On Property Insurance Claim Tips Blog

A lot of properties that experienced Hurricane Michael losses are starting to have Law & Ordinance issues. Law & Ordinance kicks in when the Florida and local building code requirements impact what will be required in order to obtain a CO (Certificate of Occupancy) in order to reoccupy the damaged structure. It is a separate coverage in your policy that you must elect and covers some of the cost of required code upgrades. If your property (be it commercial or residential) suffers a loss where the cost of repairs is greater than 50% of the pre-loss value of the real property, your repairs must incorporate current building code upgrades.

Insurance payments to North and South Carolina policyholders with flood damage will depend on the policies they purchased, the language in each policy and the law of each state. Nothing is simple in property insurance adjusting. Hurricane Florence may be a textbook example of some of the issues that may have to be sorted out before there is a discussion about the actual adjustment and payment of a hurricane claim.

As the catastrophic flooding from Hurricane Florence unfolds, thousands of businesses and homeowners who never considered the possibility of dealing with flood damage will be investigating the claim process. We will be sending a team of adjusters to the Carolinas when authorities say it is safe to enter. So in order to offer assistance to our readers, I asked my talented staff of public adjusters to share some of the best tips they could think of for handling a flood claim. The following are some claim tips that hopefully will help folks should they have flood coverage or even windstorm damage.

The catastrophic flood event expected from Hurricane Florence with widespread flooding on the Virginia, North and South Carolina coasts is bringing back bad memories from the debacle we went thru with Superstorm Sandy. For those who have flood insurance, we encourage you to review and pay close attention to your flood policy’s terms and conditions. The policies issued by the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) are unique because they fall under a Federal Government program with its own rules and regulations. Keep in mind that many private insurance companies resell and administer the NFIP policies.  So make sure you confirm if your flood policy falls under this program.

Expert Public Adjuster Dick Tutwiler explains the importance of understanding the difference between flood and water damage property insurance claims.  What to do if you have both wind and water damage. What you need to know about flood insurance to avoid claim delays.

Policyholders may be surprised to find that their flood claim for foundation damage is denied because the NFIP says the damage is caused by earth movement or settlement; even though the earth movement was caused by flood waters! Before I discuss this, let me remind the reader that each loss is fact specific to each property. You may have two homes or commercial buildings in close proximity to each other and the loss conditions from the same insured event may vary to the point where they impact the claim.

I asked my talented staff of public adjusters to share some of the best tips they could think of for handling a flood claim. The following are some tips that hopefully will help folks should they have flood coverage.

Flood Damage Claim Tips

1. Take photographs of all damaged content items including discarded objects, structural damage you intend to claim.
2. Make a list of damaged or lost items by the room and include their date of purchase, value, and receipts.
3. Take photographs of the water line (standing flood water levels) both inside and outside the residence. Note how long the water remained in the house if possible. 

Our hearts go out to all the folks in Texas and Louisiana affected by Hurricane Harvey and the brave first responders risking their safety to assist others. Based on damage reports and our own public adjuster staff who are monitoring the situation, there is no doubt this event will rival Katrina and create insurance claim disputes unlike we’ve seen before. And if property damage wasn’t enough, the loss of power added misery to the mix.  To deal with these perils it behooves property owners to keep their eye on the ball or in this case the money. High percentage hurricane deductibles are being applied and many folks may be surprised that despite their wind or hurricane coverage, they may be out of pocket for the mitigation and replacement costs due to lack of flood coverage or exclusions for water - sewer back-up. 

There were a number of articles over the course of the last few weeks that focused my attention back to the water peril.  Spring storms in the middle section of the country with the severe floods that always seem to follow; global warming issues being reported almost daily with the threat of rising sea levels; and then this recent article, Flood recovery meeting set in White Sulphur Springs  from The Herald-Dispatch in West Virginia, that announced meetings with various officials to try and provide updates to the folks in southern West Virginia who were affected by last year’s floods in the mountain state. 

Ken and Joan spent their working lives in public service, Ken as an educator, and Joan as a nurse. It was their dream to have a vacation home in a warm climate so they purchased a condominium in Bonita Springs, Florida. A contractor error caused a pipe break in a unit above theirs and entirely flooded their home with hundreds of gallons of water. They were notified and drove down to Florida to inspect the damage and meet with their insurance company. That’s when the insurance claim problems began.