Susan Minamizono
Appearances
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
Yeah, absolutely. It would start off by getting, again, your own estimates, getting that, finding that licensed contractor. And if you have concerns that you've been going at this for a few months. Another thing that you can do is contact your state's Department of Insurance, and they'll allow you to file an online complaint.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
And what happens typically is that the Department of Insurance will forward your complaint to the insurance company and give them a certain timeframe to respond to the homeowner's complaint. You may see some movement right after that. You may not. But that's certainly a good avenue.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
Obviously, if that doesn't work out, seek legal help from a qualified law firm that specializes in insurance coverage and bad faith litigation.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
Yeah, separate flags. obviously include the repeated delays. You're going to find yourself, unfortunately, especially after a wildfire or a mass disaster situation, multiple adjusters on your claim because there's just not enough staff to handle all these claims.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
And so I think it's problematic, though, if these adjusters keep asking for more paperwork and sometimes for the same paperwork that you submitted previously. And the claim is barely moving forward. That's certainly a red flag. Another one is a claim denial with no clear explanation.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
I've seen letters that look like someone just cut and paste policy language that doesn't apply to the reason of the denial, at least from my perspective. So if you're seeing a lot of that, certainly that could be a sign. And then again, like the lowball offers. Expect a low-ball offer at the beginning.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
But if, again, the needle doesn't move too much, despite you submitting multiple contractor estimates, there's still an insurance company is still saying, nope, our vendor and our consultant is still saying it's the repair should take or should be $50,000 less. That could also be a sign.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
I found it extremely helpful. I've had very detail-oriented clients who, from the beginning, took copious notes. And you're correct. I think claims adjusters do try their best to accurately memorialize their conversations with homeowners. But I will tell you that
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
That there have been plenty of claim file notes that I've seen that are missing key information that are found somewhere else in the claim file, right? That aren't necessarily noted by the adjuster during the phone conversation or soon thereafter.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
Yeah, it really depends on the state where you live in. But typically, when you're pursuing the tort of bad faith, there's statute of limitations of two years. Essentially, that means you have two years from oftentimes a date of loss to file the suit. Wow. But certainly, you can calculate the two years from the date the homeowner realized that there was bad faith conduct by the insurance company.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
But all that said, I wouldn't wait. longer than a year and a half before contacting an attorney, just because there are these statute of limitations issues, just to get an evaluation early on to determine if there should be a lawsuit filed. And I will say that for the Marshall Fire cases, I remember filing multiple complaints around Christmas.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
And so as a lawyer, I definitely would appreciate a more advanced notice.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
I don't think there's a time that's too early to contact an attorney, but certainly there are resources out there for... climate disaster survivors to consult with before contacting an attorney.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
For example, there's a great nonprofit organization called United Policyholders who provide various resources online and over Zoom, who've really been there for a lot of victims of climate disaster events here in Colorado, in California, in Hawaii recently. And they have an incredible online library and their website is uphelp.org.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
And so as a homeowner, that might be a good place to start to say, hey, is this conduct normal? What should I do? What are the next steps? I think there's some really good tips in there. And then if you feel like, okay, yeah, the insurance company is still acting badly with respect to my claim, it might be time to hire or at least talk to a lawyer.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
Again, it depends on the state where you live. There are attorneys who do this on an hourly basis, but many of them do work on a contingency basis, which basically means you don't pay anything up front and that the lawyers would only get paid a percentage if you recover settlement money or win at trial.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
Just a side note, some states, and I believe California is one of them, if you're insurer or acted in bad faith, you could pursue attorney's fees.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
Yeah, as I mentioned, the state Department of Insurance websites are... just chock full of information. And so you definitely want to start there. A lot of the governmental agencies will also hold in-person disaster recovery center settings. I know right now, I believe there's a few in California, including one at UCLA.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
Also, though, while you're in the middle of an insurance dispute, and if there is any concern that you don't have enough insurance funds to rebuild, start looking into FEMA grants and and SBA loans. I know a lot of clients who were able to bridge the gap using those grants and loans.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
