of a case. But I'm able to suggest
what kind of a case it would be and what
kind of attorney. This sounds like a condemnation case where
they didn't expressly directly condemn it, but what they did
had the result effect of condemning your property and making
it unusable.

Speaker 15 (46:03):
So it's in the county, so the city can't condemn it,
and it wasn't condemned.

Speaker 3 (46:11):
No, I'm not saying that they had the right to
do a condemnation. I'm saying that what their actions had
the effect of causing a condemnation.

Speaker 2 (46:19):
Taking understand, Yeah, so.

Speaker 3 (46:22):
Your remedies would be good. It would be to go
to court against the city to either get an injunctive
relief court ordering them to restore the utilities and or damages.

Speaker 8 (46:31):
Right.

Speaker 15 (46:32):
Like I said, I'm a retired vent with terminal cancer,
so I don't have a lot of money. Since you
got any names, I would love it, because this is
ridiculous down.

Speaker 3 (46:40):
I have to recommend just trying to find a very
local attorney up there in Gelt County, someone who's familiar with,
you know, city entitlement issues like this. Yeah, I don't
have a name for you.

Speaker 2 (46:58):
I think at this point, Peter, you're gonna need to
hire local counsel and I would definitely recommend somebody local
if you could, just because you're going to need to
have somebody that knows the who's who and what's what
what's going on. From what you're describing, it sounds like
they have effectively taken your property. They've deprived you of
the ability to peacefully, you know, occupy and use this property.

(47:20):
And that's that's not something they can do without having
to pay compensation. Now I don't know if they you know,
what their justification for doing that is. That's not something
I think a city can do with just for the
heck of it. But you know, you're going to need
somebody to dig into the details a little bit more
than we can accomplish here on the show. And and

(47:41):
so I would recommend at this point that you get
you get a local attorney up there, a real estate
guy that's got specific experience and and that kind of
stuff dealing with condemnation Well, I'm yeah, condemnation takings, you know,
emminent domain issues. I mean, there's a lot of differ
areas where specific expertise could come into play, but it

(48:03):
boils down to that municipality taking over and depriving you
from your property, and you need somebody that can help
help address that for you. Okay, all right, So I
appreciate the call, Peter. Good luck to you. Let us
know how things work out. Stay in touch with us
on that. Okay, we're gonna move next to Dean, but

(48:24):
we're gonna take a quick break before that. Dean, hang
on the line. You'll be next in line and we'll
come right back.

Speaker 10 (48:32):
Go with a sure thing Denver's best roofer Excel Roofing
dot com. You don't pay a cent until you're content.
Time for an insurance check up free, no obligation. In comparison,
call Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens
of insurance companies find out now three oh three seven
seven to one help. You'll think you're his only customer

(48:54):
when you choose Frank durand the real estate Man dot
com to list your home with Remax Alliance.

Speaker 11 (49:00):
Were all three nine two zero sixteen twenty two.

Speaker 2 (49:06):
All right, all right, all right, all right, John Fullerd
here working our way through a number of callers we
have lined up. We are here to help you guys
with your problems today. I am a personal injury attorney
and have been so for twenty five years. We're hoping
to have a conversation here in a few moments with
Dimitri about some uninsured motorists and umbrella coverage and stuff.

(49:28):
We'd like to open that up to the listeners as well.
We have a disturbing trend going on in Colorado and
it's directly, in my opinion, the result of just skyrocketing
prices for medical care and stuff to the point where
it's just a fact that minimal limits coverage in Colorado
is not enough to have on your car for your

(49:51):
family or for your needs. And blindly assuming that the
other guy that gets in an accident and causes that
accident is going to have enough coverage to protect you
and your family is just a recipe for disaster. So
we're going to talk about that, but I do want
to open up the lines to callers that have experienced that,
that are working through those issues right now. Definitely have

(50:12):
some thoughts and some experiences that we can both share.
But in the meantime, we have Dean holding. We're going
to go directly to the lines. Dean, what is going
on with you, sir?

Speaker 8 (50:21):
All right? As Dimitri shared an email that I sent
him with you, guys.

Speaker 4 (50:28):
Dean, I just got your email from Acts a couple
of minutes ago. I am going forward it to John
and Brian here. I mean, you got me calling Brad O'Brien,
Brian John. But in the meantime, that shouldn't prevent you
from just kind of briefly explaining what the issue is.

Speaker 8 (50:46):
All Right, Well, here's here's where I'm at. I've got this.
This is a dispute with Xcel Energy years ago that
it came out with these smart meters? Are you.

Speaker 2 (51:02):
Which is I think is what they should be called?

Speaker 8 (51:05):
Okay? And so I opted out years and years ago,
and they said if if I'm willing to pay a
little extra, that they wouldn't bother me. Well, they've been
here several times trying to convince me that I need one,
and I keep telling them, go away, go away. So
I got a letter from him a couple of days ago,
and they said, if I don't take their eat their

(51:25):
smart meter, if I'm unwilling to, They're going to shut
my power off.

Speaker 2 (51:30):
Now.

Speaker 8 (51:30):
If I want to dispute this, I can dispute this
with Dora. You're familiar with Dora, yes, sir, okay? And
so I filed a complaint with Dora. And I got
a called in from XL from somebody in Texas and
they they got my copy of my dispute. Why I
don't know why XL should not be put one of

(51:53):
these on and my reasoning, and so XCEL called me
yesterday and tried to convince me that I'm going to
take this one way or the other.

Speaker 4 (52:03):
What are the art what are the ways and the
other ways that they offered you, right, might.

Speaker 8 (52:08):
My ouptions are either a communicating or a non communicating meter.
Those are my options or no power. That's it.

Speaker 4 (52:16):
So the non communicating just so we have our terminology straight,
dean non communicating meter means a dumb meter, right.

Speaker 8 (52:25):
Well in theory, right, okay.

Speaker 2 (52:29):
So tell me about your theory. What are you concerned
about on the dumb meter? Just so I understand.

Speaker 8 (52:35):
Well from what I'm I'm not an expert on this,
but I do have some background and with power and
big power.

Speaker 2 (52:42):
In okay, educator building, okay, you'rs.

Speaker 8 (52:47):
Well, and I've been retired for a while. But to
offset these power uh in rush is that when these
big buildings start up, they would stagger their startup times
of these big units for cooling and in the summertime.
And the reason is because these meters would see these
spikes and their race would go out phenomenal, So they

(53:08):
they staggered the starting versus starting everything at the same time.
You follow that, okay, and that and that and and
the meters see that when you're on these spikes. Well,
I what I my theory and from what I'm seeing
is people that need the power, need the power great
need the power in the afternoons when it's hot, the

(53:30):
air conditioning, and that is when the rates are a
little bit different than they are when they're not when
these meters are not looking at it, you know, at
a big power bird.

Speaker 2 (53:40):
See.

Speaker 4 (53:40):
I think I think we're generally familiar with what a
smart meter does. It does keep you from from activating
your power hungry equipment during peak times. But let's let's
get back to this, to this problem. I did read
I did read the letter that you received from from Excel,
and it says that they do want you to install

(54:01):
a new meter. And this says, even if you would
prefer to receive a non communicating meter instead of a
smart meter, at this time, your meter still has to
be exchanged. So it sounds to me like they just
want to exchange your meter. Perhaps you have an old
type of meter and they're offering you an option. They
would rather you go with a smart meter, of course,

(54:21):
but they are giving an option of going with a
dumb meter, which they call noncommunicating meter.

Speaker 2 (54:26):
Is that what the problem is?

Speaker 4 (54:27):
I mean, are you is there some kind of a
terminology issue here that I'm not catching?

Speaker 8 (54:31):
No, no, no, except anybody that has had these meters,
any I should say anybody. But people that have complained
about have said they've noticed a sizeable increase in their
monthly rates because of accepting these meters, even the dumb meter.

Speaker 2 (54:49):
Is that? Is that for even the dumb meter?

Speaker 8 (54:51):
Dean? Well, and you know, and I don't know. I can't,
they don't. I don't know if people know if they
have a smart meter or a dumb meter.

Speaker 2 (55:00):
You're probably right. I think Excel has the right to
swap out their meters they if they feel that they
need to because one has become antiquated or something. I
think they have the right to do that. And it
sounds like they're giving you the option of either a
smart meter or a non smart meter. And I can't
imagine a non communicative meter would still allow them to

(55:20):
manipulate the rates and stuff. D meter? Is that you're
understanding the non.

Speaker 4 (55:25):
Communicative A noncommunicative meter or is I call it the
dumb meter just to simplify this conversation. It doesn't have
any way of knowing when you're turning on your air
conditioning and if you turn on your air condition during
high demand time or low demand time or what. Right, So, Dean,
it looks to me, I read the letter in its entirety,
it's all two pages. It looks to me like all
they really want to do is exchange your old meter

(55:49):
with a new meter. But you still have the option
of declining the smart meter, which sounds like the like
the bulk of your concern with this matter, right.

Speaker 8 (55:59):
Well, okay, and you read my response to my complaint
to Dora.

Speaker 4 (56:04):
Yeah, yeah, you know you did quote some regulations and
some kind of case a lot of California.

Speaker 2 (56:09):
I think it.

Speaker 4 (56:10):
Wasn't easy for me to follow in the very few
seconds I had to, you know, familiarize myself with your
Dora complaint.

Speaker 8 (56:17):
Okay, but here here's and here's the part of this thing.
One is these think in California, there's some class action
lawsuits against these things because they're dangerous, they're so effected.

Speaker 2 (56:28):
What the smart meters are the dumb meters?

Speaker 8 (56:31):
Well, here we go. I don't know. You'd have to.

Speaker 2 (56:33):
Well, come on, Dean, you can't. You can't just speculate
that all meters are dangerous. If you're gonna, if you're
gonna have an objection to the non communicating meter, there's
got to be some substance behind why you don't want one,
you have one, Now you have a meter that doesn't
communicate with them. I'd like to know in more detail
what's different about the meter they intend to put on

(56:55):
your on your property.

