While filing your insurance claim for the damage caused to your home by the event which is covered in your homeowner policy, you may expect full compensation. It’s fair since you are a diligent policyholder and pay your insurance premium without delays. However, the word fairness doesn’t come in an insurance company’s dictionary. Fairness is something that most insurance companies usually do not practice in relation to their clients. After all, they are businesses and they think about maximizing their profit first. To increase their profits, they try to find loopholes in claims by invoking procedural errors, and evaluation mistakes whenever they can.
Any public adjuster in Florida can tell you that you must prepare carefully and follow specific steps if you want to maximize your insurance claim settlement. Here are a few tactics that you can follow to make sure you get the fair settlement amount you deserve for your damages –
- Select your insurance policy carefully
Florida is the state where you will find plenty of sunshine and beaches for lots of entertainment and leisure. But it’s also the state where many extreme weather events happen. That is why you should not opt for basic insurance coverage for your home in Florida.
Homeowner insurance policies come in various shapes and sizes and bring several benefits with them. Finding the best coverage plan might be tricky. While purchasing a homeowner insurance policy, you can compare various coverage offered by different insurers. You must look for a better claim settlement ratio and ease of filing claim settlements. At ClaimsPro USA, we recommend purchasing comprehensive coverage in addition to hurricane damage coverage from a trusted brand as it’s usually better than an unknown entity.
- Manage inventories annually
One of the most crucial parts of the insurance claim settlement process is the evolution of losses you sustained. The evaluation is based on the value of damaged items. Keeping an up-to-date inventory of appliances, furniture, and valuable assets will help your public adjuster to prepare a more accurate evaluation. You should manage your inventory annually as business owners do. It takes only a few hours to go through your house and add the new items you bought or remove those you’ve replaced to your list.
- Get repair estimates from multiple contractors
Do not be satisfied with the first estimate obtained by your contractor to repair damages to your home. Get estimates from at least 3-4 reputable contractors. We understand it takes extra time and effort but it will give your public claim adjuster more leverage to negotiate for a higher settlement of your claim. Some contractors tend to overestimate the cost to fix everything. This will also help to maximize your claim amount. While you don’t want to pick the lowest bid, you should make sure to not pick the most expensive, either. Also, avoid hiring contractors who specialize in only one field. For instance, if there’s damage to your roof, a roofing contractor may not be able to detect there is likely damage to the other structure as well.
- Hire an experienced public adjuster
If you are a novice in this field of insurance, you might not be able to negotiate for the maximum settlement no matter even if you follow the above steps carefully. There are many parameters that one must follow to get a fair settlement on time. Unfortunately, most property owners aren’t aware of those and will end up with undervalued compensation. An experienced insurance adjuster knows all ins and outs of the insurance claim process, thus they will be able to impose their views leading to fair negotiation.
What is a claim settlement process?
Dealing with disaster recovery for your home is not an easy task. However, with the right steps and procedures for home insurance claim settlement, you can make it a little less daunting.
As soon as you need to claim your homeowner insurance, reach out to your insurance agent and let them know about your policy and share the reason to file your claim. Follow the procedure suggested by your agent, which usually involves submitting the documents to verify your claim request. Alongside, hire a public claim adjuster to assist you in filing your insurance claim, inspecting and documenting all the losses, and negotiating for a better settlement.
Filing an insurance claim is very confusing. If required, you will need to prepare a lot of documents and answer various questions.
Read our 7–Step Guide to Help You File Your Insurance Claim to help you through this turmoil.
Wrapping up –
Settling an insurance claim has never been easy, neither for the insurer nor for the consumer. However, by keeping a few vital points in mind and hiring the right insurance claim team, consumers can make their insurance settlement process quick and hassle-free. A right public claim adjuster can help protect your rights and increase the chance of maximizing the fair settlement for your property damage exponentially.
If you feel you are being treated unfairly on your large insurance claim, consult ClaimsPro USA to learn how our claim adjusting team can help ensure your consumer rights to receive a fair settlement.
