Article by Adam Woodrow
Any time you have property damage to your residence, you have to go through your Insurance Company to recover money for your losses and to rebuild what was lost. If you are like a large sum of property owners, you walked away with a check from your insrance company with barely enough funds to cover half of the work that has to be done to get your home back in shape.
This happens because of a couple of reasons. The first reason this happens is because of the nature of the Insurance Industry. They are in business to make money. They also hire their own Insurance Adjusters to estimate the amount of property damage you have to your home and how much it will cost to fix it. Since the Insurance Adjuster in this case works for the insurance company, you have nobody that is evaluating the damage with your thoughts in mind.
The second reason that Insurance Companies underpay their property owners is simply because the average property owner doesn’t know any better. They see the insurance company and their Adjuster doing work, and when they come up with a payment number, it is automatically accepted that this is how much they should be paid for the damage.
A little known fact, is that all property owners can choose their own contractors and get multiple bids on conductng repairs to their home. You do not have to take the lowest estimate of the bunch. The lowst estimate could mean the work will also be the lowest quality. You, as a property owner, have the option of selecting the contractor with the highest estimate if you choose, and that is what the insurance company has to go by.
The problem with this option is that the average property owner doesn’t know how to go about this process. It can be very tedious, overwhelming, and plain confusing. The good news is that you can get an Insurance Adjuster that works striclty for the policy holder and has only your interests at heart. This type of Adjuster is referred to as Public Adjuster. A Public Aduster’s responsiblity is to work with and for the policy holder and to get every penny they deserve out of the insurance company. Property damage claims that are handled by a Public Adjuster include fire, wind, water, flood, hurricane, theft and many others.
In many states, a property damage claim can be reopened up to five years after it was claimed. If you feel that you were underpaid by your insurance company on a past insurance claim, a Certified Public Adjuster can help you recover those extra funds.
About the Author
Adam Woodrow is a Homeowner and Webmaster for www.USALoss.com. Public Adjusters helping homeowners collect on underpaid insurance claims. Half of homeowners are underpaid and don’t even know it.
Learn about the various types of insurance business owners should consider when operating in the District of Columbia. To watch the entire Insurance for Small Business (7/18/07) seminar please visit www.wdcep.com.
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