Speaker 8 (56:58):
Well, and I don't know they know, but I don't.
But that's one one argument. The second argument, I think,
which is one that maybe has some teeth. And you, guys,
this has to do with the Sherman Anti Trusted Act.

Speaker 2 (57:14):
John he mentioned that in his Dora complaint. Help ma'am,
I don't.

Speaker 4 (57:18):
Think the Sherman Antitrust Act is going to help you
in your fight against the smart meter. But Dean, honestly,
I don't think you have a fight to fight over
a smart meter because they're saying you can just keep
going with a dumb meter.

Speaker 8 (57:32):
Except what they're doing because they're a monopoly and part
of monopoly stuff. According to the Anti Trust they can
they're prohibited from intimidating consumers into their team.

Speaker 2 (57:45):
They're not intimidating you. They're saying, you've got a choice
between A and B. You already have B. We're just
giving you a newer model of B that that is
an effective choice. You can you can elect to use
the smart meter, or you cannot, and so telling you
we don't care which one you pick. We'd like you
to pick the one, but we'll put the other on
if you choose. How is that antitrust or or any

(58:08):
sort of bullying type behavior. It's their meter, well, and
they and.

Speaker 8 (58:13):
They advised me of that yesterday. It's it's our property.
We can do with it as we want, right, Okay.
But the whole thing is they're gonna make me take it,
or they're intimidate the me. I'm gonna have to take it,
or they're gonna shut my power off. Yeahd Dean, use
them monopoly powered to do it.

Speaker 2 (58:31):
Dean, It does make sense.

Speaker 4 (58:33):
They do have the right to replace their meter if
yours is outdated or obsolete or for whatever reason they have.
But man, based on what I read, they're not putting
in a smart meter. It's a dumb meter. They're already
saying writing it doesn't communicate with them. It literally is
going to do exactly the same thing that your current
meter does.

Speaker 2 (58:54):
It's just going to be a newer model.

Speaker 8 (58:56):
Well, okay, versus them shutting my power off, that's the
other thing. Yeah, you know, I think the only one
that can make the.

Speaker 2 (59:07):
Dean good not those guys. Dean, we lost you there
for a second. You broke up and all we heard
was not those guys. So I'm not sure what you
said there at the end.

Speaker 8 (59:18):
I said, I think the only one that really has
the power to make me or to check my power
off is a judge.

Speaker 2 (59:25):
Well, I tend to disagree with you, Dean. I think
that the people that own that meter really have the
right to dictate what they do with it, and and
they're giving you an effective choice that essentially is the
same thing you have today, a non communicating meter that's
just a more up to date meter, which I'm sure
there's a logical reason behind them wanting to do that.

(59:46):
They're not forcing you to get the smart meter. I
think if you push that and and require that the
matter go to court, you're gonna be subject to potentially
having you know, thees levied against you and and any
number of other things. But I just don't see the
downside of getting the meter that doesn't communicate to replace
the one that you have right now that also doesn't communicate.

(01:00:09):
So I'm sorry, I just am not following the objection here.

Speaker 8 (01:00:14):
And that's fair enough. That's fair enough.

Speaker 2 (01:00:16):
I got it, Dean.

Speaker 4 (01:00:18):
I think you got nothing to lose with a dumb
meter man. Go for it and then call us if
your rates go up.

Speaker 2 (01:00:23):
I appreciate it, Dean. Thanks for colin. I good luck
with it. I really do hope you get it figured
out and it's okay. So thanks for calling. We're going
to take a break right now. We'll be right away back.

Speaker 10 (01:00:39):
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(01:01:01):
you choose Frank durand the real estate Man dot com
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Speaker 2 (01:01:16):
Good afternoon, John Fuller here on the Troubleshooter Network. We
are moving rapidly through the day. We've got Debut Bow
on the line that wants to comment on the smart meter.
We're going to go right to Bow. What's going on
with you? How you doing Hi, John?

Speaker 6 (01:01:30):
I'm rad Hi Dmitri. Yeah, this meter. I helped a
listener out a couple weeks ago on this and we
got our Excel angel involved.

Speaker 9 (01:01:40):
It is the same thing.

Speaker 17 (01:01:41):
They wrote a demand letter wanting to change the her
old meter.

Speaker 6 (01:01:46):
Out to a smart meter, and it was pretty strong.
They said if she didn't do it, they would disconnect
the power right, so she did, but they did.

Speaker 16 (01:01:54):
We did call in.

Speaker 17 (01:01:56):
She does have the option to go what they.

Speaker 14 (01:01:59):
Call a let legacy meter.

Speaker 6 (01:02:01):
They'll put that in, but they charge forty dollars for
the meter for the old for the non communicating meter,
forty dollars and then eleven dollars and eighty cents a month.

Speaker 17 (01:02:14):
But the problem with the new meter is that they say.

Speaker 6 (01:02:18):
They have to physically go in people's yards to read it.

Speaker 17 (01:02:22):
And that didn't make sense to me because the.

Speaker 6 (01:02:24):
Old meters that have been in houses for like twenty
thirty years. They can just drive down the street and.

Speaker 14 (01:02:29):
Pick up the electrical usage.

Speaker 6 (01:02:32):
So I don't know why installing the new dumb meter
that they now have to actually physically go into people's
backyards to read it. And I'd like to have someone
from Maxell maybe call into the show and explain that
I think it is trying to force people to use
the smart meter because the smart meter is going to
cost homeowners more in utility, both because they're not doing

(01:02:56):
it for their health.

Speaker 2 (01:02:57):
Boh, listen, just as you.

Speaker 4 (01:03:00):
We got Scott online one who's a smart meter installer,
and it sounds like Scott is going to be able
to help us and you and Dean figure this out.

Speaker 17 (01:03:09):
That would be great because I want to know why
that new legacy meters that they're going to put in
for eleven dollars a month. I think they're communicating, but
they say they're not because they want to charge eleven
dollars a month and they have to go in and
read it, which seems very labor intensive.

Speaker 13 (01:03:24):
All right, love what he says.

Speaker 2 (01:03:26):
Hang tight, bo, Scott, help educate us here as to
what's going on. How are you, sir? Can you yep,
I got you right now, Scott, go ahead and tell
us you you install these meters? Is that correct?

Speaker 8 (01:03:40):
I do? I do?

Speaker 18 (01:03:41):
Yeah, I'm I'm our company actually designs these as a
global energy company, and I'm a contractor for Colors Utilities
down here. And I was just going to start by saying, uh,
you enter into a contract when you set up utility service.
So that previous caller, I don't think he has really

(01:04:03):
a legal standpoint anywhere as far as that goes. And
then we also we call it there. There's plenty of
these and I run into them all the time. They
call we call him an opt out customer, and that's
where they don't want the new equipment for whatever reason,
conspiracy theories or whatever, and we have to go physically

(01:04:26):
boa saying we have to go out and physically read them,
and then you know, they get charged for that service.

Speaker 14 (01:04:31):
So my advice would be.

Speaker 18 (01:04:34):
The best thing to do is just you know, go
with the new equipment and save yourself some money.

Speaker 4 (01:04:42):
So the non communicating meter doesn't actually cut off your
power during peak times if you happen to turn on
your AC, right, it does not.

Speaker 18 (01:04:52):
It's no, It's just all it is is I work
directly with the billing department. When equipment is down, it's
not getting a read. We have to either go replace
it or read it manually. So either way they're you're
going to get a bill and they'll estimate it if

(01:05:13):
equipment's down for for whatever reason, and they're really accurate
at that.

Speaker 2 (01:05:18):
So so freak. Why why do they need to get
rid of the old meters that allow them to read
them from the street without going onto the people's property,
without smart metering and stuff. What is it about the
old meters that force us this replacement.

Speaker 18 (01:05:35):
It's just the whole new technology, the r UP equipment
that it just doesn't read the old stuff. It's just better.
You know, there's better batteries in them. They're all battery
powered except for the electric. Uh you know, I'm not
totally privy to all that information.

Speaker 14 (01:05:55):
But it's just it's evolving technology.

Speaker 2 (01:05:59):
And but they evolved from a unit that would at
least talk to the guy driving by to check the
meter to one that doesn't have that capability. That's considered
a moving moving forward in the technological department.

Speaker 14 (01:06:13):
Yeah, exactly.

Speaker 18 (01:06:14):
So down here we don't have any of the old
dumb meters anymore. Would they've all been replaced. There might be,
there might be a few up in Green Mountain Falls,
in the mountains somewhere, but for the most part, what
I've heard is there that part is done. We had
a deployment to replace all that all that old equipment.

(01:06:36):
So his would be for probably non compliance. He I'm
sure he got I shouldn't say that because I'm in
the springs, but I'm sure he got to notice that, Hey,
we're up we're upgrading this stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:06:52):
And yeah he did. He sent that to us, and
there's no doubt that they've you know, they've papered up
the need to come do this. But it I think
the guy's got a legitimate point to a degree in
saying the meter I have does not require somebody to
come on my property, and the meter that you're wanting
to force onto me either has this smart technology which

(01:07:14):
I don't want, or it's a step back and requires
a person to come on my private property to read
the meter. I mean, that seems like a legitimate complaint
to a degree. I don't think the meter is communicating
secretly on the side or doing anything crazy like that,
but I kind of get his gripe about the access

(01:07:37):
and the reading of the meter. Are there any alternatives
to having somebody come on the property and read, like,
you know, once every so many months, certification or something.

Speaker 14 (01:07:47):
Are you aware of.

Speaker 8 (01:07:49):
In my book?

Speaker 2 (01:07:50):
And you.

Speaker 5 (01:07:52):
Pery.

Speaker 14 (01:07:53):
I just wondered if I can help you.

