News Channel 10 recently did a news story on drivers crashing their vehicles into homes and businesses. Congratulations to our public adjuster Mike Stabile who was interviewed for the report. This type of accident happens more than you think and can create quite the property insurance claim mess! Our adjusters have handled many of these and can attest to the complexity of sorting out the property and auto insurance plus getting a collapsed structure properly repaired.  Do you you have a story of a car crashing into a building? Let us know what you had to deal with.   
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WOW! What an impressive response to our most recent public adjuster blog , offering property owners with storm damage from Hurricane Hermine our advice on handling the claim related issues. It shattered all previous records on reader response and views. Two things come to mind.  People are looking for tips to deal with their claim process or they are just looking since it’s been so long since the last storm hit Florida and more specifically the Gulf Coast. My guess it’s a little of both, but I know there are claim issues out there from flood, wind, and the worst…massive sewer and black water backup problems. The calls are coming in and our public adjusters are staying busy, so my guess is that this will be a long sloth before there light at the end of the tunnel.
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As the saying goes in the sports fishing world when the big one is hooked, “FISH ON!” After 10 years of no hurricane landfalls, Florida experienced first a tropical storm, which was later upgraded to Cat 1 Hurricane Hermine. I feel very bad for all the folks affected in this State from Hurricane Hermine. From the media reports, this storm caused misery to a lot of Floridians along the Gulf Coast from Sarasota, Tampa Bay, all the way up the west coast to the big bend area and westward to Tallahassee. Flooding was as bad or worse than the wind in many locations but in combination, they likely did a number on property owners.  And if property damage wasn’t enough, the loss of power added misery to the mix. 
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If your Florida home was severely damaged from Hurricane Hermine to the extent that it is uninhabitable to live in, your insurance policy may provide a coverage called “Additional Living Expense” or “A.L.E.” Under the Additional Living Expense coverage, you and your family may be entitled to rent another home of the same size, like kind and quality as well as be reimbursed for any extra expenses you may incur such as food and temporary lodging.
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Hurricane Hermine has caused widespread wind, water, roof and flood damage in the Tampa, St. Petersburg area and up the coast to Tallahassee. As clean-up begins, many residential and commercial policyholders will submit an insurance claim for storm damage to their property. The public adjusters at Tutwiler & Associates urge policyholders to take the proper steps to protect their property insurance claim and avoid settlement problems with the following 10 tips:

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This was a great day for this highly decorated Vietnam War Veteran and his wonderful wife. A recipient of a Purple Heart and 2 Bronze Stars with Valor, this couple tragically lost their home to fire 9-months ago. After receiving insufficient offers to settle their claim and months of delay, we were finally able to negotiate a 200% increase over and above the insurance company's initial offer. And to think that the insurance company adjuster discouraged them from hiring a public adjuster! 
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Congratulation to Rick Tutwiler, who was presented the 7th Annual WIND Presidential Recognition Award at the Windstorm Insurance Network Conference in Orlando, Fl.  The award was established to recognize annually a member who has contributed significant knowledge, service and leadership to better the Windstorm Insurance Network (WIND). Rick was also elected as the 2016 Secretary of the WIND Board of Directors. It is wonderful to see Rick recognized for all of his extracurricular work to better the industry. All of us at Tutwiler & Associates Public Adjusters are proud of you.
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This is the time of year to reflect on our activities and share some of our most popular blogs. We started the year with Winter Storm Juno and the record snow and ice that brought ice dams and pipe bursts. Will we see a repeat in 2016? While we are now 10 years without a hurricane impacting Florida, we did experience severe flooding in the Tampa Bay area and then saw torrential rains bring record floods to South Carolina. And of course our property insurance claim tips to educate policyholders and adjusters always proved popular. Of course, the year would not be complete without the legislative controversy that included Assignment of Benefits issues and exposing some of the poor claims handling practices still in vogue. We’re looking forward to providing you more claim tips and coverage of the insurance industry in 2016. If there is an insurance claim issue you’d like us to write about or if you have a property claim related question, just let us know. A healthy and claim free Happy New Year to all.

Assignment of Benefits in Florida – The Beat Goes On

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A strip center in Tampa’s historic Ybor City caught fire destroying half of the building, a retail/manufacturing business and damaged the other section of the building rented to another tenant. The cause and origin of the fire was not suspicious, thus all the property owners needed to do was seemingly settle the claim with their insurance company. And here is where the trouble started.  
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Many people might be surprised that having an adjuster look at your claim is only the beginning of the insurance claim process. Remember, the field adjuster that inspects your property may not be an employee of the insurance company. They are typically independent adjusters on contract and typically are paid a set fee or percentage for each claim they handle. This is especially true during disaster situations when there are so many claims to adjust. You should ask them what firm they are with when they come to inspect your property and note how thorough they are recording your damage and if they are “listening” to you. 
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