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MISSION, British Columbia -- A simple insurance claim over a fallen tree ballooned into an all-out repair disaster -- leaving a family's dream home falling apart and infested with rodents. More than a year after hiring a contractor recommended by their insurance company, the family is living in a trailer in their driveway.
"If we get some answers, get our house back, get our life back... you can get back to what your life once was," Paul Gough, homeowner said.
Paul and Sharon Gough are living in a 300-square-foot trailer -- sharing the cramped space with their teenage son and three dogs. It's parked in the driveway of what was their dream home.
"It went from a tree that fell on our home to mega destruction," Sharon Gough said.
They hired a contractor recommended by their long-time insurance company Wawanesa.
"We felt we have a claim. They have good people, what they call preferred vendors. That's fine for us," Paul Gough said.
But it wasn't fine.
The hole in the roof was left open for eight months, covered only with a nylon tarp. Rodents got into the walls.
"It wasn't just squirrels and birds. It was rats," Paul Gough said.
Their insurance company called in a second preferred vendor to do pest control. They used poison instead of tarps. The hole in the roof was then sealed -- with the dead rodents still inside the house.
There are flies throughout the home.
"All of these...we assume...are coming from whatever died in the walls," Paul Gough said.
There are also holes in the walls from a third company hired to clean everything up.
"It just goes on and on and on and on," Paul Gough said.
Wawanesa did not answer questions from CBC about how preferred vendors are chosen. Wawanesa's website says it provides homeowners names of contractors "with which it has had good experience," and that provide "quality repairs."
Almost every insurance company has contractors they recommend to do claim repairs.
"They are preferred not because they are good at their craft. It's because they are cheap," Scott Stanley, an insurance lawyer said.
Paul and Sharon Gough are now locked in a formal claims dispute resolution process with their insurance company over the scope and cost of the additional damage.
Wawanesa officials said they're confident the process will lead to a "fair resolution," but that process takes months.
Meanwhile, Paul and Sharon Gough, their teenage son, and their three dogs will be living in the trailer.