Since Hurricane Helene impacted Florida’s Gulf Coast, our public adjusters have been besieged with questions about flood claims. Therefore, I thought it would be helpful and hopefully educational to explain the distinction between a flood event and a water loss since these terms are often misused by policyholders filing a claim. In addition, for those who do have flood insurance, we want to share some knowledge and information in the form of tips from my firm’s extensive experience with these losses. While it is human nature to want to quickly repair and restore your property, please make sure you are taking the proper steps to comply and meet the requirements as a policyholder. Furthermore, take a moment to carefully review the NFIP flood claim guidelines, as they have undergone numerous updates.

Read More

Hurricane Helene will produce all kinds of flood claim issues and conflicts with wind related water damage. We believe National Flood will waive the Proof of Loss deadline requirement so look for an extension to the time frame. We’ve revived a very popular blog on understanding flood where our talented staff of public adjusters shared 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.
Read More

As flooding from Tropical Storm Eta unfolds, thousands of businesses and homeowners who never considered the possibility, will be dealing with water and flood damage. Our Tampa headquarters office phones are already buzzing. 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 windstorm damage.

Read More

Based on the volume of phone calls coming into our offices from Pensacola and surrounding counties, Florida Panhandle business and homeowners are quickly turning their attention to recovering from Hurricane Sally. With the one two punch of widespread flooding and property damage from CAT 2 winds, property owners unfamiliar with the process will be filing an insurance claim for the first time and possibly seeking assistance and advice for their property insurance damage claim. One of the most common questions we receive when calls come into our offices revolves around the benefits of hiring a Public Insurance Adjuster. It still amazes us that so many policyholders have not heard of our profession or understand what Public Adjusters do. So, in an attempt to educate and not blow our own horn, I’ll try to answer that question in hopes of giving readers a basic understanding of what Public Adjusters do and the critical role they can play in the insurance claims process.

Read More

I was happy to contribute to this interview regarding Hurricane Florence insurance claims. We already have an adjuster team in North Carolina and have opened an office in Wilmington, NC. We already know many home and business owners are dealing with serious losses and will need to file a property or flood claim.  Some are telling us they may not see an adjuster for weeks! There are a number of steps property owners need to take in the immediate aftermath of a storm to avoid insurance claim settlement problems. Many mistakes related to filing insurance claims occur immediately following the storm. And there are also some safety issues that need to be considered before folks start mitigating their loss. It’s also important for the policyholder to understand their insurance policy responsibilities and properly document their claim.

Read More

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. 

Read More

Anticipating the 100 year flood event that occurred in my native southern West Virginia was the last thing on my mind when I wrote and published my recent blog Troubled Waters – Insurance Claims Under Attack, about the “Troubled Water Claims” phenomena we are currently experiencing in Florida. But given the fact that Florida’s water problems and West Virginia’s terrible flooding disaster have one common denominator - water, I thought it would be helpful and hopefully educational to distinguish a flood event versus a water loss since these terms are often misused in the property insurance world. In addition, for those who do have flood insurance, we want to share some knowledge and information in the form of tips from my firm’s extensive experience in water/flood losses including our most recent work handling Super Storm Sandy flood claims in New York.

Read More

Here is our 3^rd and final installment of questions we are fielding from the flooding in the Columbia and Charleston, South Carolina.  Hopefully we can help others seeking similar answers with flood insurance claims issues.

Q.  How much drywall damage will my flood insurance pay for? 
Read More

While some media outlets are reporting that water is starting to subside in some of the hard hit areas of Columbia and Charleston, others are reporting on the dam failures that could compound matters and make things much worse.  If some of the media reports are correct, many of the good folks in South Carolina may be in for nasty surprises when they call their insurance agent or 800 numbers listed on their property insurance policies to file an insurance claim. As an example, Ben Berkowitz a reporter from CNBC posted South Carolina flood losses $1 billion and rising, about the damages and lack of homeowner flood insurance. 

Read More

Well, maybe not new, but things are changing and we have seen this coming for some time. In our last blog Tampa Bay Residents Wait on FEMA we noted that staff from FEMA were in the area to inspect the flooding that resulted from three weeks of intense rain. Attempting not to jinx the process, I held off offering my opinion on the likely outcome of the FEMA inspection. But now we know FEMA has turned down requests from State and local officials to provide financial assistance to homeowners and businesses damaged due to the flooding.

Read More