🐢 The importance of persistence

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