This 42 page decision Biscayne Cove Condominium Association, Inc. v. QBE Ins. Corp., 2013 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 5194 (S.D. Fla. Jan. 14, 2013) makes for some very interesting reading. The case was one of those late blooming Hurricane Wilma condo claims that I suspect contributed to the thinking that a change in law regarding the time a policyholder has to file a claim might be a good idea. You can draw your own conclusions about what went on in this case (I know I have) but one of the clear take-aways is that in this case the Judge was not buying what was being sold.

As an aside, the 30% rule this public adjuster was relying on and thought existed drew some chuckles in a meeting our firm recently attended with a group of condo lawyers. Seriously, there are some very interesting points made in the Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law. As the old saying goes; “it’s not my monkey and it’s not my circus” thankfully! 

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We want to thank Orlando public adjuster Brad Barrett for contributing this insurance claim blog.
When a policyholder experiences a loss, one of the first things they are supposed to do is contact the insurance company to report a claim. What we are being told by some policyholders, is that one of the first things some claims departments are doing is to instruct them not to speak with anyone (especially a Public Adjuster) and that they will be sending out their adjuster and their “approved” contractor to review the claim. This is a blatant effort to cut out public adjusters and independent restoration firms.
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If floods, landslides, fires, earthquakes and hurricanes are not enough to worry about, it seems a new peril is lurking that we just did not know about or pay attention to and may need to be added to the list of property insurance claims. Remember the asteroid that streaked across the northern Russian sky a few months back? Well, it seems another one was just recorded on a car dash cam and posted to all the internet news outlets. Not to be an alarmist, but there may be some credibility to this threat given the attention three former U.S. NASA astronauts have given to this.
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It should not be surprising that insurance claims are reported in Florida on a fairly regular basis for damages to insured property resulting from decay, odor, and clean-up following an unattended death.  Florida was once known as heaven’s waiting room given all the elderly folks who came here to die or to be more polite, to retire and then die.
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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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Property owners in the Pensacola, Destin, Gulf Breeze and the Ft. Walton Beach areas 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; even though the earth movement was caused by flood waters! Before I discuss this, let me remind any reader that each loss is fact specific to that property. You may have two homes or commercial buildings side-by-side in close proximity to each other and the loss conditions from the same insured event may vary.

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Sewage backup is damage public adjusters deal with more than I would like to admit. A recent published appellant court case in Florida http://www.3dca.flcourts.org/Opinions/3D11-3277.pdf addresses the confusion surrounding insurance coverage for water and sewer losses in today’s all risk homeowners insurance policies. If you take the time to read this case, you will note this issue has been litigated not only in Florida but other states as well.  It seems the insurance industry either does not understand the issues or haven’t been following the case law as we continue to see water and sewer claims denied on a regular basis.  Without going into a lot of detail regarding the legal cases, depending on the wording of the policy in question, if the backup is on the insured side of the property line or actually in a plumbing pipe on the premises, coverage for these losses should be covered under an all risk policy. Why all the litigation and confusion in the first place?  It would seem pretty basic that these losses would be covered as they clearly meet the insurance test of a sudden, accidental and an unintended event.

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Hopefully, property owners the in Pensacola, Destin, Gulf Breeze and the Ft. Walton Beach areas who were impacted by the flood and water damage are starting to receive settlement offers from their insurance company about their claims.  Sometimes our firm will be retained by a homeowner only to receive a call several weeks later to say the insurance company adjuster had called them with a verbal settlement offer they might be able to live with. Even though it’s outside of our contract cancellation date and work may have begun on the loss, we typically wished them well and thanked them for their consideration in selecting our firm to assist them. That got me thinking about all the property insurance claim offers we’ve gotten over the many years assisting clients. 
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Home and business owners who were impacted by the flooding and water intrusion in Pensacola, Destin, Gulf Breeze and the Ft. Walton Beach areas are starting to hear back from their insurance company about their claims. Many will learn that the claim settlement amount(s) fall short and will not cover the cost of repairing storm damages.
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Those in the Pensacola, Destin, Gulf Breeze and Ft. Walton Beach area who experienced any type of water intrusion from the severe flooding that hit the Panhandle are starting to hear back from their insurance company. Many will learn that the claim settlement amount(s) being offered are not sufficient to pay for their complete loss and damages.

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