Three burned homes subject of insurance lawsuit once before

April 23--The owner of three homes that burned Tuesday tried unsuccessfully to get an insurance payment after a December 2007 fire at one of the houses, court records show.

Robert L. Gore Jr. is listed as registered agent for Rivercliff Properties, which owns homes at 2764, 2779 and 2783 Rivercliff Road, county and state records show. Two of the three homes were destroyed by fire early Tuesday morning, and the third was damaged.

Gore could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

No one was living in the houses, which were for sale with asking prices of $267,800 to $328,900.

The State Bureau of Investigation and local authorities are investigating the fires. Fayetteville fire officials say they believe the fires were deliberately set. A specific cause has not been given by the SBI or Fayetteville Fire Department.

The same three houses burned on Dec. 15, 2007. They were unoccupied at the time and either under construction or recently finished.

No one was charged in those cases.

Gore filed a lawsuit in November 2008 seeking $87,000 from an insurance policy on the house at 2779 Rivercliff Road, court records show. An October 2009 judgment in favor of the Assurance insurance company was upheld by state Court of Appeals in December 2010.

Gore, who was doing business as Village Development Group when the first fires happened, was seeking to be paid under a "builder's risk insurance policy," according to court documents. Village Development took out the policy, which is intended to cover buildings while they are under construction, in the mid-1990s, records show.

Under the policy, Gore was required to report the total estimated completed value of all covered property each month, according to court documents. He had to pay premiums based on that value.

The insurance company said in the policy that it would pay for a loss only if all reports and premiums for a location had been received, court records show. Village Development reported and paid premiums for five locations, including the house at 2779 Rivercliff Road, in August and September 2006, but neither reported or paid from November 2006 to July 2007.

"Gore's only justification or excuse for Village Development's failure to report properties or to pay premiums was that '(it) seemed to be of no real significance,'" the court's ruling said.

In October 2007, the house was listed on a form for three properties identified as "new starts" for August 2007, even though construction had been complete for nearly a year, according to court records. The three locations were reported as "previous starts" and premiums paid for October, November and December 2007.

Those three houses were the ones destroyed by fire in December 2007.

The Court of Appeals ruled that reporting the house as a new start in August 2006 and in August 2007 clearly constituted "a willful and material misrepresentation."

Assurance denied Village Development's claim for the house at 2779 Rivercliff Road, but paid about $143,000 to First South Bank, which held the mortgage on the property, under a loss-payee provision in the policy.

It's unclear from court documents whether claims were filed on the other two properties.

Rivercliff Road is part of a small subdivision along the Cape Fear River, next to the Cape Fear River Trail that passes beside the neighborhood entrance and Eastwood Avenue.

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