Resolving Hurricane Insurance Claim Confusion In Florida

Sadly, many Florida homeowners and condominium associations are being given the same disappointing answer from their insurance companies after suffering significant damage from Hurricane Irma: the insurance company thinks that patchwork repairs are enough to fix the problem, while contractors indicate that a complete replacement is necessary.

Unfortunately, these battles are now preventing many from moving forward and getting property damage addressed, leading to many to turn to attorneys to assist with ensuring that the insured’s rights under the insurance policy are enforced.

Flood Insurance Can Be Tricky

One of the most common issues we hear about is being provided different instructions by different people from the insurance companies, and having to resend flood insurance claims several times as a result. Although many insurance agents sell these flood policies, a lot of them still do not have experience with the national flood insurance, which can lead to issues later on in getting claims addressed.

With other flood-related claims, people are sometimes told that they cannot file claims at all because they only have coverage for the contents in the home, “loss of use” coverage in case their home suffers such significant damage that they can no longer live in it, and coverage for the home’s structure.

Some Issues Cannot Be Repaired

The problem is that few insurance companies are willing to admit that “loss of use” has been satisfied, and officially find that a home needs to be rebuilt, not repaired. Certain types of structural damage simply cannot be fixed, leading many to move on past trying to deal with their insurance companies and, instead, filing a dispute with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), asking the agency to declare their homes to be a total loss. Unfortunately, FEMA is dealing with so many similar claims that the backlog alone means that people won’t hear back for months on end, leading many to simply take the flood insurance funds that they receive to pay down their mortgage to lessen the cost of the inevitable: ultimately demolishing and rebuilding their home.

Prepare Yourself: Prevent Surprises

Understanding the limits of your coverage before disaster strikes is crucial, as many people only take out $10,000 worth of insurance to cover contents, and then, due to unexpected flooding, end up claiming $22,000 in loss.

Flood insurance policies also do not tend to cover temporary housing, to the surprise of many families.

Florida Hurricane Insurance Claim Attorneys Serving Property Owners

If your home or association suffered damage due to a hurricane, contact one of our Fort Myers hurricane insurance attorneys today to find out how we can help. The hurricane insurance claim attorneys of HD Law Partners know what it takes to win cases against big insurance companies—we’re here to help.

Resource:

news4jax.com/consumer/insurance-confusion-whats-covered-whats-not-after-hurricane