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www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-skunked-house-09-may09,0,5700660.story
chicagotribune.com
First the skunk. Then the bigger stink.
Stench drives family from home for a year
By Lisa Black
Tribune reporter
May 9, 2008
By the time authorities finally cornered the offender under a porch, it was too late.
He had done enough damage that Vicki and Mark Royal and their four kids were forced to flee their house and move to a neighboring suburb as men in protective suits stripped the building to its studs and threw out most of their belongings.
When the family saw the skunk that started this ruinous chain of events, they were struck by one thing: "It was actually very cute," Vicki Royal said.
The situation remains dire nonetheless. A year into the ordeal, the Royals' 5-bedroom, 6.5-bath house on Sheridan Road in Highland Park remains devoid of carpeting, drywall, appliances and belongings—most of which they say had to be thrown away.
Clothes hang from racks in the garage, unworn because the Royals say they are "crunchy" after being treated with chemicals. Their son was called "skunk boy" at school.
While complaints of skunk mischief rise with the spring tulips every year, most involve a curious dog and are treated with a tomato juice or vinegar concoction. Few skunk encounters reach the level of expense and grief that the Royals have experienced, officials say. It has led, ultimately, to a pile of money being spent, a bitter lawsuit against an insurance company and legislation proposed to change insurance law in Illinois.
"We've tried to keep our sense of humor," Vicki Royal said. "We desperately, desperately want to go home."
No home, sweet home
The sorry saga began on April 24, 2007, when the Royals returned home in the 1500 block of Sheridan Road to the smell of skunk.
"I lit candles. I opened the windows. I thought it was outside," Mark Royal said.
By the next day, it was worse.
"You walked in any door and it was overpowering. We ended up with everything in the house smelling horribly," he said.
The family called the City of Highland Park, whose workers trapped a raccoon but found no skunk. Contractors approved by the insurance company arrived next, digging out the 40-foot concrete porch and removing the dirt around it. Days later, they finally cornered the bedraggled skunk, who had dug a maze of tunnels.
Experts told the Royals the skunk spray could have traveled through the heating and ventilation system, effectively reaching every corner of the house they purchased in 2005 for $940,000.
The family moved to a house in Glencoe, as the American International Insurance Co. sent more and more contractors, each removing pieces of the house, trying to get rid of the odor. Workers painted over the walls in some rooms with a product usually used to cover smoke damage. They removed drywall halfway up other walls and told the Royals to throw away all appliances, which they did.
"I remember the house very distinctly," said Dr. Alan Hirsch of the Chicago-based Smell & Taste Treatment and Research Foundation.
Last July, he sniffed around the house with a Nasal Ranger, a foot-long, elephant trunk-like device that fits on the nose.
'Uriniferous and stale'
Walking from room to room, he ranked the air quality, describing the residual skunk odor on a scale that ranged from merely offensive to "putrid, sewer-like, musty, swampy, musky, uriniferous and stale."
"It was like being slapped in the face," he said.
The family spent a month in a hotel before moving into a second house they had been refurbishing as an investment in Glencoe.
By the middle of last summer, two experts offered different views on how badly the house stunk, but both agreed that humid weather would likely enhance the effect.
The experts' opinions on how to get rid of the stench ranged from spraying a liquid mixture of hydrogen peroxide, baking soda and dishwasher detergent inside the walls to tearing the house down and building anew.
The insurance company preferred the less expensive option. The Royals preferred the more expensive one. State officials attempted to find a third independent consultant but gave up in January.
The Royals say they can't afford to put the house back together without the insurance company's help, but they aren't willing to sign off on the work until they are sure the odor has dissipated.
The true test, they say, will be in July, when the heat and the humidity bring out any lingering scents. Some experts have told them it could take up to three years.
The Royals filed a lawsuit against the insurance company in U.S. District Court in Chicago on April 23.
They claimed the insurance company mishandled removing the stench and then tried to cancel their policy in August while it was still unresolved. They said they paid about $9,000 for insurance coverage in 2007.
Joe Norton, a representative for American International Group Inc., the parent company of American International Insurance in New York, said he could not comment because of client confidentiality.
The company, in a statement detailing the more than $500,000 it has paid toward the Royals' case, listed about $235,500 toward vendors for painting, landscaping and removing carpeting, drywall and appliances; and $169,000 to clean clothes, cover content loss and move the family. Another $100,000 went toward housing and feeding the family of six, first in a hotel, then at the Glencoe house, according to the statement, which was provided by the Royals.
Insurance experts said most homeowner policies cover damage caused by animals not owned by the resident, as long as they do not fall under common exclusions, such as rodents, birds, insects and vermin.
"Sometimes, unfortunately, consumers have to file a lawsuit," said Michael McRaith, director of the Illinois Division of Insurance, which tried to mediate the disagreement.
Legislation proposed
The Royals contacted state Sen. Susan Garrett (D- Lake Forest), who filed legislation in late April that she described as "common-sense safeguards" on how insurers handle claims.
She has proposed prohibiting insurers from canceling or refusing to renew property insurance while a claim is outstanding and setting 30-day deadlines for insurers to respond to claims. The new wording won't affect the Royals' case but could help prevent future conflicts, she said.
The Royals say they are insulted that the insurance company now questions whether the house ever smelled like skunk, suggesting that the family is using its money to redecorate.
"Yes," Vicki Royal said, "because when you redecorate you're really thinking, 'what I really want is new drywall.' "
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