get as much as insurance as you can. I can't stress that enough. Like I mentioned earlier, a lot of these cost estimated software that insurance companies use
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
really just fall quite short when it comes to a total loss situation when if you're just going to repair part of your home or replace your roof sure these policy limits are never reached right but if your home was to be subject to complete loss that's a different story there are additional coverages like extended replacement coverage
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
Some states will, and some insurance companies, depending on the state, will offer 25, 50, sometimes even up to 100%. Buy it. Get everything you can. Sometimes you'll have more options by working with an insurance broker who sells policies issued by not just one, but multiple insurance companies. So you can also keep that in mind.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
You may need to buy a separate policy for certain climate disasters, like... earthquakes and flood. In California, you would need to buy a separate earthquake policy. And Pam, in a prior episode on this podcast, you're talking about protecting your assets. And you shared with Nicole about how important it is to look at insurance policy exclusions. Yeah, you hit the nail right on the head.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
These exclusions are sometimes so confusing, right? They're fine print. They're buried with an even more complex policy language. So if you take a look at your complete policy and you're thinking like, oh, my gosh, I see these exclusions, but I don't understand them. Reach out to your insurance agent or broker. or an insurance coverage attorney who does this work.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
And then other things to look for in policy are the additional living expenses or ALE, personal property coverages. Get the maximum that you're able to, right, within reason. Obviously, if you have very little personal property, you're saying, I need a million dollar personal property coverage. That's not reasonable. Also look to see if there are any specific requirements
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
climate disaster wildfire specific deductibles. So there might be some policies that say, well, there's a deductible of $5,000 in the event of fill in the blank. Just make sure that amount isn't egregiously high. And if it is, just keep that in mind that you need to have that extra savings somewhere. And then if available, try to get a guaranteed replacement cost coverage policy.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
These are now unicorns. They're offered by very few insurance companies. I believe prior to the Oakland fires in California in the 1990s, they were a lot more prevalent, especially in California. But these are policies basically ensure that you can rebuild even if construction costs rise subject to terms and conditions.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
But again, these policies are rare now and sometimes they're only issued for high valued homes.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
I'm going to put an asterisk in front of replacement cost value and I'll explain why shortly. I'm going to start off with actual cash value. policies, they essentially only pay the depreciated value of the lost or damaged property. So for example, if you bought a couch five years ago, for $2,000, the insurance company might say, Oh, well, it's only worth $500 now, right based on the age.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
And so that's what you would get under an actual cash value or ACV policy. A replacement cost value is supposed to pay the amount required to repair or replace the damaged property with the brand new equivalent without subtracting the depreciation, right? I mentioned a few seconds ago, put an asterisk in front of it. And the reason being, Pam, when you hear the word or the term replacement cost,
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
isn't it fair to say that you would expect to get the full value for the rebuild of the home or replacement of an item yes right i think it's absolutely reasonable to think that but that's not what you're going to get insurance companies as i mentioned before they use cost estimating software that oftentimes produce numbers that are lower than what it really costs to replace the property or the item
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
And again, I'm circling back to, and that's why if you are concerned about making sure that you have adequate coverage, check to see if there are any insurance companies in your state that offer a guaranteed replacement cost policy.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
I think once a year or whenever your policy renews is a good rule. Also, if there are any major life or home changes, so if you're adding extra square footage or renovating your kitchen, definitely contact your insurance company. Also, if you notice, and I don't know how many people have a pulse on construction costs, right? Yes.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
But just to give you an example, my neighbor renovated their home and I found out how much it was for them to add additional square footage. And I thought... does not align with the dollar per square footage on my insurance policy. So I contacted my insurance broker and I said, hey, bump my policy limit up.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
And that's another thing that if you do have that access to information that you certainly do. Also, in terms of like personal property coverage, if you bought something expensive, new art, electronics, jewelry, you're going to want to let your insurance company know.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
Yeah, they typically do. But again, check your policy, right? Make sure that you have enough coverage. So yeah, your hotel stays, your lodging, increased food costs, especially if you're staying at a hotel, you don't have a kitchen, right? So all your meals that you eat out, which should be compensated under ALE.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