Speaker 2 (01:07:57):
I think Scott's got to go. Before Scott's I'm parked.

Speaker 18 (01:08:03):
I'm parked in front of property here. John, Well, here's
the thing. Yeah, you know, if he wants, like I said,
they'll charge him for that service to come out. And
and that's fine. I mean, it's totally his right. My
point was, I don't think he can legally take him

(01:08:28):
take the utility company at court, but I don't know
that for sure.

Speaker 2 (01:08:31):
I agree with you on that. I don't think he
has any any power in this dispute. I think he's
got a legitimate complaint, but it's one that's not going
to lead anywhere. And and ultimately he's got a choose
between you know, getting the meter and and having it
shut off and not using it. So we got to
go to another break. Scott, thank you for calling in,
Thanks for the information. We'll be right back.

Speaker 10 (01:08:56):
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Speaker 15 (01:09:16):
Help.

Speaker 10 (01:09:17):
You'll think you're his only customer when you choose Frank
durand the real estate Man dot com to list your
home with Remax Alliance three all three nine two zero
sixteen twenty two.

Speaker 2 (01:09:34):
All right, all right, all right, we're back John Fullerd
here in studio with Brad O'Brien of O'Brien Legal Services,
here to help us out today on all things real estate,
including landlord tenant byical agreements, easements, zoning, all that kind
of good stuff. I wanted to talk a little bit

(01:09:54):
about some of the changes in the rental laws and stuff.
We're going to go to a break here in a
second with the top of the hour that we can't
get around, but when it comes back, I'm interested in
some callers sharing stories of troubles and nightmares and stuff
that they run into on rental properties that we can

(01:10:15):
talk about here on the show. Things are drastically different
these days than they were just a few years ago,
and I think that that would be helpful for some
of the listeners that have rental properties to help fully
understand what some of those changes are. And so we'll
delve into that as soon as we get back. So
we're going to go to a break right now. We'll
see you on the other side.

Speaker 10 (01:10:58):
Go with a sure thing Denvers Best Roofer Excel Roofing
dot com.

Speaker 11 (01:11:02):
You don't pay a cent until you're content.

Speaker 10 (01:11:08):
Time for an insurance checkup free no obligation comparison call
Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens of
insurance companies find out now three O three seven seven
to one help. You'll think you're his only customer when
you choose Frank durand the real estate Man dot com
to list your home with Remax Alliance three oh three
nine two zero sixteen twenty two.

Speaker 2 (01:11:29):
Forty five years strong.

Speaker 1 (01:11:31):
Solving your problems, answering questions, taking complaints. This is the
Troubleshooter Show. No Tom Marcino.

Speaker 2 (01:11:52):
All right, good afternoon, John Fuller here, getting back to
you for the afternoon session of the Tom Martine Troubleshooter show.
I'm Philly in for Tom and Mark today and we
are just cranking through a whole bunch of fun stuff
in the studio today. We have Brad O'Brien with O'Brien
Legal Services, who is a expert with all things real estate.
We're going to be talking about rental properties here in

(01:12:14):
just a moment, and I'm really interested in knowing something
about the changes that have come about in just the
last few years that have made for many of my
clients and people that I know, just have made all
the difference in the world to the point where no
longer is rental property considered a viable investment or retirement
strategy for them, and many people are either moving out

(01:12:37):
of state with their real estate purchases or just getting
out of that business altogether. And so before we do that,
we're going to wrap up a subject that came up
in the previous hour. We have Mike on the line
with a comment about the smart meter. Mike, what's going
on with you? Say that again, Mike, I didn't catch

(01:13:01):
that first part.

Speaker 9 (01:13:02):
Okay, So John, you're doing an excellent job compared to
the two irregular hosts that are normally there. Oh, there's
several aspects to that discussion that I'd like to address.
First of all, if he gets a smart meter, they
automatically put him on time of use.

Speaker 2 (01:13:22):
Right.

Speaker 9 (01:13:24):
If you were to keep a legacy meter, I'm assuming
that he would stay with the general residential rate structure,
which is the one and only option if you choose to.

Speaker 8 (01:13:38):
Opt out of time of use right.

Speaker 9 (01:13:43):
The other thing is Dmitri stated that a smart meter
can shut off your air conditioner in the middle of
the afternoon. That's a separate Excel program called the smart
Saver switch with which you have to opt into and
they come out and install it on your air conditioner.

Speaker 2 (01:14:02):
I see, And they can shut.

Speaker 9 (01:14:04):
Your air conditioner off in the middle of the afternoon
or evening anytime they want to, or I think it's
up to three or four hours.

Speaker 2 (01:14:13):
So is there some tremendous savings that would make somebody
want to do that? Otherwise, why in the world would
somebody voluntarily give Excel the ability to regulate their ac
shedding on or off.

Speaker 9 (01:14:25):
Well, they were bribed initially when they came out, you know,
they said.

Speaker 8 (01:14:30):
We'll give you a twenty.

Speaker 9 (01:14:31):
Five dollars annual credit for having this on your air
conditioning big, and people jumped at it, not realizing that
they would not have air conditioning when it's one hundred
and fourteen degrees out right, So you know a lot
of people quickly saw through that program and had them

(01:14:51):
taken off.

Speaker 19 (01:14:52):
Well, your fans still run, so air is still moving
through the house.

Speaker 2 (01:14:56):
Yeah, but it's not anymore, that's true. Yeah, but right,
I mean when it's one hundred and whatever degrees outside,
you don't want to have a moment when the AC
is not partaking in the cooling of your house. I
mean you get to the point where you can never
catch up until that night when it's cold and dark outside.
And so you know, for twenty five bucks, I would

(01:15:18):
that be a hard pass for me completely. But back
to the issue when you referred to the legacy meter,
I mean is it when you say legacy, do you
mean just keeping the meter that he has or do
you mean the non smart meter option that he has
to replace it with.

Speaker 8 (01:15:34):
The non smart meter, Because.

Speaker 9 (01:15:37):
One of the downsides to the smart meter is time
of use electric rates. They know exactly how much power
you're using and exactly when, and you're build on that
so overnight it's the cheapest rate. I believe it's a
dime per unit up to about eleven AM. From eleven
am to three pm, that rate doubles. Then from three

(01:16:01):
pm to I think it's nine pm, maybe that rate
triples over what the base rate is. So just when
families are coming home from work in school, tightening.

Speaker 2 (01:16:14):
Their doors and going in and out yep.

Speaker 9 (01:16:17):
To sit down together, and they need their air conditioner
the most, they're getting thought with the highest electric rate
out there.

Speaker 19 (01:16:28):
So I do apologize I missed the beginning parts of
this conversation because I was doing a lot of radio
station stuff here. But you don't have to be on
time of use billing with a smart meter. I have
a smart meter, and I got flat rate billings, so
my price is constant no matter the time of day.

Speaker 9 (01:16:44):
Right, it's called residential general rate structure. And I also
have opted out of time of use, but not many
people know about that.

Speaker 19 (01:16:55):
It was sent over with every bit of information they
sent over with the smart meter, so I mean up
to the person to read that information, so it's there.

Speaker 2 (01:17:04):
The issue dragon was that the caller was being forced
to choose between a smart meter or a non smart meter,
or simply disconnection and abandonment of the account and was
wanting to file complaints with Dora and everything else because
he didn't want to get rid of his old meter.
And so the conclusion was a they own the meter,

(01:17:25):
they get to choose when they want to replace it.
But we're kind of debating the pros and cons of
the smart meter versus the non smart meter, and certainly
the building issues as well. But the main thing to
me that seems like with the non smart meter is
that it loses the ability to transmit your usage to
the guy driving by in the little truck, and so

(01:17:46):
now a representative has to actually go on to your property,
however large or small that may be, to physically read
the meter, and that seems like a tremendous step backwards
rather than any kind of efficiency games going forward.

Speaker 19 (01:18:00):
Right, And they'll have to charge you that monthly fee
is I don't recall, but yeah, if you want your
dumb meter, it'll cost you more.

Speaker 2 (01:18:07):
If it will cost you that monthly fee, that's the
dumb fee, right exactly. So what do you recommend there, Mike.

Speaker 9 (01:18:18):
Well, I don't know his situation. In my case, I
accepted the smart meter and just opted out of time
of use rate structure because I need to run my
air conditioner during the afternoon and that would have cost
me triple the base rate.

Speaker 8 (01:18:36):
And if I.

Speaker 9 (01:18:37):
Remember right, the general residential rate structures like fifteen cents
a power unit whatever that is. So you know, it's
it's reasonable.

Speaker 2 (01:18:50):
For me, got it.

Speaker 9 (01:18:52):
But I can't speak for him as far as smart
meter or you know, legacy meter, whatever he wants to do.

Speaker 8 (01:19:02):
He's got to decide what's.

Speaker 9 (01:19:03):
Right for him.

Speaker 8 (01:19:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:19:04):
Well, you know, Mike Deena is definitely going to go
with the legacy meter. But John pointed out something really
interesting which I didn't catch during that call. They now
are going to have to come on to his property
to read the meter, which sounds like technologically speaking, that's
a huge step back by many, many decades. So if
that's really true, that's just weird and unnecessary.

Speaker 15 (01:19:26):
Yeah, I agree.

Speaker 9 (01:19:27):
I don't understand that one at all.

Speaker 2 (01:19:29):
Yeah, Hey, Mike, appreciate the call. It's it's an interesting
issue that's going to keep evolving here. Who knows where
these things are going to end up, but we appreciate it.
So we're going to move forward here again. I promise
to talk about these these rental units Brad, why don't
we just start in talk to me just in general

(01:19:52):
terms about about some of the concerns that you would
have for somebody that's thinking about buying into a rental property,
and then we're going to I sec that out into
the individual issues.

Speaker 3 (01:20:02):
So well, in Colorado, landlords can quickly be drawn into
court actions with their tenants. And the costs of going
to court is so so high that you could lose
an entire years year's worth of profit from your rental
just from one court action.

