Church still waiting for repairs a year after pipe burst

OKLAHOMA CITY (KFOR) — A south Oklahoma City church is facing a big headache. A year ago, a pipe burst during cold weather and they are still trying to make repairs while battling their insurance company.

Knob Hill Baptist Church is trying to get money from insurance to cover the damages, but they said their insurance company is only partly to blame.

"ONG won't give us the information necessary in order for the insurance company to release the the moneys to repair the damage. That's all we're waiting for," said Dr. Randall Marshall, pastor of Knob Hill Baptist Church.

The church said multiple rooms were affected and 12 months later, part of the church building is still unusable.

"There are three nursery rooms. They were all destroyed. When I say destroyed... carpet, walls, everything saturated with water. Then there were eight Sunday school rooms," said Pastor. Marshall.

Pastor Marshall said the church's insurance looked at statements from Oklahoma Natural Gas that showed zero usage for multiple months.

In a letter to the church's legal team, insurance said, "It is clear that the heat was never on in the building and was only turned on after the freeze."

When looking at the bills, numbers show usage wasn't marked for multiple months, despite the church still paying fees for other items on the bill.

"The insurance company is saying, okay, if there wasn't any heat in the building, that's why the pipe burst. But we had heat in the building," said Pastor Marshall.

When the bill for March of 2024 rolled around, they owed more than $3,000. Their usage for that bill also showed it was for 274 days.

"We received a huge bill from the gas company, ONG, to make up for the loss that they received while the meter wasn't reading properly," said Pastor Marshall.

A month later, the bill went back down to 29 days and a normal usage. Now, the church wants to know why their bill showed no usage when they claim the heat was on.

"How were the meters repaired? Replaced? Were there any specific procedures involved," said Pastor Marshall.

The church said they've tried to get answers from ONG and were told multiple times "we'll be in touch within the week." They're hoping for proof something may have been wrong with the meter, so the insurance company will pay up and repairs can move forward.

"Yeah, if we can get answers to these questions. Then our, our insurance company will pay off," said Pastor Marshall.

News 4 reached out to ONG. They said due to client confidentiality they could not comment on our story. However, we pointed out that the customer in this case has been trying to get in touch with them for months and get this dispute resolved. 

Pastor Marshall got a call from ONG a few hours after News 4 got a statement from the company. On the phone, Pastor Marshall said he was told if they wanted any information regarding the meter for their account, they would have to subpoena it. He said they are going to move forward with those plans.