3 Hurricane Insurance Tips

Our law firm handles hurricane insurance claims on a contingency fee basis, meaning we do not charge any money upfront and we only get paid if we make a recovery for you. There are costs associated with these claims of hiring experts and engineers if necessary and we advance all the costs. We advance court costs if the case is up litigation. Then and only then and if and when we make a recovery for you do we get paid. In Florida, on a hurricane claim, the insurance company is responsible to pay your attorney fees and costs once a recovery is made against it.

The amount of money you receive from your insurance company or should receive from your insurance company as a result of a hurricane claim in Florida is based on a couple of things. One is the amount of damage that you can proof was cause by the hurricane, and two, subject to the policy limits you have for the dwelling and contents. It’s important that you carry enough insurance so if you do sustain a substantial loss that you be fully covered.

As a result of a hurricane claim, we have seen people make various types of mistakes. Number one is they don’t realize how much damage has been done to their home. For instance, primarily with tile roofs, a lot of people look at their roofs and they see the tiles are all in place and they think there’s no damage when in fact there could be substantial damage due to what’s known as lift where the seal has been broken between the tile and the roofing structure itself.

The other mistake we see people make occasionally is they do not document the claim properly or keep track of their time spending on putting their claim together and preserving their property under your policy of duty to preserve any property from further damage and you’re entitled to be compensated for the time that you do that. It needs to be documented.

The last mistake we see occasionally is that people don’t document their claim as far as with photography or video. It’s very important to document everything that’s been damaged as a result of the storm and to hang on to it. Do not discard it because insurance company wants the opportunity to look at it also and evaluate your loss and also sometimes insurance company wants to pay you for it and want to take possession of the salvage. Please make sure that you document your claim before you throw anything away.