The owner of a local construction business thought his insurance would cover the cost of replacing his stolen tools. But he quickly found out, his policy only covered the cash value of the tools. Now he's being forced to max out credit cards and put his home up for sale.

Not only does the owner of Taylor Masonry have to sell his home, he no longer keeps his tools on a job site, he brings them all to this garage, that's not only locked on the outside, but everything is kept in a trailer on the inside.

Under lock and key, that's where Doug Taylor keeps all of his construction material now. Two years ago, Taylor Masonry had all of their tools stolen off one of their work sites.

"Trailer door was open and everything was gone," says Doug Taylor, owner of Taylor Masonry.

15 thousand dollars worth of material gone, after filing a claim with his insurance company Taylor only got 4 thousand dollars back. Something he didn't expect.

"I was in shock," adds Taylor.

Shocked because Taylor was paying a higher premium, he thought would cover the entire cost of replacing his tools. He even had to itemize everything in his stock.

"We went through every little thing, listed every little hand tool, generators, compressors, scaffolding, plank, mixers, saws and everything," says Taylor.

Still the insurance money wasn't enough to pay for everything. And Taylor had to use personal funds and refinance his home to get new tools.

"Trying to make payment on our credit cards and everything it, we're just fighting an uphill battle," says Taylor.

The payment on his home became too much, and he went from this, to this, moving his family into a small mobile home, so they can afford to pay off their now staggering debt. I sat down with an insurance agent for United Fire and Casualty, the company Taylor Masonry is using...and while the agent couldn't talk in specifics, he says Taylor probably had a policy that only covers cash value of his tools. A communications mix up that is costing Taylor thousands.

"We use terms in the insurance business that people don't understand,
we try to explain it but many people don't understand the explanation," says Jerry Wixom, Insurance Agent with Egan, Metcalf, and Leavitt.

So basically, Taylor's insurance policy works kind of like buying a car, to get the cash value, the insurance company takes the replacement cost of the tool, subtracts the depreciation of the tools and that gives them a cash total of what the used tools are actually worth.

Which is probably why Taylor only got 4 thousand dollars after his tools were stolen.

So it's a good idea to go step by step through your insurance policy and always ask how an insurance claim will work out.