Another thing that people don't know, if you still have items that you want to store, like storage fees would also be covered under ALE. Just be aware that your policies will probably have time limits or dollar limits. And so, but again, if there's a declared state of emergency, a lot of... States will have extensions for that if it's a time limit situation.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
And I've seen instances where insurance companies will cut off ALE coverage, even though the homeowner's home hasn't been completely rebuilt. So definitely push back if that's the case.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
Can you please introduce yourself? Sure. I'm happy to be here. Thanks, Pam. My name is Susan Minamizono. I've been an attorney since 2008, originally from Southern California, where I actually represented insurance companies. I made the move to Colorado in the last eight, nine years, and so I've been doing this
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
Yeah, obviously it differs according to insurance companies, but For certain items like jewelry, watches, furs, arts and antiques, musical instruments, that sort of thing, there are caps. But that's where if you do have expensive items, and again, this is where, and you mentioned that you have an insurance broker, it's just super helpful, again, to have more options. So if...
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
You're stuck with one insurance company and this is all they provide, then you're stuck with it, right? But if you have other insurance companies that provide a separate writer or a scheduled personal property endorsement, that will cover the full value of your Banksy art. then you should definitely look for that.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
So if you have the complete copy of your policy, I feel like a broken record, but yeah, make sure you have a complete copy of your insurance policy. Also records of any home improvements that you've done to your home, contact information for your mortgage company, your insurance company. If you're able, I would highly recommend working on a complete home inventory list.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
Take photos, videos, start listing them out. Because I would say that that is one of the biggest complaints that I've heard from my clients is that it is so hard. I mean, you're spending literally hundreds of hours trying to remember everything. All the items that you've lost in the fire. Not only is it time consuming, but it's emotionally draining, right? You've lost everything.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
So it's nice to have that list beforehand, right? Before disaster strikes. So that's something I would highly recommend.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
So... Here's the thing. I think you should definitely speak to your insurance agent or your broker about whether the insurance company will even accept an appraiser's report. So oftentimes, insurance companies will say, oh, we don't accept appraisal reports that were completed to qualify for a bank loan because it's different in their calculus.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
Or they'll say, no, we're not going to accept it because the report is over a year old.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
If you're able and you can afford it, I would again find a licensed general contractor or builder who could give you an estimate for the rebuild of your home and submit that information to the insurance company and say, hey, your cost estimating software said X amount of money would be enough, but I have a contractor here that's saying otherwise. Can you reevaluate my policy limits?
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
So that is certainly an option.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
I touched on it a little earlier, but replacement cost policies, and I'm putting that term in air quotes, they won't always cover the cost to rebuild your home in the event of a total loss. Just like companies generally... plan for supply chain risk.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
insurance coverage, and bad faith litigation work at the law firm of Levine Sitkoff since I've been here.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
You would think insurance companies should plan for climate risk, but instead of making adjustments to how they issue policies and handle claims, they're essentially offloading the cost to homeowners. So that's the unfortunate reality that I wish every homeowner knew.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
So I'm licensed to practice law in Colorado and California, but I currently assist clients in Colorado in insurance coverage disputes and bad faith litigations. But please feel free to reach out. Our firm's website is levinsitcoff.com. It's L-E-V-I-N-S-I-T-C-O-F-F.com. We're also on LinkedIn.com.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
If you have any questions about your policy or you need some type of direction, I'm happy to definitely chat.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
Yeah, I think you asked about the one piece of advice, so... I think that's still probably my primary. Just know that your policy limits are not accurate. But going back to the home inventory list, I just want to break that down a little bit because it is probably one of the most grueling part of dealing with your insurance claim after a loss.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
Grab your phone and take a video of all the items in your home. Probably mention where you bought it, the estimated value, and go to every single room and narrate the details. You could also take photos of the receipts and the serial numbers of the more expensive items.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
