Fire
After an insured suffers from a fire, they do their best trying to remember everything they lost in the fire. They present completed inventory sheets to the adjuster, and a few months later, the insured receives their check from the insurance company.
Whether the loss is to a garage or an entire house, most people will only remember about 60%-70% of what was lost in the fire. As a result, a large portion of what they owned goes unclaimed.
We have developed a method that helps people remember most of their belongings lost in the fire. Using this method, we are able to increase their contents recollection to 95% or better.
Additionally, certain items (about one-third on most claims) are undervalued and adjusted accordingly. This is not intentional on anybody’s part. It is due to a lack of research and documentation on the part of the insured. We perform the research and documentation necessary to increase these values.
When a house suffers extensive damage or is a total loss, there are policy benefits affecting the structure settlement that are frequently overlooked. Not knowing about and therefore not invoking these benefits will result in a building estimate and settlement that can be fifteen or twenty percent less than it could have been.
Smoke
Many of these losses involve accidentally leaving something on a stove. Other losses involve a small fire limited to one room.
While the event may not last long, these incidents usually involve smoke filling all or most of the house. Insureds usually open all of their windows and forget the smoke. Sometime later, a few to several thousand dollars is accepted for settlement for damage and clean up in the vicinity where the fire and smoke originated.
Smoke particles can affect much more than the areas within eyesight of the source. Many of these losses are actually worth many times the amount paid by the insurance company. We know how to evaluate and prove these losses at their true value.
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