Wildfire Damage Claims
Whether in Oklahoma or California, devastating wildfires are sweeping across the country. Dry conditions and high winds can quickly give rise to fast-moving fires that are difficult to extinguish and devastate everything in their path. Most homeowners assume their replacement cost policy will rebuild their home after a destructive fire. But all too often, this assumption is wrong.
Instead, after a fire takes everything, many homeowners learn their insurance policy will not cover the actual cost to replace their home. Or even when the policy limits are sufficient, the insurance companies engage in their same tired tricks to slow play and deny claims.
Wildfires reveal a national underinsurance crisis.
You trust your insurance company and agent to accurately calculate the value of your home. But your insurance company is using software that does not account for your home’s actual features. Instead, the insurance companies rely on software programs that make assumptions about your home and use limited, unconfirmed, pre-populated data to determine cost. The insurance companies do nothing to confirm whether this data is correct and, as a result, often fail to calculate a fair value for your home’s replacement cost. The result: when you lose everything, you are underinsured.
This knowing manipulation of valuation software has created an underinsurance crisis nationwide. You may not realize you’re underinsured until it is too late. As a result, you are forced to either rebuild a cheaper house or pay out of pocket. Either way, you’re not getting what you paid for.
These red flags could signal the insurance company is not handling your fire claim fairly:
- Issuing estimates that fail to account for the actual costs necessary to perform the work
- Estimating only to “clean” personal property ruined by smoke and ash exposure rather than replace it
- Refusing to pay for necessary building code upgrade coverage
- Threatening to cut-off living expense (or “ALE”) payments before you can move back into your home
- Demanding you provide a line-by-line list of your personal property when your entire home has been destroyed
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Our Process
How we handle denied or underpaid fire claims:
Initial call
You explain to us the fire damage your home suffered and the insurance company’s actions so far.
Document review
We review your policy, estimates, denial letter, and communications with your insurance company.
We take over
If we believe your insurance company is not treating you fairly, we move forward with your lawsuit and handle all communication with the insurance company so you don’t fight alone.