Speaker 2 (01:20:19):
So what is probably the most common thing that people
the common missteps that get people drawn into court that
you're seeing.

Speaker 3 (01:20:30):
Not uh not screening to find a good tenant from
the beginning. Okay, that's the number one thing the landlords
have to do is to pick the right tenant. Now,
you can't discriminate against any legally protected class of persons,
you know, well racing.

Speaker 2 (01:20:44):
Assuming that we don't want to discriminate, how thorough can
you go into your background checks?

Speaker 3 (01:20:51):
Well you can. Landlords can certainly hire these third party
companies that do the uh, do the background checking, and
that's recommended. And you want to look at previous rental
history to see, you know, do they have eviction problems
with previous tenants, previous landlords. But the biggest problem is
is getting a tenant who he is not good for

(01:21:12):
the rent. So if you have a and that's that
can make the experience painful and expensive for a landlord.
The opposite of if you pick pick a great tenant
who pays their bills, you'll you know, you'll have a
great experience as a landlord and make make money.

Speaker 2 (01:21:26):
Right, all right, when we come back from the break,
I want to to throw out a hypothetical and and
and deal with security deposits like how how much can
you ensure against a defaulting tenant that has that in
mind upfront? So we'll be right back and deal with
that issue.

Speaker 10 (01:21:50):
Go with a sure thing Denver's Best roofer Excel roofing
dot com.

Speaker 11 (01:21:54):
You don't pay a cent until you're content. On top
of it.

Speaker 10 (01:22:00):
I'm for an insurance checkup, free no obligation comparison call
Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens of
insurance companies find out now three all three seven seven
to one help. You'll think you're his only customer When
you choose Frank durand the real estate man dot com
to list your home with Remax Alliance three all three
nine two zero sixteen twenty two.

Speaker 2 (01:22:26):
All right, good afternoon, John Fuller, back on the Troubleshooter Network.
We are talking about rental homes with Brad O'Brien and so, Brad,
the hypothetical is, let's say I'm one of these dirtbag
tenants that is looking for an opportunity to move into
a home, and then I just plan on being that
guy that never leaves and that you know that has

(01:22:48):
to employ every one of your efforts to get me out.
So let's talk about the steps that I would take
to be that dirt bag and what you would do
as the owner to help thwart that.

Speaker 3 (01:22:59):
Well, if a tenant doesn't pay the rent, the landlord
has to give a ten day notice to pay the
rent and cannot go to court to start the eviction
until that ten days is up right, and then the
tenant can cure that nonpayment up until the moment the
judge enters an order of possession at the conclusion of

(01:23:19):
the hearing. By that time, the landlord will have incurred
thousands of dollars in attorney fees to get to that
point in court.

Speaker 2 (01:23:25):
How long does it take to go from the ten
day notice to standing in front of the judge in court?

Speaker 3 (01:23:33):
About three to four weeks.

Speaker 2 (01:23:35):
So are there a number of steps in between there
that incur all these legal fees or what is it
that runs that up to get to this point where
the guy can just simply cure it the last minute.

Speaker 3 (01:23:46):
Yeah, certainly, if I'm going to help somebody, I have
to excuse me, review their lease, look at the billing,
the accounting, you know, get up to speed on the matter,
prepare the notice, have it served by a process server,
trying to Sometimes there's a negotiation or communications with the tenant.

(01:24:07):
So going to course just inherently expensive.

Speaker 2 (01:24:10):
So what if I'm in default on January's rent and
we finally get a court date out towards what the
first week of March or so in this process, or
maybe the maybe the end of February.

Speaker 3 (01:24:20):
It could be by the end of the first month.

Speaker 2 (01:24:23):
So if I default in January, you're saying by February
one or so, you're ready to walk into court. Yes,
on that date, I also owe February first rent, right,
But would I only have to cure the January deal
because you haven't formally given me notice on the February rent.
Does that start the whole process over or how does
the greatest abuse occur in that situation?

Speaker 3 (01:24:46):
No, it's to bring to come current. The tenant has
to pay all the rent that's lapsed up until that point.
So if the next months has already come due, and
that's that's also due. But if a landlord is successful
in getting an order of possession in court, then they
then the next step is there's a ten day waiting

(01:25:09):
period to enforce this court order called a rit of restitution,
and it can only be enforced by the sheriff. In
many county sheriff's departments have are really busy and they
cannot they cannot perform the actual eviction for several weeks,
sometimes sometimes over a month, and in that time, the

(01:25:31):
tenants is sitting there getting free rent.

Speaker 2 (01:25:33):
Okay.

Speaker 3 (01:25:33):
Uh, So it could be two to three months before
before a tenant is able to be physically removed, and
so that you know, it could be up to three
months of lost rent and then the tenant you know,
disappears overnight and they do the same thing against a
new landlord.

Speaker 2 (01:25:50):
A new one down the road. So is there a
level of security deposit that you can you can demand that, well,
we'll kind of ensure against that, or is there a
limit to what you can charge for that.

Speaker 3 (01:26:01):
One of the recent changes in Colorado law is that
landlords are restricted to collecting no more than two months
equivalent of rent.

Speaker 2 (01:26:08):
For the security deposit first and last, or uh well
just two.

Speaker 3 (01:26:12):
Months equivalent for the security deposit, okay, Yeah, and so
that's that's the most protection that a landlord can get.
Many of these tenants will destroy the property and so
money is spent on doing those repairs. Does can can
then not go towards paying the unpaid rent?

Speaker 8 (01:26:31):
Right?

Speaker 2 (01:26:34):
That? That just seems crazy that that the tenants have
that level of right. So so what can a landlord
do to protect themselves? Like that just seems absurd that
that's just the the end result of not doing your
homework upfront or not being prepared enough in your lease.
So are there things that a landlord can do that
eliminate that playing out? Or is that just the nature

(01:26:58):
of the beast?

Speaker 3 (01:26:59):
Pick a good tenant for star, somebody who is going
to be reliable with paying the rent. Now on one
of the recent changes in the colorid of law is
that the landlord cannot ask the tenant to show any
more than double the monthly rent as far as their income,
which is not a high threshold. They only have to
make double the rent the monthly rent in their job,

(01:27:22):
and so you know that's okay, So you're not So
people can be very stretched in their rent payment from
the from the beginning.

Speaker 2 (01:27:32):
Are you entitled to look into everything else that they
they have, like car payments and child support and other stuff.
I mean, yeah, that could not be enough if if
you know, you only make twice the rent, that's that's
cutting it very thin. Are you entitled to find out
those other things?

Speaker 3 (01:27:51):
Yes, there are third party services that will do screening
in background checks on tenants for the landlords. And another
recent change in coloroad of law is that cannot look
at credit scores for certain applicants real subsidized housing applicants.

Speaker 2 (01:28:06):
What about for just good old rental homes. I mean,
I think so, I think parties, I think so. But
so are you telling me that a tenant can say you,
as a landlord, can say I need to see an
income statement showing your your income and expenses and stuff
as a condition of renting here and you're saying a
tenant could could say no, I only need to show

(01:28:27):
my pay slip, showing twice the monthly rent, and that's
all that you're entitled to see. That's right.

Speaker 3 (01:28:33):
So if the rent's fifteen hundred, the landlord can only
only require seeing three thousand of monthly income, and that's
only thirty six thousand a year.

Speaker 4 (01:28:41):
Right, So, Brad, I've been looking at some apartments casually
because coming up here, hopefully soon, I have to completely
move out for a major renovation of my loft.

Speaker 2 (01:28:51):
And what I've noticed is all of these apartments.

Speaker 4 (01:28:53):
Comp Now I haven't rented in many, many years, but
all of these apartment complexes I've been looking at, they
have not only application, but an application fee, and some
of those like one hundred and fifty bucks, and you
don't get that back if you get declined or change
your mind. Is there any kind of a restriction on
how much they can charge you just to apply to
rent one of their apartments.

Speaker 3 (01:29:14):
Yeah, well, landlords are not allowed to charge more than
their actual cost for these background screening reports. And a
recent change in the Colorado law is that now tenants
are allowed to obtain their own portable screening report. You know,
they can get their own background report and get it
one time and pay for it one time. And if

(01:29:34):
they go, if they talk to three different landlords, all
those landlords have to accept that one report. So you're
not having three different landlords pull reports and charge application
fees oh for that background check.

Speaker 4 (01:29:44):
Well, Brad, that's awesome. I mean, so I really thought
I was going to have to pay over and over
and over again if I don't expect to get declined,
but I do expect to have the opportunity to change
my mind about you know, maybe a better place down
their own.

Speaker 8 (01:29:58):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (01:29:58):
Yeah, the portable screening report comes for I'm the third
party service directly to the landlord. So the tenant has
to say, contact this company that's going to provide it.
But the landlord is required to accept the portable screening
report so that they're not charging the prospective tenant a
new background check fee that they've already Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:30:14):
I had no idea they're required to accept your own
What is that? What is something like that cost? Roughly speaking,
do you have any idea?

Speaker 3 (01:30:21):
I don't have a good sense of where the market's
at on that.

Speaker 2 (01:30:24):
What about references? I mean, are you can people speak
freely when they give a reference, or is there a
potential liability for people given a less than than colorful reference,
Like what about you getting contacted about tenants that have
moved out of your property.

Speaker 3 (01:30:41):
I'm not aware of any specific landlord tenant law on that.
I think just general libel law would would apply, right,
you know, anything a reference provider says would have to
be grounded in fact and not unduly uh, you know,
false or misleading or yeah, we.

Speaker 2 (01:30:58):
Always we always hear about you know, when you check
references on a potential employee or something, you get these
these nonsensical answers like I can only confirm dates of
employment and you know, and that kind of stuff which
could be interpreted to me. I'm not going to say
anything bad because that's all I have to say, And
you're supposed to read between the lions. And I just

(01:31:18):
didn't know if there was a a you know, cottage
industry of bringing actions against people for you know, their
their reference some time.

