Woman’s ceiling collapses; insurance won’t foot the bill

HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (WAFF) - Getting a peaceful night’s sleep has turned into a nightmare for one Albertville woman.

Her bedroom ceiling collapsed. Her insurance company said it won’t foot the bill.

She reached out to our Kate Smith for help.

“Your ceiling is part of your home, when you buy house insurance, I would think it would cover the ceiling,” said a frustrated Debbie Cheek.

She describes the sound of her ceiling collapsing above her bed and the debris crashing down. “I was here on my couch when that started falling, you never heard the commotion that went on during this. I mean, it is pitiful.”

Moments after the collapse, Cheek called her insurance company to have an adjuster come out.

“He said, you are not covered on my insurance. I said, ‘Really?’ and he said, ‘Yes’. He said there was not a reason for it to have fell.”

Cheek said the adjuster couldn’t pinpoint why exactly the ceiling collapsed. He told her there wasn’t any water damage and he didn’t see any other triggers to cause a collapse.

“People’s ceilings don’t just naturally fall, there has got to be a reason. You can’t just tell me there is no reason because people wouldn’t be in the real estate business if you could buy a house and your ceiling could happen to fall just for no reason.”

Cheek has lived here for more than 40 years. Her husband is currently in a nursing home so she is stuck figuring out what to do next.

“Sleeping on my couch because my bed happens to be full of my ceiling. The insulation is in there, I didn’t mess with it. I didn’t touch anything.”

She is hoping a structural engineer will be able to tell her how to move forward or if she will need to pack up her things and get out.

“He said, ’Ma’am, I am afraid your whole ceiling is going to fall in.”

We reached out to the insurance company. They haven’t returned our call yet.

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