But I just recently was doing an app search and I found apps like Everspruce, Home Contents, and Idolist that help you catalog all your belongings. And I think that's fantastic. I certainly am gonna start. I don't have video footage. That's why I'm like, oh, this app looks amazing. So that's, yeah, that's my tip.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
Yeah, and that's a really important question, Pam. Before I start answering, I just wanted to insert a disclaimer, as we attorneys like to do. So What we talk about today is not offered as legal advice, but that our chat today really is for informational purposes only. So, yeah, to answer your question, Pam, what should a homeowner do immediately after their house is destroyed? Take a pause.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
Thank you for having me. It was fun to converse with you about a really hard topic.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
Surround yourself with all the support you need. And then as soon as possible. Number one, contact your insurance company, notify them of the loss and request a certified copy of the policy, which means essentially you want the complete copy of the policy. OK, so you could check for coverages and limits. Number two, start keeping receipts of all your expenses.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
So for your hotel stays, meals, clothing, transportation, all that could be reimbursable under what's called ALE coverage that we'll probably touch on later. And number three, I would start getting rebuild estimates, especially if your home's been destroyed.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
I know it's a really emotional time and it's hard to put everything together, but you should start contacting local licensed contractors, essentially because What I've seen, at least with the clients that I represented who were affected by the Marshall Fire here in Colorado, the clients that contacted contractors within weeks of the loss were one of the first ones to rebuild in their communities.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
You're going to be stuck in a queue if there are hundreds or even thousands of homes that were destroyed in a fire. Better yet, if your whole neighborhood was affected by the fire, find a mass builder with your neighbors who might be able to rebuild multiple homes at a lower price. So those are the three things that come to mind.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
Yeah, because... Oftentimes, when you access your insurance company portal, you'll get a summary, right? Or maybe you'll just get the policy declaration pages, which is essentially the first two or three pages of the policy that lists the policy limits and the types of coverages you have.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
What you don't have is the bulk of the policy language that lists all the exclusions and conditions and payout arrangements, that sort of thing. So when you ask your insurance agent or broker or the insurance company directly, hey, I want to certify a copy of the policy, they're obligated to send you the entire policy.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
Yeah, it doesn't have to be, right? It's essentially, yeah, every homeowner has to approach their insurance company separately. But what a mass builder will typically do is because they're building multiple homes within a close proximity at the same time, their prices go down. And oftentimes insurance companies like that, right?
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
It's closer to probably their low ball estimates that they issued at the beginning.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
I can't stress enough, Pam, put everything in writing. You want to avoid, as she said, they said situation. I've seen folks keep journals, for example. So they would write down every conversation, phone call with the insurance company, noting dates and names and details of the conversation.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
For the really important conversations with the claims adjuster, you should email a summary of your phone conversation after you had it. and include at the very end of the email, please confirm in writing as soon as possible if my understanding is incorrect. That way, the adjuster would, I believe, feel compelled to respond as quickly as possible if, in fact, your summary was incorrect.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
Another thing is take clear photos and videos of your home, your property. I know that could be a tough one. So ask a friend, ask a family member if they're able to take their phones and take pictures of the neighborhood, of the home, whatever's left standing. And then start... An inventory list, if you don't have one already.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
Document the items that you had, the rough purchase dates, brands, estimated values. Again, get family and friends involved and just spend a few minutes every day on that because that is a really, really big task. So you really want to chip away at it a little at a time.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
Yeah, such a great point. I think it's I usually take the step away from the computer rule for every email that I send, especially to opposing counsel. We know we do this. And so if you're feeling extremely emotional, right, about a conversation, go ahead and type it, but don't send yet. Keep the tone as professional as you can. Don't insert too much of your opinion of how this claim is going.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
I wouldn't also actually bring up, oh, well, this is what an attorney told me and this is bad faith conduct and blah, blah, blah. Simply write down what exactly the adjuster told you with respect to the claims handling and keep it as factual as possible.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
Can you touch on that as well? That's a really tough one, right? Because unfortunately, I know, and I've seen it with the martial fire survivors, that's their community, right? They're all going through extremely devastating event, and they're doing it together. And so I Interestingly enough, sometimes, though, the clanging bell does get the attention, right?