Speaker 3 (01:31:27):
I'm aware of. And also eviction cases are normally suppressed
from public viewing, at least while they're ongoing, and sometimes
when the case is over and done with. They're also
permanently suppressed so that other landlords cannot see what happened
in that case. That the fact that somebody got evicted.

Speaker 2 (01:31:43):
So the full eviction ends up being suppressed. It's not
available for anybody to see, right, Oh, is that unique
to Colorado?

Speaker 3 (01:31:49):
Is that kind of a I'm not familiar with other states,
But many eviction cases actually are unsuppressed by the court
once it's over with, but some aren't.

Speaker 2 (01:31:58):
Okay, all right, we'll be right back. When we come back,
we're going to talk about a new law that has
to do with service animals, not really service animals so
much as emotional support animals. So just when we thought
we were getting through with ostriches on airplanes and stuff,
it's coming back in Colorado. So we'll be right back.

Speaker 10 (01:32:22):
Go with a sure thing Denver's Best roofer Excel roofing
dot com. You don't pay a cent until you're contents.
Time for an insurance checkup, free no obligation comparison call
Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens of
insurance companies. Find out now three all three seven to
seven to one help. You'll think you're his only customer

(01:32:44):
when you choose Frank durand the real estate Man dot
com to list your home with Remax Alliance three three
nine two zero sixteen twenty two.

Speaker 2 (01:33:04):
All right, good afternoon. We are moving right along here
and this is John Fuller with the Troubleshooter Network. We
are in the studio live to help you answer your questions,
solve problems, take complaints. We're here. My name is John Fuller.
I'm an attorney here in town. Here with Brad O'Brien
who's also an attorney, so you have two free lawyers
here to answer your questions about everything from injury cases,

(01:33:26):
automobile insurance, homeowners issues, landlord tenant, real estate, buy sale,
anything and everything. We're here for you. Pick up the
phone and give us a call. We've got open lines
right now. We would love to help you with your problems. Sean,
I'd like to give out a phone number if I may.
Three oh three seven one, three eight two five five
is the phone number here in the studio. You can

(01:33:48):
also reach us at the email address, which is help
at troubleshooter dot com and we're here twenty four hours
on that. You can leave your your messages or send
us a an email with your complaints, So give us
a call. We're here to help you out, and now's
a great time to get right through to us. Live
on the air before the break, we were talking about

(01:34:10):
a new law that was just passed. It was signed
at the end of May of this year by Governor Polis,
and I found it this morning. I actually heard something
on one of the news channels about it. And as
some of you may know, they rolled back some federal
guidelines that had to do with the steps that landlords
and particularly subsidized type properties had to take to accommodate

(01:34:34):
people with different service animals, be they actually a service
animal or be they an emotional support animal. And when
they roll those back, in classic Colorado fashion, they ran
right out and passed a law that put state requirements
back into effect, so that no matter what they do
on the federal side, the good old folks down at
the Capitol and our lovely Governor Polis has signed a

(01:34:57):
law to make sure that we now have protection for
people that have emotional support animals. I wanted to talk
to Brad today about that, and I've showed in the law.
We both looked at it. What's your initial take on
the new law? There, brad Well.

Speaker 3 (01:35:13):
This new law, this new law text effect in August
August twelfth this year, so it hasn't started yet, but
it it it restores the protections for emotional support animals. So,
just just to clarify, there's two kind of animals under
housing rights. There are service animals, which are the dogs

(01:35:35):
that are trained to do things like since when a
seizure's coming on, or or to remind you when it's
time to take medications. And they're they're they are trained
to assess somebody with the disability. And also miniature see
if you have a sound effect for this, miniature horses
or also qualify as service animals.

Speaker 2 (01:35:53):
So seeing eye horse right, Yeah, they have.

Speaker 3 (01:35:56):
To be trained to do something. So it's only dogs
or miniature horses as service animals. That's the that those
are protected under federal law, the Federal Fair Housing Act. Now,
the other kind of animal is the emotional support animal
and those who do not have to be trained to
do anything. Their their presence is comforting to someone and

(01:36:18):
that's what gives them their value.

Speaker 2 (01:36:19):
But there, I mean, what anything can be an emotional
support animal. It could be an emotional support gerbil.

Speaker 3 (01:36:26):
Right, correct. Now, the federal law traditionally protected the service animals,
but not so much the emotional support animals. Now Colorado
law is where the protections for the emotional support animals
came in. So this recent change in federal law is

(01:36:46):
where the Trump administration took away any doubt that the
that HUD in the Federal Fair Housing Act protects emotional
support animal rights. And it pretty much clarified that by
taking that away a couple of weeks ago that only
service animal protection is out there. So what Colorado did

(01:37:09):
just about two weeks ago in response was to clarify
that in Colorado that the accommodations that are required that
a leonard has to make applies not only to service
animals but also to emotional support animals. And Colorado came
up with a new term called assistance animals, which now
includes both of those other kinds of animals, which are

(01:37:31):
service animals and emotional support animals.

Speaker 4 (01:37:34):
Brett, Is there any kind of limitation on what kind
of animal could become one of those emotional support animals? Like,
I mean, if I wanted to, let's say a peacock,
I mean, that's those are loud, nasty, aggressive creatures, and
I can see how that would seem unreasonable to try
to bring a peacock into a busy apartment complex.

Speaker 3 (01:37:54):
No, nothing, I'm aware of an emotional support animal as
well as a service animal by definition not pets. They
are they are those defined animals, and they're not pets
because they're there to serve a purpose of allowing somebody
with a disability to have reasonable commodations in the housing

(01:38:15):
that rights that other people without disabilities enjoy. So it
could it could be now landlords cannot exclude emotional support
animals in Colorado except if the particular animal is dangerous.

Speaker 2 (01:38:34):
But they do have to They do have the right
correctly if I'm wrong to require that they essentially show
the certification of a doctor that regularly treats this patient
that that animal is necessary to help with whatever their
emotional needs are.

Speaker 3 (01:38:50):
Correct Well, up until two weeks ago, that was a
conflict in my view between Colorado law and federal law,
because under federal law, you can't ask anybody for their documentation,
no doctor letter. No, you can't ask them about their disability.
But under Colorado law there was a suggestion that you
could ask for the doctor letter. But that was a conflict.

(01:39:14):
So I didn't like recommending the people the landlords ask
for a doctor letter because it's like with federal law.

Speaker 2 (01:39:21):
But now it says explicitly in the statute, it says
a housing provider does not engage in a discriminatory practice
solely for requesting a reasonable documentation supporting the claim of
disability or disability related need for an assistance animal. So
it sounds like you have shelter now within the federals
or within the state statutes that say it's not discriminatory

(01:39:42):
to require them to show the certification of the need.
Is that you're understanding.

Speaker 3 (01:39:47):
Well almost The new Colorado law now allows a landlord
to request reasonable documentation supporting the claim of disability for
the purposes of of collaborating as far as what a
reasonable commodation is, but only if the disability is not

(01:40:07):
a parent. If it's if the disability is a parent,
for example, someone is missing extremity, you know, a limb,
then you can't ask because it's obviously what the disability
it is it is.

Speaker 2 (01:40:17):
But with an emotional support animal, how is the need
for that ever going to be truly obvious? I mean,
I could see with an assistive animal maybe and the
disability may be obvious as it could be like in
the example you used, but that doesn't make the need
for an emotional support animal to be obvious as well.

Speaker 3 (01:40:38):
Yeah. Correct. So this is my today is a first
time looking at this new law that just passed on
May twenty eighth and doesn't even go in effect until
August the twelfth. Right, But I think it still has
the problem of it conflicts with federal law because it
says that in Colorado can the landlord can ask for
or can look at some documentation of the supporting the

(01:41:02):
claim for the need for commodations. But that still conflicts
with this federal can't ask for documentation.

Speaker 2 (01:41:10):
So in your opinion, even though it may not be
an unfair or a discriminatory action under Colorado law, it
may in fact still be under federal law. Yeah.

Speaker 8 (01:41:19):
Right.

Speaker 4 (01:41:20):
And the fact that it's legal under Colorado law does
not provide you any protection against claims under federal law.

Speaker 2 (01:41:26):
Is that correct?

Speaker 3 (01:41:27):
I think?

Speaker 8 (01:41:27):
So.

Speaker 3 (01:41:27):
Another problem with this new Colorado law is I don't
see any exceptions under the Federal Fair Housing Act a
landlord actually can exclude a service animal if the landlord
lives in the same premises, like if like a like
a room a room rental situation, like a roommate situation
where the landlord lives there and doesn't want to have

(01:41:52):
a service dog there, they can actually do that under
the federal law. Now, this Colorado law does not allow
for any exception like that.

Speaker 2 (01:41:59):
The only thing that I saw that was actually a
breadth of fresh air is that it does kind of
presuppose that if you've got a vicious dog or something
that poses a health hazard to other people, and I
think that could be in a number of different ways.
It could be defined, whether it be by allergy or otherwise,
that can be the basis to exclude that animal.

Speaker 3 (01:42:20):
Yeah, that's what I was saying, is that you cannot
exclude specific breede like you can't say no pitbulls, But
if the particular pitbull is known to have, you know,
bitten somebody, that particular dog can be actually excluded because
that one particular animal is a known risk.

Speaker 2 (01:42:41):
Okay, so all right, we're going to take a quick break.
We'll be right back and dig into more of this.
Give us a call. Lines are wide open. We'd be
happy to help you with your issues.

Speaker 11 (01:42:56):
Go with a sure thing.

Speaker 10 (01:42:57):
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a cent until you're content. Time for an insurance checkup free,
no obligation. Comparison call Compass Insurance paying too much your
coverage at dozens of insurance companies find out now three
all three seven to seven to one.

