What Can I Do?

In choosing he title of this blog article, I was not trying to bring light to your situation. I was just unfortunately highlighting a situation that happens all too often to Florida policy holders. It doesn’t matter the name of your insurance company, the name of their adjusting company or your loss, generally they denied your claim for one simple reason – money. A company that has taken your dutifully paid premiums for years, simply doesn’t want pay you what they owe you.

When making an insurance claim, I want to remind you of three things to always remember:

First, remember the simple phrase report it right away. I can assure you things will generally only get worse with time. Unfortunately, another all too often story is told by Florida homeowners, who suffered a loss at their residence, and their insurance company after denied the claim because of “late notice.” This is certainly an easy thing to say from a cozy corporate office when someone else’s house is flooding from a broken pipe or destroyed from a fire or literally breaking apart from a sinkhole. Unlike your insurance company and their lawyers, we will come to your office and experience your loss first hand rather than only seeing reports and photographs.

Secondly, take detailed notes of who the insurance company sends to your house, what they do, how long they are there, etc. While generally adjusters from insurance companies are hard working people just doing their jobs at the end of the day, remember they work for your insurance company not you. We work for you. We work for you from the beginning of your free consultation to the end of your case.

Lastly, make sure the job is done right. Countless homeowners are billed by their insurance company into accepting quick settlement payments simply to “get it over with.” Unfortunately, these settlements come with long lasting implications including waiving your right to make similar unrelated claims in the future or even worse automatically surrendering your policy. Policy surrender provisions are beginning to render their ugly head against across Florida. These surrender clauses result in Florida homeowners losing their liability coverage for making property damage claims, like fire, water and sinkhole claims. Liability coverage is wholly unrelated from this property insurance. Additionally, this could make it more difficult to get property insurance later. Before signing any release or accepting any settlement, contact our office for a free consultation.