Its seems that all the weather experts I have heard are in agreement that we have at least three more months of El Niño influenced weather to look forward to. For the property owners that already have tornado damages from the last two Florida west coast storms you may be exposed to additional damages. So please don’t let your guard down.
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Action 9 News in Orlando recently did a story about a homeowner who experienced a water loss and quickly hired an emergency contractor who tore out the damaged portion of the kitchen and then kept the insurance proceeds without finishing the job. The conclusion of the report was to strongly recommend that folks that have an insurable loss not sign an all-inclusive right to proceeds contract with a contractor. 

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Q. The restoration company who repaired our home after an attic fire caused a contamination of fiberglass insulation by improperly clearing and cleaning the attic from smoke damaged insulation.  We know that the restoration company should be the one to take responsibility and maybe even use their General Liability Insurance, however instead they went out of business. We have talked to several lawyers and they say we have no recourse with our property insurance carrier.  We feel that our insurance company should take responsibility and make the restoration company who messed our home up pay to have it cleaned up properly.   Does an insurance company have to use bonded and general liability covered contractors?
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An Orlando area client who filed what they thought was a simple property insurance claim for water damage to their home found them forced out of their home since September of last year due to mistakes made by the “preferred vendors” of their insurance company and the insurance company’s refusal to take responsibility for the situation.  Tutwiler Public Insurance Adjuster Brad Barrett  was eventually brought into the situation late and has been trying to bring the situation to what is called Appraisal, where an Umpire can hopefully rule in the client’s favor.

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We want to thank Orlando public adjuster Brad Barrett for contributing this insurance claim blog.
When a policyholder experiences a loss, one of the first things they are supposed to do is contact the insurance company to report a claim. What we are being told by some policyholders, is that one of the first things some claims departments are doing is to instruct them not to speak with anyone (especially a Public Adjuster) and that they will be sending out their adjuster and their “approved” contractor to review the claim. This is a blatant effort to cut out public adjusters and independent restoration firms.
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Those in the Pensacola, Destin, Gulf Breeze and Ft. Walton Beach area who experienced any type of water intrusion from the severe flooding that hit the Panhandle are starting to hear back from their insurance company. Many will learn that the claim settlement amount(s) being offered are not sufficient to pay for their complete loss and damages.

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Extreme Florida weather has caused widespread wind, water and flood damage in Pensacola, Destin, Gulf Breeze and Ft. Walton and has also brought some flooding to the Tampa and St. Petersburg area. This will require that many residential and commercial policyholders submit an insurance claim. The public adjusters at Tutwiler & Associates urge policyholders to take the proper steps to protect their claim and avoid settlement problems.

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Q. How can we make sure our insurance company is moving ahead with our repairs, etc?  Right now, everything seems to be on hold until they can get a joint inspection with our contractor's insurance company. Our house has been sitting for over a week with no heat, no electricity, etc., while we wait for this joint subrogation inspection.

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Here is an insurance claim question that we answered as a contributing member of insurance claim experts for United Policyholders who advocates for property owners. 

Q. Can the insurance company force you to use an outside vendor to inventory your personal contents rather than allow you to do it yourself?  Can you refuse cleaning and inventory services that an adjuster is trying to make you use?

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As we approach the midpoint for this year’s legislative session in Tallahassee, things are not looking good for a key piece of legislation championed by Chief Financial Officer, Jeff Atwater.  Briefly, his push for a policyholder’s “Bill of Rights” came out of a number of formal meetings chaired by the then DFS consumer advocate.  The meetings were held by an eclectic group of stakeholders who had an interest in the adjusting process ostensibly to air issues that policyholders were complaining about following a loss.

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