Speaker 8 (01:43:15):
Help.

Speaker 10 (01:43:16):
You'll think you're his only customer when you choose Frank
durand the real estate Man dot com to list your
home with Remax Alliance three three nine two zero sixteen
twenty two.

Speaker 2 (01:43:33):
All right, good afternoon, John Fuller back on the Troubleshooter Show,
filling in for Tom martinro Today, we have Brad O'Brien
in the house, real estate attorney extraordinaire here in Denver
with O'Brien Legal Services olslaw dot com if you want
to reach him, and we were just talking about assistive animals,

(01:43:54):
emotional support animals, that kind of stuff. We've actually got
a caller on the line, Jay that's got a couple questions.
We're going to go right to Jay. What is going on?
Mister j Hello, Hello, how are you? What are your questions? Sir?

Speaker 14 (01:44:08):
I'm good, Thank you, sir. I was writing down, Yeah,
I had the question I heard you guys talking about
it number one for the I have a dog and
you know he's emotional support, you know, but I never
claimed it, you know, that was that was kind of frivolous.
But now since it's being active into you know, a law,
is there an official form or file that we have
to fill out in order for that to be official

(01:44:30):
or is it just hearsay? And the second part of
my question is with that going into effect, can we
effectively bring an emotional support dog or animal peacock you're
saying it into a you know, like a like a
brute pub or something that where a lot of places
here in the general metro area will uh will exclude you.

Speaker 2 (01:44:51):
From Well, I'm going to turn that over to to Brad.
I think the answer to the first question, according to
the statute is that you have to be under the
care of a doctor that that recommends and certifies that
the emotional support animal does indeed provide that for you
and that you need it. And so I don't know

(01:45:12):
that there's specifically a form that that you fill out,
but there's definitely a certification between you and your doctor
that would that would satisfy that element as to the
second part of it, Brad, I'll turn that over to you.

Speaker 3 (01:45:22):
Yeah, I don't believe there are any forms, but you
can get a doctor's letter supporting your emotional emotional support
animal and regarding taking emotional support animal to to like
restaurants and grocery stores. That's not housing, so that's not

(01:45:42):
covered by the Federal Fair Housing Act. So any any
protection you have would be taking your your emotional support
animal to a retail place is would have to be
under Colorado law.

Speaker 2 (01:45:56):
I'm I'm not aware of any any protections there that
allow you to bring Yeah, I think maybe an assistive animal,
but not not a support animal.

Speaker 3 (01:46:06):
Yeah, I think that under Colorado law, restaurants can exclude
emotional support animals, right, but they do have to accept
service dogs that are which are trained.

Speaker 2 (01:46:15):
Sure, Yeah, Jay, is your is your animal more of
an emotional support animal or or an assistive animal?

Speaker 14 (01:46:23):
What is a mix? I mean he would qualify as
a service dog. He's very obedient. Okay, you know I
do take medications and he could you know, if I
forget it or if something does happen, he would be,
you know, able to at least alert other people. But
I was looking through you know, there really is no
official service dogs certification. A lot of people could that

(01:46:47):
they were you know, fabricated and they have damned people
out of their money.

Speaker 2 (01:46:51):
Well, Jay, I think that's something that yeah, I think
that's something that we're really short on time that you
need to bring up with your doctor and they'll be
well familiar with the certification process. But hey, we've appreciate
the call and and good luck with that.

Speaker 10 (01:47:02):
Thanks for go with a sure thing Denver's best rufer
excel roofing dot com.

Speaker 11 (01:47:07):
You don't pay a cent until you're content.

Speaker 10 (01:47:12):
Time for an insurance checkup, free no obligation comparison call
Compass Insurance Paying too much your coverage at dozens of
insurance companies find out now three all three seven seven
to one help. You'll think you're his only customer when
you choose Frank durand the real estate Man dot com
to list your home with Remax Alliance three all three
nine two zero sixteen twenty.

Speaker 1 (01:47:32):
Two, forty five years strong. Solving your problems, answering questions,
taking complaints. This is the Troubleshooter Show. No Tom Martino.

Speaker 2 (01:47:46):
Hey, good afternoon, this is John Fuller filling in for
Tom and Mark, who are out today in the studio
with me is Brad O'Brien of O'Brien Legal Services. We've
been talking about a number of real estate issues, particularly
dealing with rentals and a lot of the changing laws
and stuff that you need to be looking out for
if you own rental real estate, if you are involved

(01:48:10):
in a real estate transition or transaction buying or selling,
or you're looking at like you know, maybe buying in
property as an investment or subdividing and development, that kind
of stuff. The first call I would make would be
would be Brad and he can walk you through it.
If it's not something that he specializes in, he'll certainly

(01:48:30):
tell you, but that would be my first job. His
phone number is seven two oho three seven zero seven
three eight eight and just a tremendous resource for all
things real estate. I'd urge you to give him a call.
We're going to transition here just a little bit over
into the insurance world. We talked to Compass Insurance yesterday

(01:48:51):
and he's a tremendous resource at Compass, but he and
I have a little bit different perspective. Brian is in
the insurance sales business. I'm in the insurance using business
because every one of my clients has been in an
accident and is finding themselves in a position to where

(01:49:11):
they've got claims going in multiple directions against the appoll party,
sometimes against their own insurance company, navigating through the perils
of medpay and health insurance and Medicaid and Medicare and
all of these different issues. And so I wanted to
talk a little bit about the experience that I've had
in a recent case and then just kind of dubtail

(01:49:33):
that into things that you can do and looking at
your own policies to make sure that you and your
family are protected. And so I recently had a case
where a young man, college age young man was just
driving along and a young lady turned directly in front
of him and just creamed HM, just creamed m. Put

(01:49:55):
him in the hospital, total the vehicle. The other person
got a a ticket, and in the police report we
had an insurance company, a big, well known insurance company
listed as her company. And I'm talking to this young
man's dad and come to find out that he, you know,
is struggling to keep insurance on all his vehicle. He

(01:50:16):
has four kids, and he's doing the best he can,
but but he's waived all the coverage. Is that he
really didn't have to have to stay compliant with the
with the law. And his rationale for doing that is, look,
I'm covered, They're legal, and if anything happens and it's
somebody else's fault, they'll be covered and the other person
will have the insurance. And that's how I know that

(01:50:36):
my kids medical bills will be paid and the property
will be paid off and everything else. Unfortunately, as it
turned out, we've got two things kind of working against
us on that. On that case, one is that the
young lady that caused the accidents insurance was not valid.
We contacted the carrier. They informed us that almost a

(01:50:57):
year ago that policy was can for non payment. And
so literally she's still driving around with a piece of
paper that says it's valid insurance, which completely satisfied the
inquiry from the officer that wrote up the police report.
And so we've, you know, come to find out there's
no coverage, and we've we've searched with our own insurance company.

(01:51:18):
We've done everything we can through her insurance company. We
simply cannot find any coverage. So we've done everything possible.
We contacted the police. We've informed them that hey, this
was not valid. This lady defrauded you with this, with
this fake if you will insurance card. It wasn't fake
at the time it was issued, but certainly to the

(01:51:39):
extent that she presented it, it is. You know, it's fraudulent.
And so would you think the cops would go back
out there and ticket her or something. Absolutely not so.
So we're in a position to where the at ball
driver has no insurance coverage at all. My client has
no uninsured motorist coverage at all. He had I had

(01:52:00):
full coverage on his vehicle. So thankfully he's going to
be able to get his own vehicle fixed, although he's
got to pay a deductible, which was a nice, big
fat high deductible. But from the standpoint of his kids' injuries,
there's nobody to go after whatsoever. It's just it's just
one of those things where the best of intentions goes
awry when the other person does not have the complying

(01:52:23):
policies of insurance. And so, with that backdrop being set,
we're going to talk about things he could have done
to make things better. But we do have a caller
on the line. I'm going to shift gears and go
to Mike. Mike, what's going on with you? Hey?

Speaker 13 (01:52:38):
John, I'm thanks for sticking my call.

Speaker 2 (01:52:39):
First.

Speaker 16 (01:52:40):
So I have a question and a concern.

Speaker 14 (01:52:42):
It's two parts.

Speaker 20 (01:52:43):
One is to do is Draft Kings and the other
one would be with the mirror trade. Okay, first one
is I closed my DraftKings account like six months ago
and they never refunded my money. They didn't, you know,
they have my banking account information, but I can't.

Speaker 13 (01:53:00):
Close that account.

Speaker 20 (01:53:01):
They didn't automatically refund the money that.

Speaker 13 (01:53:05):
I had in that Draft Kings account.

Speaker 20 (01:53:08):
And when I went to contact them, they don't have
a customer service number that you can call. It's very
difficult to get a hold of anybody. But long story short,
I would think there would be a law that these
these companies, when an account is closed or automatically, should
refund that money without question and not hold it in

(01:53:28):
perpetuity because if I was a single person. I'm married,
But if I was a single person and I died
and my state didn't know that I had this Draft
King's account, what happens to that money? And so the
second part to my question is Katiamritrade was bought up
by Charles Schwab. I'm assuming there's thousands of counts out
there that individuals had that might have passed on from.

Speaker 13 (01:53:51):
An auto accident or Jeff or whatever.

Speaker 20 (01:53:53):
And again, how does the estate or anybody know that.

Speaker 13 (01:53:57):
That person had that account and how.

Speaker 20 (01:54:00):
Does that money get back to where it's supposed to
or does TD Amerror Trade just to get to hand
it over to Charles Schwab and keep it forever.

Speaker 14 (01:54:09):
I'm curious on.

