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.

The next round may come as soon as this weekend. While your roof may be temporarily dried in with a blue trap, high winds can easily shed these coverings exposing the buildings interior to more damage. Now is the time to meet with the insurance adjuster and the company that dried in your property to make sure the work that was done is satisfactory and will withstand any upcoming weather events until permanent repairs can be made.  Document these meetings!

Remember, each time a new loss occurs it will be treated as a new event or claim subject to new deductibles, a new claim number including the policy terms and conditions you must follow regarding your duties after the loss. With back-to-back weather events, an insurance company may raise a defense to your new claim that you failed to mitigate the initial loss and thus any new damages are not going to be covered.

That’s why it may be critical that you have an agreement based on a site meeting with the insurance adjuster and the vendor who did the temporary repairs so all are in agreement that all reasonable steps have been taken to protect and preserve the property. Ask in writing (email is fine) if there are other things you or the insurance company’s preferred vendor should do to satisfy the insurance policy post loss conditions.

Finally while waiting for checks, estimates and contractors, video record and photograph the interior of your home so all conditions are verified.   This will help you rebut any arguments about when the damages happened.  You do not want to take the blame of a faulty emergency repair by the insurance company’s preferred vendor when the fault may actually be theirs.

Policyholders must play an active role in the post loss environment. Simply put, keep your eye on the ball. Record and document each move and play of all the players.   

If you have questions regarding any property insurance claim related issues please call 800.321.4488 or contact us to submit a question to one of our public adjuster insurance claim experts.