If your home was severely damaged from the recent Tampa Bay flooding 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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The no name storm in Tampa has caused widespread water and flood damage in the St. Petersburg and Tampa area. Now that cleanup has begun, many residential and commercial policyholders will submit either a flood (if you have flood insurance) or water damage insurance claim. Make sure you understand the difference between the two before you file. The public adjusters at Tutwiler & Associates urge policyholders to take the proper steps to protect their claim and avoid settlement problems with the following 10 tips.
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Water losses are by far the most frequent claims reported to the insurance industry. I suspect water losses are also the most frequent perils that impact property owners. Since many are not reported however, we really have no accurate data to determine the full scope of damages that water causes notwithstanding the CLUE reports (Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange) that are filed for reported claims. Yes, both you and your claim data are being stored and indexed by big brother insurance. Who would have thought with all the privacy concerns that your prior property loss information is stored and shared! With flooding everywhere in the southeast and especially Florida and the Tampa Bay, St. Petersburg area due to a stagnant weather low system, it seems timely to cover a few of the issues policyholders are facing with water losses and their insurance claims.
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After a scathing report about engineering fraud on 60 Minutes, it looks like FEMA is going to allow policyholders the ability to reopen all Superstorm Sandy insurance claims per a NPR report. As a licensed public insurance adjuster who represents policyholders and handled Sandy flood claims, it would be helpful to understood that the NFIP (National Flood Insurance Program) sets their own very rigorous and draconian adjusting practice that have lead to the situation we have here. As an example, NFIP will not allow for any discussion on the scope of the loss other than what their adjusters says was flood damaged. If there is a disagreement, then the dispute resolution process in the flood policy called appraisal cannot be used to determine scope issues, only price.

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I am from the government and I am here to help you. The famous line from then presidential candidate Ronald Reagan claiming that the government is here to help you, will in my view always be remembered as the defining quote in his campaign that led to a conservative Republican victory and his election to this country’s highest office.  But that was then, what does it have to do with current events?
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Two years ago, on October 29, 2012 Super Storm Sandy came ashore just south of New York City causing significant flood damage to many buildings in the Financial District and in Battery Park City, New York.  Our firm was on the ground within 3 days post-storm, helping people prepare to file their Sandy insurance claims. We ended up opening an office in the area and stayed a good 6 months. Many of these high-end residential condominium buildings overlook the New York Harbor, Statue of Liberty, and skylines. Tutwiler & Associates Public Adjusters were retained to represent one of these tower communities.

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Given the severe localized flooding to parts of Southern and the east coast of Florida this past week due to heavy rains, it’s timely to point out that it only takes one storm to trigger a property insurance claim that can decimate your property value. It’s interesting to note a recent article that reviews worldwide property loss stats. While we haven’t had a large catastrophe event it points out that a larger group of smaller storms can still impact insurance rates and property values. Smaller losses, as we have seen in our practice, can still create time consuming claim complications. The time to identify your “claims team” is before you suffer your loss. Work with your insurance agent to fully understand the claims process. Then identify trusted public adjusters, restoration contractors, and yes even property insurance attorneys so you don’t fall upon the predatory few that will try to make a buck from your loss.  

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You can bet at any gathering of a group of Florida licensed public adjusters, the conversation will start off with the question of how many Florida public adjusters currently exist. No question about it, Florida saw an explosion in the ranks of the public adjusting profession since the big four storms of 2004, as compared to the historical record.  And this does not include the hundreds of non-resident licensed public adjusters who fly into this State to solicit and handle claims.  In the past few years however, the actual number of in-state licensed public adjusters has started a precipitous decline because of several factors.

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Here is an insurance claim question that we recently answered as a contributing member of insurance claim experts for United Policyholders who advocates for property owners. 

Q. I have been offered a job in Wilmington, NC and would like to live in a nearby beach community such as Surf City, NC.  Other than USAA, What is the best insurance carrier for flood insurance? 

A. Before I answer your question, please allow me to give you some background on flood insurance as our public adjusting firm has seen significant changes over the years. Because of the high risk of flooding and the widespread damages that often result, the insurance actuarial folks could not manage or price this peril so as to set an affordable premium. Thus the private insurance industry was simply not agreeable to assuming the flood risk. Thus, flood losses were excluded in most all standard property insurance policies. In 1968, the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) was created by an act of Congress as the lack of this coverage was affecting the economy and commerce. In the beginning years, this program while providing flood coverage, was very poorly run and claim service was terrible. Probably not surprising given that the NFIP was headquartered in Washington, D. C. as it quickly became a typical Washington bureaucracy, unresponsive and extremely difficult to work with.

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When there is a storm event such as the flooding in the Pensacola, Destin, Gulf Breeze and the Ft. Walton Beach areas we always get questions about how depreciation works. As public adjusters, we deal with this type of situation all the time when we are managing a policyholder’s claim. Deprecation is figured in a number of ways depending on who is making the calculations. As an example; in the insurance adjusting field, the text book example is to come up with a percentage based on the age of an item and its full life expectancy. So if an item is one year old and the average life is 20 years the percent to be applied for deprecation is 5%.  If the cost of the item new is $5,000 then $250.00 in deprecation should be taken for each year of life. If an item is 5 years old and the life expectancy is 15 years then 33% would be reasonable.

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