Speaker 2 (01:54:10):
That, Okay, with respect to the let's do the second
issue first. That one is relatively easy. The assets of
the decedent would flow either pursue it to a designation
by the account holder at the time that they set
it up, meaning a do on death clause or something

(01:54:32):
along those lines that would automatically transfer to a beneficiary
such as a spouse or somebody else, but absent that
it would become an asset of the estate. And so
to whatever extent that they had an estate opened up
following their death, that would become an asset of the estate.
Now do I think that a Meri Trade is going
to seek out and find that person and let them

(01:54:54):
know that the account exists no, I don't. I do
think that's one of the challenging things that Yeah, I
think that's one of the challenging things that that every
you know, family member of a deceased person struggles with,
is finding accounts where they are, what they are everything else.
I don't know at what point would a meritrade or
whoever be able to just say, well, the account was

(01:55:16):
abandoned and we're going to just take that money. I
don't think that that ever really happens, but certainly, you know,
the if there's handling, processing fees and that kind of stuff,
it can eventually eat up whatever balance might be in
that account over a long enough period of time. Do
you have a thought on that, Dimitri?

Speaker 4 (01:55:36):
Yeah, Tom, Sorry, John. You know, I do know for
a fact that they cannot keep it because these banks
and these brokerage are required to what's called to see
the money to us to the state after a certain
period of inactivity. Now, I know that different banks have
different time schedules of what they consider is shewable, So

(01:55:57):
some are as low as three years, some are probably
in the decades.

Speaker 2 (01:56:01):
And I don't know what the law says on this matter.
That's a great point and that's that's probably where the
bulk of accounts end up with the attorney or is
it the Secretary of States.

Speaker 4 (01:56:09):
Especially here in Colorado, the program is called the Great
the Great Payback or Great color Payback, and that's administered
by the state Treasurers.

Speaker 2 (01:56:17):
Off there you go, and they keep those assets indefinitely.
Actually the estate can claim them god knows how many
years die road. Now they don't grow in the interroom
when they're in the possession of the states that it
doesn't pay interest. But you know, I mean, listen, this
kind of stuff happens all the time with family members
that have a hard time tracking down assets. So with

(01:56:37):
respect to your first question, go ahead.

Speaker 20 (01:56:40):
That's why I was asking, because, yeah, I mean, Charles
Schwab buys out td amer trade. Okay, Now, now let's
see all these td amerror trade accounts are stagnant a
year after year, there's no activity.

Speaker 18 (01:56:53):
They could easily do a little research or find.

Speaker 20 (01:56:55):
Out the person's deceased, and five years down the road
they could just make that evaporate.

Speaker 14 (01:57:01):
It almost it seems like like the.

Speaker 20 (01:57:02):
Person didn't exist because nobody made a claim on the account.

Speaker 2 (01:57:05):
I don't think that. I don't think that's really the
way that works. I think the acquiring bank would would
open an account in that person's name, and it would
just sit there until the time went by that it
had to basically revert to the state, and then they
would hand that money over to the state, and then
the state would do with it or not do with
it as they as they choose. But it doesn't just

(01:57:28):
evaporate and become an asset of the bank. That's not
how it helps and John, especially in such a highly
regulated industry, right, they're not going to take that risk
to steal your forty grand Yeah, exactly. As far as
DraftKings go, you know, dot, I don't partake of online
betting and sports betting and stuff. I have no idea

(01:57:51):
about how DraftKings works, but my guess would be that
their user agreement will have pretty detailed rules and regulations
about what they do with the account after the fact.
I would start my inquiry by looking at that really
hard before I really, you know, went too much further
down the road.

Speaker 19 (01:58:11):
Probably want to dive into two with that would be
what is cash versus what is credits? Because I know
that they will give you, you know, like betting credits,
like John, I don't partake any of this kind of stuff,
but you place your first bet and they'll give you
fifty free credits. Right, You got to make sure what
is what before you start diving too deep into this.

Speaker 2 (01:58:30):
Yeah, I think that's a good point.

Speaker 16 (01:58:31):
I mean, I'm getting I'm getting a refund check.

Speaker 13 (01:58:33):
I want to make it clear.

Speaker 2 (01:58:35):
I had to jump through a bunch of hoops.

Speaker 20 (01:58:36):
I am getting refunded.

Speaker 18 (01:58:37):
But I just feel like it should be a state.

Speaker 20 (01:58:40):
Law that if a betting account is closed, that the
money is automatically funded to the two account that's.

Speaker 2 (01:58:47):
On file, maybe for the benefit of the listeners. How
did you go about getting your checked?

Speaker 13 (01:58:53):
Well, I had to go via.

Speaker 20 (01:58:55):
It took me two attempts. The first time I reached out,
they didn't follow up, and then I threatened and that
I was gonna call you guys and and file a
complaint with the state because it's you know, I was
not getting my money back and it's been six months.
And that made the trip back to me promptly and
say that they were going to I haven't gotten a check.

Speaker 13 (01:59:14):
Yet, but they said that I will be receiving a
check in.

Speaker 2 (01:59:16):
The nail, So all right, cool, well, that's gets good
to know. I appreciate it, Mike for the call, and
hopefully if you don't get that check at some point,
maybe follow up with us and let us know. Okay,
thanks for calling, Mike, We appreciate it. So we're going
to take a quick break here and when we get back,
we're going to talk more about what you can do

(01:59:36):
to protect yourself from that scenario I mentioned a few
moments ago. We'll be right back.

Speaker 10 (01:59:45):
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dot com.

Speaker 11 (01:59:49):
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Speaker 10 (01:59:55):
Time for an insurance check up, free no obligation comparison
call Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens
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Speaker 2 (02:00:20):
All right, Good after, John Fuller here on the Troubleshooter Network.
We are back live in studio with Brad O'Brien of
O'Brien Legal Services and Dmitri here on my left. We're
talking about car insurance and a real life example of
an accident where a young man was injured pretty seriously actually,
and we came to find out after the fact that

(02:00:41):
the young lady that caused the accident had expired insurance.
My client's dad had purchased full coverage on his car
with the idea that if anything happened, there would be
you know, the other person would be responsible for everything.
And that's not a bad way to think about the world,
but it's just not the reality that we live in.
And so I preach all the time about the need

(02:01:04):
to have medpay and the need to have uninsured motorist coverage.
So it got me thinking that, you know, how much
really does uninsured motorist coverage cost? And are there ways
that we can make it more affordable or maybe even
almost free and in putting it on your policy. And

(02:01:25):
so I called I called Brian Burns at Compass and
we had a conversation about it. And here's what we
came up with. The savings that you could you could
gain by just raising your deductible on your your full
coverage car insurance by five hundred dollars or maybe one
thousand dollars would be enough alone to put uninsured motorist

(02:01:48):
coverage on your policy. And so I can't tell you
enough how important the uninsured and underinsured coverages are in
today's world. It is absolutely nothing to run up twenty
or twenty five thousand, or even fifty or eighty thousand
dollars in the emergency room. I think Brad can certainly

(02:02:09):
attest to that with his own experiences. How much were
those MRIs and stuff that you're your family and and.

Speaker 3 (02:02:15):
Yeah, just a little whiplash from a five mile an
hour bumper to bumper thing. He was like seventy five.

Speaker 2 (02:02:22):
Grand, seventy five thousand dollars for I believe one trip
to the er, wasn't it the same day? Seventy five
thousand dollars. Now, if you're out there rolling around Colorado
with only the twenty five thousand dollars of coverage, or
if you get hit by somebody that only has that,
how in the world are you going to protect your
family from those bills? They're not the responsibility of the

(02:02:44):
at fault party to pay. They don't send the bill
to them, they don't build that other person's insurance company,
they send that bill to you and it's up to
you to figure out how to pay for that. And
so the only way I can suggest that you can
protect yourself and your family is by having lots and
lots of you know, of uninsured motorists coverage. Now, at

(02:03:06):
some point you're going to have to probably raise your
your primary coverage because they won't let you have minimal
limits on liability and then sell you, you know, five
hundred thousand dollars of uninsured motors. But but so what
it's that important that you have that coverage. You're the
only way. You're the only person that can ensure you

(02:03:26):
and can ensure your family. You can't rely on the
fact that the other person is going to have any
insurance or you know, more than the minimal amount of insurance. So, Demetro,
I think you had some questions about your own policy.

Speaker 4 (02:03:39):
Yeah, John, you know, not before I met you, which
is what a couple of years ago. Now, I had
I maxed out on medpay, which is only fifty thousand
dollars in my case, I was with American family at
the time. I didn't understand that you I and under
whether it's it you're underinsured and uninsured motors is actually

(02:04:00):
for me. And it wasn't until the very first time
that you worked here with me in the studio that
I kind of got that clue. So as a result,
what I did is I began to look at it.
There was a total paradigm shift. John, I began to
look at it as buying insurance for myself in case
of a crash. It never occurred to me that that's
really how I should look at it. So I maxed

(02:04:20):
out on UI. And by the way, in all those
years prior to that, my insurance agent always said, hey,
this is just optional. You're not required to do it.
You don't have to get it. So I maxed out
on all that. And then also following your advice, I
changed a different kind of umbrella policy from Compus that
amplified my underinsured and uninsured motorists by two million dollars.

(02:04:44):
And John, I understand that's actually on top of what
my auto policy insures me for.

Speaker 2 (02:04:50):
That's fantastic that you have that. That's that's actually not
that common out in the marketplace. You have to look
for those policies that contain to ask for it.

Speaker 4 (02:04:58):
You do this policy didn't amplify that coverage, and I
thought it did.

Speaker 2 (02:05:03):
What Dimitria is talking about is what we call a
writer on your personal umbrella policy. So you have your
liability coverage, that's the statementated coverage that covers any damage
that you do to another person if you're at fault,
so that covers the person. You have your property damage
coverage that covers their car. If you happen to do

(02:05:23):
damage to that, you have comping collision which covers your car.
And then you have medpay which provides some coverage towards
your own medical bills without respect to who was at
fault in the actual only.

Speaker 4 (02:05:36):
Fifty thousand, and there just told us that cost them
seventy five.

