Fighting Insurance Co.

[Tony Mount]

How can I fight my insurance co? I have damage to my roof and interior ceilings and the insurance company estimates about 15,000 in repairs. They send me a check for 9,000 and said I have 2 years to complete the repairs and they will send me up to 6,000 more or what the costs are which ever is cheaper. How can they tell me that I have to pay the rest with my own money and they will reimburse me after the repairs are finished? I have a full replacement policy. The estimates for the roof alone is more than the 9,000. Any Ideas? I have not called them yet.

[Scott Patterson]

How can I fight my insurance co? I have damage to my roof and interior ceilings and the insurance company estimates about 15,000 in repairs. They send me a check for 9,000 and said I have 2 years to complete the repairs and they will send me up to 6,000 more or what the costs are which ever is cheaper. How can they tell me that I have to pay the rest with my own money and they will reimburse me after the repairs are finished? I have a full replacement policy. The estimates for the roof alone is more than the 9,000. Any Ideas? I have not called them yet.

What does your policy say? If it says this is how they pay for damages then you can not do very much. They figure that the first payment will pay for the materials and some labor to get the work going.

I had a similar issue when my home was damaged by Katrina in 2005. They paid about 70% and then the balance upon proof that the repairs were made. I discovered that this is pretty standard in the insurance industry. I had no trouble finding a contractor that was willing to work this way, as it was common. In my case the contractor issues the final invoice that the work was complete about a day before it was all done. I faxed it to the company and we had a check in about a week.

We were also told that if more money was needed to complete the work we just needed to submit a request with proof and they would release more funds. Similar to a draw inspection....

I had SAFECO at that time.

[Ron Bibler]

What is the pay out plan in your policy ? Like a car wreck they want you to send the car to the shop and they will send the money to them and the car shop gets todeal with all the mess and the insurance Co.

Thats the best way to deal with this issue get out of it... Let them send out the contractor and fix your house. then if something goes wrong:eek: and it will you have a ph # to call....

Best

Ron

[A.D. Miller]

How can I fight my insurance co? I have damage to my roof and interior ceilings and the insurance company estimates about 15,000 in repairs. They send me a check for 9,000 and said I have 2 years to complete the repairs and they will send me up to 6,000 more or what the costs are which ever is cheaper. How can they tell me that I have to pay the rest with my own money and they will reimburse me after the repairs are finished? I have a full replacement policy. The estimates for the roof alone is more than the 9,000. Any Ideas? I have not called them yet.

TM: Have your attorney give them a call.

[H.G. Watson, Sr.]

Its pretty common esp. if you're maintaining occupancy after a loss and you have a mortgage. When you've had the roof repaired and signed off, a repeat visit from an insurance rep/adjuster to confirm roof has been repaired and no additional hidden damages found during that stage - often then allows a secondary payment upon proof of next stage of work. It would be common for the Insurance Company to be holding back 10-20% of the roofing portion at this point plus anything interior repair but plus back in an allowance for demo and disposal of the interior required to properly expose and investigate potential hidden damage to the roof structure and removal of any saturated insulation.

Got to repair the outside before the inside and there could be unseen additional damages that won't be discovered until tearoff and the first stage is in progress; and their usually quite serious about the deadline for all repairs and supplemental claims/adjustments for the entire instance/event - so they can write the exposure/liability off the books on a date certain. They've probably got a pending liability on the books about double what they're holding back for their first payout.

If you do it right you shouldn't be floating any of your own money, Its the insurance company using OPM (contractor's & his suppliers) and a fraud prevention tactic.

[Bill Tomberlin]

How can I fight my insurance co? I have damage to my roof and interior ceilings and the insurance company estimates about 15,000 in repairs. They send me a check for 9,000 and said I have 2 years to complete the repairs and they will send me up to 6,000 more or what the costs are which ever is cheaper. How can they tell me that I have to pay the rest with my own money and they will reimburse me after the repairs are finished? I have a full replacement policy. The estimates for the roof alone is more than the 9,000. Any Ideas? I have not called them yet.
The insurance company has issued you your first check and they have held back your depreciation and your deductible. This is very common. Once the work is completed the contractor will send his invoice for the total of your repairs plus the deductible which you pay out of pocket to the contractor. If you selected a contractor that uses xactimate like your insurance company does this will allow both sides to come to a fair price.

[Markus Keller]

Hi Tony, I used to know a guy who did construction reimbursement contracts/claims for property owners suffering from flood, hail, etc. He used the same software that the INS. companies use.
He always stated the problem for homeowners was that they didn't understand the system and didn't itemize as needed.
As an example, don't claim 'replace 3 sheets of drywall'. According to him the proper way to claim is,
- remove 3 sheets damaged drywall; remove insulation; remove old screws/nails, etc; repair framing; clean contamination with cavity; install insulation; install 3 sheets rock; tape and sand rock; prime and paint rock;
For an receptacle, don't put 'replace receptacle'
Claim, remove recep cover, remove recep; install new recep, re-install cover
According to him, each one of those line items is a distinct and separate cost item that you can get paid for, IF you claim it.
Hope that helps, good luck.