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Subscribe to RSSAs homeowners start to assess the water and wind damage to their properties after Hurricane Sandy, they'll need to know the ins and outs of their insurance. Robert Hartwig of the Insurance Information Institute has tips on navigating your storm coverage.
A lot of homeowners in the Northeast woke up today and confronted the specter of flooded structures, fallen trees and other serious property damage. Last year's Hurricane Irene clocked in as the fifth most expensive hurricane in history, with $19 billion in damages, and Sandy's impact is expected to be even larger.
Robert Hartwig, president of the Insurance Information Institute, said homeowners who suffered damage from Superstorm Sandy should take a few steps immediately. Here's what you need to do to get repairs under way.
- While Hartwig recommends a sit-down with an insurance agent once a year to go over coverage types and levels, many of us don't do that, so the first step is reading your policy to find out whether or not you have covered claims. While wind causes some damage to homes, cars and other property, the big issue is flooding. Flooding is responsible for more than 90 percent of property damage inflicted by natural disasters, although it isn't covered in most homeowners' insurance policies.
- Inspect your home, take pictures of any structural or property damage as soon as possible and pull together a list of damaged property along with, if possible, how much those items were worth. Gathering all that information quickly will help your claim get processed faster, Hartwig said. Homeowners who file their claims right away can expect to meet with an adjuster in just a few days, so people who file today could meet with an adjuster by the end of the week. If your home is too badly damaged to inhabit, some insurance companies can give you money for temporary living expenses on the spot.
- To get rebuilding under way, shop around for estimates from contractors. Even though you'll be anxious to get your house and your life back to normal, it's important to conduct due diligence and make sure that whoever's handling the repairs is reliable. Unscrupulous contractors prey on the victims of natural disasters, so ask friends or family for referrals, and be sure to check the contractor's references.
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Private insurance carriers do not cover flood damage. Flood insurance must be purchased separately from a homeowner's policy. Further, some policies do not cover wind and a separate wind policy must often be purchased in windstorm prone areas. It is dangerous to assume your homeowner's policy will cover either of these risks/perils!!
I know that this is going to sound sick to some people, but those who had their houses burn may turn out to be the lucky ones. This is because many of the houses in that area have suffered massive damage from flooding. However, since standard insurance does not cover flooding and most people probably did not have flood insurance, they are going to be stuck for the repair costs. Since fire is covered on standard insurance policies, the people whose homes burned will be able to get insurance to cover rebuilding their homes. I know it is sick to think about, but the one whose homes burned may truly be the lucky ones.
When it comes to dealing with an insurance company after something like this, it may be necessary to get an attorney to represent your interest. The insurance companies will do everything they can to avoid paying and it often becomes a battle over whether it was wind and rain or flooding that caused damage. In the former, the insurance would cover the damage, in the latter it most likely will not.
From someone who has deal-ed with both fire and hurricane damage...
Get a professional appraiser to submit your claim to the insurance company. It takes a little longer, but can save you hundreds of thousands...
Keep all receipts for post damage repairs, to limit further damage...
If a tree falls and does not hit the house, your fence, or car/boat. Remove it @ your expense and usually the city/county will remove the cut wood for FREE...
DO NOT - RUSH - it's important to conduct due diligence and make sure that whoever's handling the repairs is reliable.
There is likely to be a lot of uninsured losses...luckily conservative stalwarts like Christie of NJ will refuse any federal help since his good pal Romney says that the states need to handle their own storm recovery...this will save the rest of us billions
And to think, just before Sandy hit, Romney admitted that he was going to cut FEMA spending! Yea, that's a great statement to have hovering over your head, pre-election and post-storm.
Talk about offering valet service for President Obama's re-election. Wonder what kind of turn-down service and breath mint Romney will leave on President's Obama's pillow next.
How about dah< jeep is sending jobs to China? Who would vote for him after that statement?
From a Hurricane IKE survivor in Houston: Get a damn lawyer: NOW because the insurance companies will try & screw you.
Phil is absolutely right, the advice in this article is nothing but shallow propaganda.
Hire an advocate/attorney and play hardball with your insurance or you will get shafted!
Phil is correct.
We in MS had to do the same.
I got lucky, I dogged the crap out of them.
And I won.
Most people aren't so lucky.
If you call you might hear something like this:
"If your damage was from wind, press 1
If your damage was from an Act of God, press 2
If your damage was from an object from your neighbors home, press 3
If you would like to make a premium payment please stay on the line and a team
member will be with you in a few short seconds."
State Farm will cover your water damage if it comes from your sewer but not if it comes from under your door or through your walls. Make sure you tell them the water came up through the pipes or you flushed the toilet and the house flooded!
With easily over 1,000,000 homes with some sort of damage this is going to be a complete nightmare. Billions in damages. Some may never recover. Small businesses destroyed. People unable to go to work for days if not weeks. A real tragedy to Americans in this area of destruction. Now my question is what will YOUR Government do for YOU? Billions spent overseas for aid and war. Everyone has stated stop spending, stop giving our money away to those who hate us if we give them billions or nothing. Now lets see who steps up to the plate or peters out.
If you have voted for Romney and he wins, you won't have to worry about FEMA. There won't be a FEMA it will be State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) and then you will be asked to bend over to receive it!
It makes no difference insurance is one of many scams... Insurance companies will always find some way to screw you over while trying to claim that you have to have insurance
Haven't you heard if it's an act of God they don't want to cover you! If it's something you do while you're drunk they don't want to cover you! If you want to rebuild your home after it's burned down that will cost you extra! Your home is not covered for the replacements price just their estimated price at the time of the loss. That may be only half the amount owed on it and in todays market your home may be like many, you owe more than it's worth. Good luck, its times like this I'm glad I'm renting.
Sadly, it's going to be their worst nightmare, if that is even possible after what they've lived through. Certainly after Irene, they would have gotten flood insurance so that should be OK. As they are paying through the nose for insurance premiums, based on where they live/own property, hopefully it will pay off for them.
Flood insurance can only be purchased in those low lying areas from the Government. Your deductable if it's like Earth Quake insurance (I had in California) was 25% of the homes Value. In my case it was $75k which I don't think I would have been able to come up with after going through 2007-2008 without work. Good luck if you have it. If you can't afford it I don't think I'd be voting for Romney!
These are all good points, but.
The FIRST thing you need to remember is NEVER give in or LET UP on your insurance claims.
Insurance companies will do ANYTHING to keep from paying, and the main name of their
game is to try and wear you down to the point where you just give up.
This happened to a lot of people in the south.
My "Not So Good Neighbor" State Farm, tried to screw me in Katrina.
I dogged it out, fought back and won.
Get a private contractor to access your damages if necessary.
The insurance companies will always try to claim your damage was due to flood.
In my case it was BOTH, first the wind and then the water.
I had flood insurance too and it paid right away.
But, I had to fight tooth and nail to get them to cough up for the homeowners.
DO NOT GIVE UP OR GIVE IN.
Confussed-1578043
Haven't you heard if it's an act of God they don't want to cover you! If it's something you do while you're drunk they don't want to cover you! If you want to rebuild your home after it's burned down that will cost you extra! Your home is not covered for the replacements price just their estimated price at the time of the loss. That may be only half the amount owed on it and in todays market your home may be like many, you owe more than it's worth. Good luck, its times like this I'm glad I'm renting.
Not too bright, eh? It's for replacment value. I bought a house for 100K that was built in 1927 and it would cost 249K to replace it today so the replacment value on my policy is 249K.
Do some research before making dumb statements and keep renting