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
And so, yeah, there needs to be a balance. And I'm not sure how I can really suggest what that balance be. But certainly, yeah, I think... You do want to be careful.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
You don't want to, again, I would just step aside, even if you're about to post something because you're so mad, right, on Twitter or Instagram, just step aside and just think, okay, is this going to affect claims handling moving forward? And honestly, I think there are some claims adjusters who do react to how the homeowners may communicate to them, right? And they could
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
And I've seen it in communications and the claims that I've helped or suits that I've helped handle where you have a difficult client, you have a difficult homeowner. And the responses by the adjusters are pretty astounding. I think they're probably pissed off and taking things personally. And so if you could tone down that. As hard as it is, right?
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
Because again, it's an extremely emotional, devastating time. Just check yourself, right? And to step back and ask yourself, if I were in the claims adjuster's shoes, how would I want to be addressed?
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
It really is dependent on your policy. And that's why I can't stress enough how important it is to get a complete copy of your policy. There might be a claim filing deadline. Oftentimes, policies will just say file your claim within a reasonable amount of time. What does that mean? So, yeah, just check for a certain language.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
Some insurance policies might require you to file a kind of more formalized proof of loss, which is essentially a one or two page document that you may or may not have to notarize. Essentially just saying, yeah, I lost my home. Right. With the date. And when the event of a declared state of emergency like this, the one currently in LA. There are laws.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
Again, this differs state by state, but there may be laws that would extend certain deadlines for things like collecting benefits for additional living expenses, or allowing additional time to capture depreciation while you're rebuilding. So yeah, and I think it's as a layperson, the best way to find out again, is going to your Department of Insurance, the state's Department of Insurance website.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
And oftentimes, insurance commissioner will post summaries of laws that might be applicable to your loss.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
I think the problem really comes down to, number one, the dispute between the insurance company and the homeowner regarding the extent of the damage, right? And so insurance companies from the get-go, typically, they'll undervalue rebuilding costs. They use cost-estimating software that... may or may not be accurate in the event there is a total loss.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
And of course, this will lead to a lot of back and forth between the insurance companies and the homeowners and their contractors, right? Example, I do have family members who were affected by the LA fires recently. They had to push back against their insurance company because they were low-balling them. with respect to repairing the smoke damage at their home.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
And I think like a lot of the smoke claims fall into this category as well, because of course there were a lot of homes destroyed in LA fires, but there were also what's called standing homes, right? The homes that got smoke damage, but are still standing. A lot of insurance companies will say, oh, Yeah, it wasn't destroyed, but we all, it just only needs a light cleaning, right?
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
And they won't pay for any type of post cleaning testing by an industrial hygienist to make sure that the light cleaning was enough. So again, there's a lot of back and forth, right? And that can cause the delays. And incredibly, some insurance companies will go to the point of disputing the cause of the damage. So you have a fire, right? And again, a smoke damaged home,
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
And some insurance companies will argue that there were pre-existing issues like wear and tear that contributed to the loss. For example, I represented clients in the Marshall Fire here in Colorado, whose home was heavily smoke damaged and heat damaged. And the insurance company refused to pay for the replacement of the heat damaged windows because of the age of the windows.
Money Rehab with Nicole Lapin
Wildfire Wake-Up Call: How To Protect Your Home and Finances If Disaster Strikes
I can't say insurance companies are deliberately deny and delay wildfire claims, but certainly there's a lot of just dispute. I think it comes from insurance companies from the outset, low balling, right, the repair costs or the replacement costs from the beginning.