Life comes at you fast. Accidents can come at you even quicker. Seeing damage to your property (residential, commercial or anything in between) for the first time can be scary, stressful, and overwhelming. This article provide helpful property insurance tips.
Depending on the loss and the extent of damage, the process of addressing your loss through the insurance you have obtained can be a windy and long road.
There are several quick and easy things anyone can do whenever they notice damage for the first time to their property. These steps not only help you in figuring out what happened, but they also help your insurance company see things from your point of view, which can help facilitate the processing of an insurance claim. This is by no means an exhaustive list, but they are simple steps you can take with minimal effort.
Tip #1: Take Photographs and Videos of the Damage:
Insurance companies generally need to determine the “cause and origin” of damage in order to determine coverage for the damage, and one of the easiest ways of showing causation is by taking photographs of the damage as close in time to the event or the discovery of the damage. Take photographs. Take videos. This will portray the damage from your viewpoint at the time of discovery, rather than from an insurance company’s inspection that could take days, weeks, or months to occur. Videos particularly help as they include audio of potential noises that could indicate certain issues you may not be able to see (or photograph).
Tip #2: Notify Your Insurance Agent of the Damage:
When some are confronted with a loss, instincts take over and they immediately go to the insurance company by reporting a claim. However, in many respects, your insurance agent (who in all likelihood helped you obtain your property insurance policy) may be the better avenue for you to report your claim. It is more likely than not that your insurance agent regularly deals with noticing claims to your particular insurance company, and so they will likely have experience with your insurance company’s claims procedures. Most insurance agents will gladly help out with reporting a loss, allowing you to delegate something you are not familiar with to someone who has familiarity with the claims process. Having your insurance agent involved can also help if you need a response from the insurance company, as they will likely have some idea of who to contact to get you the response you need.
Tip #3: Be Polite and Courteous:
This one should go without saying, but sometimes the stress of dealing with a loss event may overcome normal emotions and temperament, especially in situations involving catastrophic events (such as a tornado or hurricane). When considering this tip, it is important to distinguish between an insurance company, usually large and sophisticated business entities, and the adjusters or representatives from that insurance company assigned to your claim. In many cases, those individuals are not even employees of the insurance company, rather they are paid representatives acting on behalf of the insurance company. Regardless, one of simplest ways of increasing the chance of reasonableness and cooperation from an insurance company is treating their adjusters in the same manner you would like to be treated. Adjusters are human beings too, and most are just trying to do their job. Of course, there are situations where they may be unreasonable towards you, but generally speaking, the rules of courtesy and politeness you learned in grade school are transferable to the insurance claims process.
These steps do not guarantee anything unfortunately, but they are simple steps you can take that can increase the chances of an insurance company processing a claim in your favor and on a timely basis. However, there are instances where the insurance company will disagree with you as to the extent of coverage for your claim, regardless of what you do.
If you believe that you were wrongfully denied any insurance benefits, do not hesitate to contact us at info@pkglegal.com or at (561) 726-8444 for a free evaluation of your claim.