New to Real Estate · Salinas, CA · Member since 2021 · 12 posts · 0 votes
Rental property caught fire possibly arson. It was a vacant property. It is a Total Loss. What are some questions I should be asking my insurance adjuster?
1. type of coverage: Replacement Cost (RC) vs Actual Cash Value (ACV). Is it Special form or Named perils.
2. Total limit: What is the coverage for Building and what is the deductible
3. Is there Coinsurance: if you have 80% Coinsurance clause on the policy, you need to have the property insured to 80% or more of the true RC or ACV (depending on what you have) or face a reduction on the loss.
4. Was the policy written as a Vacant policy or was it occupied and became vacant later. If so, what is the vacancy clause in the policy and what happens if the vacancy is longer.
These are some of the staring points that will help you understand what is due to you because of the loss. Your agent should be able to help with the above info and with what the claim process will be like.
1. type of coverage: Replacement Cost (RC) vs Actual Cash Value (ACV). Is it Special form or Named perils.
2. Total limit: What is the coverage for Building and what is the deductible
3. Is there Coinsurance: if you have 80% Coinsurance clause on the policy, you need to have the property insured to 80% or more of the true RC or ACV (depending on what you have) or face a reduction on the loss.
4. Was the policy written as a Vacant policy or was it occupied and became vacant later. If so, what is the vacancy clause in the policy and what happens if the vacancy is longer.
These are some of the staring points that will help you understand what is due to you because of the loss. Your agent should be able to help with the above info and with what the claim process will be like.
All of what John stated above is great advice. To add to that you will also want to make sure to secure the property as soon as possible. Securing the property is typically a requirement in your insurance policy. This means board up any broken windows and doors. Someone looking to loot the property and falling through a weak floor could lead to a liability claim on top of the fire claim.
You will also need to get a copy of the fire report from the fire inspection that was done by the fire station. This report will provide you with the potential cause of the fire.
Since you mentioned it may be arson you may want to consider filing a police report.
Something to speak to your adjuster about is whether you have to rebuild/repair the damages or can you collect a check and sell off the property as is to a company that specializes in fire flip projects.
Best of luck with everything and remember your BP Family is here to help.
If it's a total loss, I don't think you'll need to ask a lot of questions to the adjuster, although I'm sure they'll ask some questions of you. Everything John mentioned would be good to ask but those are things that would have been in place before the fire, so it's just to figure out what you have in place. And these are things that probably need to be discussed with your agent and not the adjuster.