Insurance & Claims

People assume a property damage claim is decided by how bad the damage looks. After years working claims from the policyholder’s side, I can tell you it is decided by two questions almost nobody thinks about until it is too late: what caused the damage, and was it sudden. Get those two wrong in how […]

The single most valuable thing I tell homeowners is free and takes ten minutes: photograph the damage properly before you touch it. I have seen legitimate claims and disputes fall apart because the only evidence was three blurry phone pictures taken after the repair was half done. And I have seen small losses paid without

The first claim I ever had denied as a landlord taught me a distinction I now think about constantly: insurers do not pay for things wearing out. They pay for things breaking. A roof that leaked because it was twenty-five years old and worn was my problem; the same roof torn open by a windstorm

A denial letter is one of the most misread documents in homeowning. People see the word “denied,” feel the door close, and file the letter away in defeat. But a denial letter is not a verdict, it is an argument, and like any argument it rests on specific reasons that can be examined, questioned, and

Two owners in a building I manage had nearly identical roof losses in the same storm, and their checks came back thousands of dollars apart. The damage was the same. The difference was two lines in their policies that most people never read until it is too late: one had replacement cost coverage, the other

I have handled the claims side of a lot of storm losses, and I can usually tell within a minute of arriving how the next few weeks will go, based entirely on what the owner did in the first three days. The ones who documented, protected the property, and moved deliberately have smooth claims. The