Fire Destruction and Insurance

[Brandon Kamm]

We just had a fire at a tri-plex. Occurred in an occupied unit with no one home in that unit (no one hurt), fire has investigated and they believe they know the cause, but are not 100% certain. It does not appear that the property owner nor landlord were at fault, probably an accident. The damage is well into the five figures, a rough estimate would be between $60-$90,000. Could easily be more. The policy more than covers this amount. Have any of you dealt with insurance companies with an incident of this magnitude. What should be expected? Any help appreciated.

[Bill Gulley]

I suggest you skip the damage assessments for a few days and go directly to your attorney to guide you. An initial consultation with your attorney will be better insurance, IMO than taking off and hiring an independent adjuster, eventually they all work with or for the insurance industry. The estiamte of what the damages are is irrelevant, it's what it actually costs to make the repairs.

One of my borrowers had a very significant claim. The insurance company made a take it or leave it offer. The mortgage had to be paid and they could not live there putting pressure on himto take the deal.

His attorney had to step in. I called the regional insurance office and we had it out, they had not paid for three months at this time. I told them that if payment was not made within 10 days that I would go trough my loan files and require every borrower with their company to change companies. (It was a major insurer)

He said I couldn't do that. I pointed out that the deed of trust stated that the borrower was to maintain a policy of insurance acceptable to the lender, I was the lender and if payment was not made, theywould become unacceptable to me.

I received funds in about four days as I recall.

Moral of the story, get assistance and don't fight the insurance company on your own with a large loss.