When your home or office suffers water damage, you want it fixed ASAP. You’re grateful that you have insurance because it should cover the cost of repairs. However, the claims process may not go the way you expect.
It’s possible that you won’t receive as large of a settlement as you thought you would. It’s even possible that your claim could be denied. Some people become frustrated when they begin to feel that their insurance company is stalling or giving them the runaround.
Meanwhile, you’re still up to your knees, or worse, in water damage.
If your property suffers harm from rain, flooding or plumbing leak then your first call should be to a water damage claims lawyer, not to your insurance company. Why?
Thanks to Florida’s tendency toward hurricanes and heavy rains, water damage is a common insurance claim throughout the state. Most people take care to buy a policy that covers water damage from things like an overflowing bathtub or a burst pipe in addition to flood insurance. This way, they figure that they are protected against any damage that’s related to water.
What’s more, their insurance agent is friendly and helpful. He’s happy to accommodate their needs and facilitate the collection of their premiums. However, what happens when a claim is made? Frequently, this process isn’t handled by the insurance agent that the customer is used to. They are instead working with a claims department or an insurance adjuster who works for the company.
The people at the claims department or the insurance adjuster are probably polite. Still, you may not feel like you’re getting the same one-on-one service that you got when you purchased your policy. Even worse, your insurer may try to deny your claim or offer you far less than you anticipated.
Insurance companies have all sorts of reasons for denying a claim where water damage is concerned. Here are a few of them:
Sometimes, the denial of a water damage claim is legitimate and appropriate. However, it actually is common for an independent water damage claims lawyer to discover that the insurance company isn’t correctly interpreting the policy’s language.
It’s also a possibility that the insurance company’s adjuster is unfairly attributing the damage to a preventable maintenance issue or making another error that’s causing your claim to be denied when it should be paid.
It is not easy to precisely quantify water damage. Frequently, insurance company adjusters take the easy way out, not really doing as much investigation as is required. This means that they may miss the full extent of the damage, leaving you vulnerable to problems with mold, mildew, warping and other issues that may plague the property for years to come.
However, when you work with a lawyer who focuses on insurance claims for water damage, then you can rest assured that all of your water damage problems will be fully investigated. In fact, attorneys may use sophisticated moisture mapping technology like thermal or infrared imaging to determine the exact extent of the damage.
Once this is done, the lawyer has facts and evidence that can be used to enhance your insurance claim. This means that you can rest assured that all of your water damage will be repaired and that your insurance will pay you a fair settlement.
Your lawyer further may help you with estimates to repair, restore or replace your damaged property. When insurance companies provide these estimates, it is not uncommon for the numbers they use to be unrealistically low. This is because the insurance company has a vested interest in paying you less so that they save money.
That’s not the case with your attorney. He’s there to help you and represent your interests. He’s not interested in saving the insurance company money. Instead, his sole aim is to ensure that you are fully and fairly compensated for any water damage to your property that is covered by your insurance policy.
When you work with a water damage claims attorney, you want to know that he is completely on your side. To demonstrate this level of dedication, Your Insurance Attorney doesn’t get paid a penny unless you do.
This means that we fully believe in the claims of each and every one of our clients. We fight with all of our legal knowledge to ensure the best possible outcome because we are in the situation with you. Unlike insurance companies, our loyalties aren’t divided or directed somewhere else.
