As we continue to help our clients who experienced winter storm damage, settle their insurance claims, we are learning more and more about insurance company claim practices and procedures, some which is quite troubling. This winter in the northeast, we endured some grueling battles with insurance companies which I will detail below. No doubt, insurance is a for-profit business and no business likes to lose money.  We also understand that one can’t generalize one company’s behavior to all insurance companies as they all have their own standards of practice. And like other public adjusters in our industry, there are good apples and there are a few bad that can taint the entire profession. 
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A few years ago I was invited to speak at a conference of insurance professionals in Rhode Island.  My topic was surplus lines insurance which at that time was a very hot topic, at least in Florida as there was a pending Florida Supreme Court case that had it turned out different, could have changed the surplus market insurance scheme in a big way.  As it turned out due to the Court’s ruling, the surplus lines carriers preserved their unique market position and the world in this insurance community did not stop or even wobble. Having been retained recently on a couple of large commercial fire losses and getting reacquainted with some of the nuances of surplus lines, I thought now would be a good time to revisit this unique line of coverage with a couple of case studies that hopefully will shed light on some of the practical problems for policyholders if they happen to be insured by a surplus lines carrier.

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Summer is the time of the year when lightning can cause severe damage or even destroy your property. No surprises to folks in Florida, as they know we are widely regarded as the lightning capital of the U.S.  The raising heat over the Florida peninsula pulling in the cooler sea breeze later in the day often creates spectacular lightning shows followed by out of this world thunder claps. The results of these storms can be manifested in two ways, both bad. The first is life, health, and safety issues and the other is property damage resulting from lighting strikes that cause fires to buildings and destroy personal and business property. The insurance claims that follow can get quite complicated. 
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There is nothing like being victorious, especially when you know you were right. And sometimes the victory is sweeter when the fight was long and hard as was this commercial property insurance claim from a 2014 hurricane loss in the Caribbean that we wrote about a few weeks ago.

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It may be no surprise that not a lot of bills were filed in this year’s legislative session to correct any real or imagined property insurance crises and those that were, died in various committees.   After all, we are fast approaching a decade of no major hurricane strikes that some are saying is a record going back over hundred years! The sitting duck we were supposed to be is looking more like a stuffed bird hung on the wall. Yes, I know it only takes one, but let’s hope the good times continue to roll. There is too much at stake to see Florida or any of our coastal neighbors hit with the big one in this year’s 2015 Atlantic hurricane season just as we are in full recovery mode from the great recession.

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Q. My insurance company will not submit a letter of demand for the appraisal clause. If I do, will I then be responsible for all fees? My policy reads if they do the letter of demand, they will pay for all my appraisal fees.  
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For those of us who are insiders in the Florida claim adjusting business, the AOB issue has been the hot topic with a whole host of folks calling for its demise. I had previously written about this insurance claim scheme and the response to my blog was amazing. Seems no one likes the assignment of benefit except for some of the folks in the restoration business and of course a hand full of lawyers who have discovered a new opportunity to collect attorney fees. 

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While most folks are enjoying the spring weather and looking forward to summer vacations with outdoor time with the family, others are still working through the insurance claim adjustment process dealing with adjusters and contractors.  Yes, as hard as it may seem, a lot of folks are still struggling with losses over the last twelve months from winter storms in the Northeast, hail and tornados in the Southwest, and Caribbean wind losses from Hurricane Gonzalo.  It’s been a busy season for Public  Adjusters and with their help, many folks are just now entering into settlement discussions with their insurance companies. So now is the time to pay attention to the details in your insurance policy.  The news media seems to move on from storm to storm with little information offered or shared about the vital information you need to know about your property policy and its terms and conditions.
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Over the past few months, we have been helping businesses and homeowners try to settle their insurance claims from the extreme Winter Storm damage that has impacted enough property owners in Massachusetts and throughout the Northeast & New England area that this storm rivals the damage done by other major storms we have worked.  As we’ve seen with past major storms with widespread damage, it is very apparent that the insurance company’s are overwhelmed and they are desperately looking for assistance to service all their policyholders who have made claims for their property damage.  Similar to hurricanes, the carriers have enlisted the help of many independent adjusters who have made the trip from as far away as Arizona to help them make inspections, write repair estimates, and make field calls before turning their files in and heading back home.  The issue with this is that most of these independent adjusters are assigned so many claims that there are simply not enough hours in the day for these adjusters to conduct a thorough inspection of the damage and then spend adequate time behind the computer to write a detailed repair estimate.
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As we transition into Spring, hail storms will cause severe property damage to roofs, siding, screen enclosures and any other structure within its path. As public adjusters, we consistently see insurance company claim adjusters minimizing the damage and trying to do patch work. This can lead to real differences of opinion between the policyholder and their insurance carrier as this denied hailstorm insurance claim at a church seen in the video below. While every claim is different and must be taken on its own merits based on the policy, our advice is to always enlist contractors and public adjusters who know the nuances of these claims and can negotiate fair settlements. Hail damage can be easy to miss and come back to haunt you. 

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