Speaker 2 (02:05:40):
The minimal amount that's required by the state, and it's
not even really required. It's an optional coverage if you will,
is only fIF is only five thousand dollars, So if
you think about the seventy five, the five is just
a drop in the bucket. But what you're talking about
is for those people that have an umbrella, which is
a smart thing to have from a liability but it's
an incredibly brilliant thing to happen or to have when

(02:06:04):
you have the writer on it that has uninsured motorist
coverage at the same coverage level that you have for
your umbrella. Okay, that is critically important to have because
that way you're protected no matter what the other person has.
And that's the critical point that most people just don't think. Now,

(02:06:25):
why wouldn't an agent tell you that? I think mostly
the good agents will tell you that. But here's here's
what they're up against. Okay. I had a good friend
that was an agent at one point, and I kind
of just beat him up one day, like, why would
you ever sell a policy that didn't have medpay or
it didn't have uninsured motorists? And he's like, John, the
problem is this, I've got to you know, I got

(02:06:47):
to feed my family too. I can't not sell insurance
and stay in business. So when I'm competing against these
online outlets like your geicos and progressives and stuff that
don't really have a walk in agent that they deal with,
people are going on there and strictly shopping price. And
so when you're up against a computer and nobody really

(02:07:08):
explains how important some of these other coverages are, they
look at them as just being optional. Do I want
to check the box and pay more or not check
the box. And unfortunately a lot of people just say, look,
whatever the state says that I have to have, that's
what I want to have. To just give me the
stupid card so I don't get in trouble driving down
the road. And so when the real agents that actually

(02:07:30):
try to match your needs with the policy that they're selling,
when they're up against that, they're always going to be
higher because they're putting coverages on there that you actually
need and that will actually protect your family. And if
you're just shopping dollars and cents, you're going to lose
every time.

Speaker 4 (02:07:46):
So, John, let's switch gears for a second, and from
your perspective, which is a personal injury attorney who works
a lot of car crash cases. Let's say I'm God
forbidden the car crash and the other party is at fault,
I'm injured, and you know, I'm kind of sore, maybe
I got a bloody lip. Whatever happens, an ambulance comes,
I really don't feel like I need to take an

(02:08:08):
ambulance ride.

Speaker 2 (02:08:09):
And I don't. And then some days.

Speaker 4 (02:08:11):
Later, maybe a week later, Oh my back, it's not
only not getting better or my neck or whatever it
is that hurts. It's actually getting worse and I finally
got medical attention. How much am I going to be
hurt by the fact that I declined an ambulance ride
on the day of the accident, only because I didn't
feel like I was you know, injered to the extent.

Speaker 2 (02:08:31):
That I should have lights and sirens. I get it.
We'll answer that in just a moment. We'll be right back.

Speaker 10 (02:08:42):
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(02:09:04):
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Speaker 2 (02:09:23):
Hey, good afternoon, John Fuller here back live in the
studio with Brad O'Brien and Dimitri taking your calls and
working through answering questions, taking complaints and solving your problems.
We are live here to help you. The studio number
is three oh three seven one three eight two five five.
Give us a call and we can handle your call.

(02:09:45):
We're talking about insurance and automobile claims and the role
of uninsured motorists and that kind of stuff. Dmitri just
posed a question that that is an important question about
whether or not you go to the hospital and whether
there's a penalty associated with electing not to receive medical care.

(02:10:06):
And I'm never one to suggest if somebody needs to
get care that they don't need to get so obviously
your condition will dictate whether or not you go to
the hospital and you seek the care. But I will
tell you this, everything that you do or don't do
in the course of treatment and recovery from injury sustained

(02:10:28):
in an auto accident are going to be scrutinized with
the fine tooth comb down the road, and they're going
to attempt to misinterpret or miscare don't do it right,
and they're going to suggest if you're not better today,
that probably a good part of the reason why you're
not better is you didn't go to the er. Called

(02:10:48):
a failure to mitigate or that you you somehow missed
that opportunity, or you must not have been that hurt
in the first place anyway, because anybody that was really
hurt would have gone to the hospital. And so so really,
if I had my choice, every single case that we
had would have an er visit that gets in there
and at least eliminates all of the different different possible

(02:11:13):
things that could be wrong with you and establishes a
baseline for all of your treatment going forward. But that's
just not practical that everybody's going to do that. The
other issue is money. Not everybody has health insurance, Not
everybody has coverage beyond that five thousand dollars a medpay,
which can get eaten up very very quickly. If you
go to the same hospital that Brad's family member went to,

(02:11:36):
you just heard him say that it was seventy five
thousand dollars and she wasn't that hurt. And John, actually
Brad's I've heard him talk about this before. There's a
more sinister component of his story. While she was in
the hospital, somebody came in. A woman came in pushing
a cart with audio visual equipment and started recording information

(02:11:57):
about what's your insurance company, who you know, what, what
are you insured for? How do you want to pay
for this? This was in the hospital the day she
arrived over there. Yeah, and and and that's really the
you know, the broader point of that is that that
Brad is obviously an attorney, super intelligent guy, uh well
covered by insurance both health and auto and everything else,

(02:12:19):
and yet was completely and I don't want to speak
out of turn here, but I believe was just completely
out of his league as to exactly what was going
on with this lady and what her intentions were and
why she was asking you these questions, and then the
implications of of what you talked about with them. Talk
about that just a little bit, if you would.

Speaker 3 (02:12:39):
As a real estate attorney, I did not know what
was going on with all this insurance stuff that there were.
I was there was this like portable Kiosk video thing,
and I was live with somebody somewhere else in a
different state asking me to make decisions about where to
make the claim and who's responsible. I mean, I didn't

(02:12:59):
understand what was going on. And it was right there
when I had just shown up and was sitting next
to my family member who was in the hospital bed.
So I think they really took advantage of me. I'm
not going to name the hospital, but by making me
make commitments of illegal nature right there in the heat.

Speaker 2 (02:13:17):
Of you know, yeah, And so you and I discussed
this after the fact that I don't think I'm stretching
here to say that at the time that they did that,
they wheeled this little kiosk in there and started asking questions.
You didn't know the official role of medpay, You didn't
know the order of payment as to who should be
responsible for things. You didn't know the level of coverage

(02:13:40):
that the other driver had at that time. You didn't
even know if the driver's coverage was valid. You hadn't
had an opportunity to check up on any of that
because you were in the hospital immediately after the accident.
And so at a time when you have the least
amount of information, these guys want to get you live
and on a video that they can record you and
extract commitments out of you as to how these bills

(02:14:02):
are going to be paid when you have no idea
what the proper way and order that these things should
be handled. And that's just crazy. And so, you know,
I I would tell tell Brad and Dimitri and anybody
else that would listen that, you know, the entire system
is set up to take advantage of you, the injured party.

(02:14:23):
And I mean that sincerely. The hospitals want to get
the maximum dollars for every service that they can, and
if they can get five thousand dollars for an MRI,
they would rather get that than the six hundred dollars
that they've got to deal with the health insurance company.
And there's no qualms about it. They will do that
ten out of ten times and try to get you know,
that higher dollar amount.

Speaker 4 (02:14:44):
And So, John, if this God forbid happens to me
and this woman wheels in the av equipment, it starts
making me answer these questions. Should I just say, Hey,
here's Fuller's phone number. John Fuller is my attorney. He's
representing me in matters like this. Call him and he'll
tell you who's going to and when and how much.

Speaker 2 (02:15:01):
Well, I'm happy to have that conversation with the hospital
on behalf of any of my clients. I would prefer
to know about it before you, you know, call me
before you do that. But but yeah, I think the
better course of action is just to say, look, I
don't have any of that information at my fingertips. Here
is way premature to have this conversation. I'm happy to

(02:15:23):
set an appointment down the road with your building department
and we can have that conversation later. But I'm just
simply not going to do it right here, right now
with my spouse in the hospital period and just cut
them off. I didn't know, even several months into working
with you, I didn't know you actually renegotiate hospital bills
out there, all is said and done, you get you
at least attempt to get bills settled for less than

(02:15:45):
what they're billed for so that the insured keeps more
of the settlement. Is that how that works?

Speaker 8 (02:15:51):
Yep?

Speaker 2 (02:15:51):
We do that all day every day. So we got
a couple of calls here. Let's go and answer some questions.
Paul the waterman, you got a question today? What's going on?

Speaker 8 (02:15:59):
Paul?

Speaker 16 (02:16:01):
Yea, I have a question. I have at old probably
US West phone box in my backyard. Okay, I guess.
So it's falling apart, and you know it's centrally cool.
Is obligated to fix it? Can I have somebody remove it?
Because they do they use landlines anymore? Am I liab?

(02:16:21):
Is their liability? If I don't call somebody to let
them know that it's falling apart, what what happens?

Speaker 2 (02:16:27):
Yeah, my guess, And Bread, you can jump in on this,
but my guess is that that is in a utility
easement and and very likely you would not be wise
to remove it or destroy it. But it is the
property of the utility company that it belongs to, And
I would start by by going there. Do you have
any other thoughts, Bread?

Speaker 3 (02:16:45):
Yeah, I don't think a homeowner is responsible for maintaining
the utility company owned equipment in the in the utility easement.
If it's falling apart, that's their problem too.

Speaker 2 (02:16:54):
Yeah, I would. I would get a hold of that utility.
But you cannot get rid of it and just go
out and remove it. That's that's not going to work out.
Thanks for the question. There, go ahead.

Speaker 16 (02:17:04):
Yeah, And I wasn't gonna do that. No, I wasn't
gonna remove it. I just didn't know if it was
obligated to let them know, And clearly I'm not so
if it just falls a part of the case in
in my backyard, it's nothing against me.

Speaker 2 (02:17:17):
No, I think that's their problem. It's their equipment. It's
not your duty to maintain or to you know, to
keep that equipment up to up to snuff. I would
want them to fix it and make it go away,
but but that's just me. So thanks for the call,
Paul appreciated.