Devastating hurricanes have battered the east coast and the southern United States over the last several years with Michael, Irma, Matthew, and Dorian being the most recent. In the aftermath of these storms came some mourning, and a great deal of work. An important part of that work is determining the cost to repair the damage and making sure you covered under your hurricane insurance.
This is where filing insurance claims come in. But, when it’s your property that’s been damaged, filing your claim fully and correctly can be both laborious and confusing. The laws and regulations governing weather-related disaster insurance, and the policies that provide this type of coverage can require the equivalent of a law degree to interpret accurately.
When your property is damaged in a hurricane, it’s important to report it to your insurance provider right away. When you do, the insurance company will send a claims adjuster to represent the interests of your insurance provider. All too often, property owners fail to understand that the job insurance company’s adjuster is to minimize the amount of coverage you will receive for the damage you have suffered. This is why you need a private adjuster to do the same work, but with your interests in mind.
When to Consider Hiring Public Adjuster
Public adjusters are typically hired to work with large and complicated claims that would be beyond the ability of the layperson. Filing claims for hurricane damage tends to present several unique challenges. These challenges stem from the fact that multiple types of claims often have to be made. The combination of wind and flood damage that is typical of a hurricane means a windstorm claim or homeownership claim and a flood claim will have to be made at the same time.
You can imagine how difficult it would be to compete with the work of the insurance company adjuster when multiple policies are up in the air. If you file claims under more than one policy, as is typical in hurricane-related claims, the public adjuster would work on your behalf to get the most out of each policy for you.
Professional Help Where it Counts
It’s important to understand that some claims are too small to call for the talents of a public adjuster. If, for example, your policy does not cover all of the damage, there’s not much point in hiring a public adjuster. The time to engage the services of an adjuster is when multiple claims complicate the issue, and your policy offers sufficient coverage for the damage your property has suffered.
Most people underestimate the difficulty and complexity of filing large hurricane damage claims. According to United Policyholders, a consumer advocacy group in California, the problem is quite common. Many people do not even realize that public adjusters exist. When they learn about the service, the importance of having an advocate to check (and sometimes counter the work of the insurance company’s adjuster) the adversarial nature of insurance companies becomes startlingly clear.
Public adjusters create a level playing field where the insurance company would otherwise hold all the cards. But there are limits to their capabilities. They cannot obtain more coverage than the applicable policy offers. But when a property owner has suffered multiple types of damage from a single event and has adequate insurance – then a public adjuster is just what the doctor ordered. Contact us today!