Having a flood at your shop or office is, to say the least, a very traumatic experience. It is not merely a question of having the premises repaired and replacing ruined stock. Your business may well have been rendered entirely inoperable, and the financial consequences of this are tremendous.
Your insurance company will instruct a firm of Loss Adjusters to act on their behalf. As far as the insurers are concerned, the loss adjuster doing a good job means reducing the final settlement as much as possible and, ideally, enabling them to decline cover entirely.
At Prime State Public Adjusters Miami Assessors, we have dealt with thousands of business flood insurance claims over 30-years. We guarantee to get you every single penny you are entitled to. No Win, No Fee.
ALL YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT FLOOD CLAIMS
While the insurer’s appointed loss adjuster will insist upon being independent and impartial on the matter, the reality says otherwise. The firm is being paid by the insurance company and is there to represent their best interests. As far as the insurers are concerned, the loss adjuster doing a good job means reducing the final settlement as much as possible and, ideally, enabling them to decline cover entirely.
Even in situations where you stand a good chance of eventually receiving the settlement you’re entitled to and having your premises restored to the pristine condition it was in before the disaster occurred, the proverbial obstacle course you’ll have to navigate a daunting and demoralizing one. You’ll be bombarded with a barrage of seemingly irrelevant questions spanning across various meetings and will have to produce pages worth of schedules of damaged items. You may be required to obtain a quote after quote from contractors before it is decided that you can even think about proceeding with repairs. And that’s not the end of it. Quite frequently, if you cannot produce substantiating evidence for all of the damaged items, the loss adjuster will try to decline cover for them or at least substantially reduce the payout.
Of course, in business floods, it is not merely a question of having the premises repaired and replacing ruined stock. Your business has probably been rendered entirely inoperable, and the financial consequences of this are tremendous. You will have to claim for the losses accruing from the interruption to your business, and this often involves claiming for temporary relocation to alternative business premises while repairs are being undertaken. Once again, and particularly in the current economic climate, your insurers will seek out every avenue that may enable them to accuse you of failing to comply fully with the policy and thereby repudiate your claim.
As Loss Assessors, our function is to represent your best interests. We are experts in business flood insurance claims negotiation and can ensure that you get the very best settlement possible under your policy. We will manage your entire claim from start to finish, taking all of the stress and burdens away from you and ensuring the claim is not put in jeopardy due to one or two simple errors.
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
A BURST PIPE HAS JUST FLOODED MY OFFICE/SHOP AND I’M ABOUT TO MAKE AN INSURANCE CLAIM. WHAT SHOULD I DO BEFORE TELEPHONING MY INSURANCE COMPANY?
Firstly, because you are reading this we are going to assume that you’ve already called a plumber. Make sure that you turn off the stop-cock. Also, switch off the electricity to those areas of your workplace that have been affected by the flood. When you experience a burst pipe for the first time you literally do not know which way to turn. We find that the vast majority of burst pipe insurance claims happen because the pipes are uninsulated. In fact, we have had instances over the years where the Loss Adjuster does everything possible to try to repudiate a burst pipe claim when he sees no lagging and advises the insurance company either not to pay or to severely restrict the eventual pay-out. On the off-chance that you are reading this paragraph by way of interest and not that you are about to make a commercial burst pipe claim, we can do no better than to strongly advise you to ensure that all of the pipes in your shop/office are fully lagged. It is a very inexpensive and quick procedure that could save you much heartache during the winter months.
I’VE NEVER HAD A FLOOD AT MY OFFICE/SHOP BEFORE, HOW DO I MAKE AN INSURANCE CLAIM FOR FLOOD DAMAGE?
When you telephone your insurance company, ask for the claims department and explain to them that you have had serious water damage at your place of work and need their instructions. In all likelihood, they will instruct a Loss Adjuster who will represent their interests (not yours!) and he will make an appointment to come and see you. Quite obviously, if it is a very serious flood then pressure the claims department to instruct a Loss Adjuster immediately.
This is also the ideal time to instruct Loss Assessors (ideally us!) insofar that where possible, we would like to meet you before you meet your Insurance Company’s representative, the Loss Adjuster. This gives us the opportunity to acquaint ourselves with your workplace and ensure that whatever report the Loss Adjuster writes to your insurers will be exactly as we have found it ourselves. Please note that our meeting you before you meet the insurance company’s Loss Adjuster is not essential but it very much helps.
It is essential to understand that when you are making an insurance claim for flood or water ingress at your workplace, it is paramount that you do everything possible to mitigate (minimize) your loss. If your insurers believe that you have not acted promptly and with due diligence they can quite easily suggest that the water damage is far more severe than it would’ve been had you attended to the situation quicker.
IF YOU HAVE ANY FURTHER QUESTIONS, PLEASE DON’T HESITATE TO CONTACT A PROFESSIONAL PUBLIC ADJUSTER FOR A FREE CONSULTATION AT (201) 347-0611
