Getting your insurance company to pay you what they should is often a war of attrition.
Why it matters: Delay, deny, defend has become the mantra of many insurance carriers as they face an increasing number of costly natural disasters.
- The important question you need to answer as a homeowner is this —> Am I willing to persist in order to receive the full value of the insurance policy I’ve been paying for?
🥊 The bottom line: You have rights as a consumer, but homeowners are being forced to push to see those rights honored.
- Click here to download and read the Texas Department of Insurance’s Consumer Bill of Rights.
📖 Stories from the frontlines
👉 Nicki’s insurance carrier (IC) told her they would pay for the hail damage to her gutters and fence but that the roof was fine.
- A year later a leak in a vulnerable spot on the roof ruined her hardwood floors. The IC was paying to fix the floors — but not the roof.
- We documented all the hail damage to the roof, wrote a thorough estimate and reopened the 13 month old claim (which is usually too late).
- The IC accepted our estimate and paid for a new roof.
- If only they had done that before Nicki and her husband had to move out of the house while the entire first floor wood floors were redone.
👉 Elise’s IC immediately agreed to replace the roof after they inspected the hail damage.
- But they refused to pay to redeck the house even though the decking was dangerously out of code and she had been paying for code upgrade coverage.
- Informed by the info we provided her, Elise made more than a half dozen calls to the adjuster to exercise her rights.
- The IC finally agreed to send out one of their preferred vendors.
- The vendor was honest and included the redeck in their estimate — even though they knew they weren’t getting the work — and only then did the IC agree.
- We started redecking Elise’s house yesterday — and good thing, because it was worse than our initial discovery showed.
✅ For your Smart Homeowner list
- In Texas, contractors cannot “negotiate claims” with your insurance carrier. That is a violation of Texas House Bill 2103 — The Unlicensed Practice of Public Adjusting.
- All we can do is provide excellent documentation for you to make a case to your insurance carrier.
- You’re the customer, so you have every right to negotiate, push and escalate.
- At times you might be forced to hire a licensed public adjuster, an appraiser or an attorney. Feel free to call me before you do.
Best,
Travis