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Storm Season is Coming - How to Protect the Value of Your Property!

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Here we are in a brand new decade, Christmas is behind us and we are marching into another New Year full steam ahead.
Do you remember the tragic losses from Hurricane Katrina, Ike, Dennis, and Dolly just not too long ago? Well it is already January of 2010 and before you know it, another storm season will have snuck up and bit you right on the you know what.
Are you prepared? Whether you live in a house, an apartment, a mobile home, or a luxury condo on the beach, you need to take time now to prepare you and your family from the next disaster.
Think it won't or can't happen to you? Think again...
Picture you and your family, standing in front of a giant pile of rubble that once was your home or place of business.
It happens all the time, and yes we all think it will never happen to us.
We are all susceptible to Hurricanes, Fires, Floods, Tornadoes, and Earthquakes.
Oh and don't forget about your roof being battered during that Hail storm, and what I consider one of the most despicable things that's happening more and more frequently, is your personal property being damaged from Vandalism or Theft! You Must Act Now- The Atlantic Hurricane season runs from the first of June to the end of November.
It is time to start gearing up for storm season once again.
We haven't had the big named hurricanes like we did with Hurricane Katrina in 2005, but thousands of people suffered just as recently with Hurricane Dolly in 2008.
Be prepared! I have been helping people recover from their claims disasters from the east coast of Florida, across the mid-western states and all the way west to California.
Over these last 27 years one of the first things I have noticed is that people just like you and me, always think they are safe.
We always say yeah, I'm going to make a list of all my stuff, take photographs of everything and store it all on my computer just in case.
Guess what, 99% of us just flat out never do it.
I'll just wait until tomorrow, or I will take those pictures of all my kids stuff like their new Nintendo Wii, their Apple iPhone 3GS, new bike, dolls, toys, and clothes this coming weekend.
You get the picture.
What about all your stuff? Your furniture, kitchen appliances, clothes, tools out in the garage, your automobile or your outdoor furniture? It's not a matter of if you will ever have an insurance claim, but when you do, are you prepared? INSURANCE CLAIMS SUCK!!! You pay on your insurance premiums every month, year after year but what happens when that fire does damage or destroy your home? What happens when all your families' possessions are flooded away in that next hurricane? What has your insurance company done to help you get prepared? Have they come by your home or called you on the phone to make sure you are ready? Did you know that your insurance companies have the right to make you prove something damaged or destroyed your stuff, even though a Major Hurricane just hit and destroyed everything you own? WAIT...
don't get me wrong, the first thing your insurance company and especially your insurance agent wants is for you and your family to be safe and out of harm's way.
However insurance companies are a business first, and want to make sure that if you did incur damage to your home, business, or personal property, that anything damaged or destroyed was something that is covered under your insurance policy.
That's understandable, but what if...
That scene I described earlier where now you are standing in front of your home or business, and everything is just a pile of rubble from the Fire, or in a twisted heap by that Tornado actually is your home.
What if all those precious gifts you just opened on Christmas day or even something you have saved and treasured from a relative had been washed away by the latest Hurricane or simply disappeared into the depths of the earth from an Earthquake was all you had left? Believe me I truly hope you never have to go through any of these types of things, and that you and your family will always be safe.
The problem is and I hear it time after time, is people always say...
"It will never happen to me".
Maybe not, but if it does, my goal is to help you to be prepared.
What really happens if your home is damaged in a fire, tornado, or some natural disaster like a hurricane? Of course not all catastrophes are the same so let me give you a n example like Hurricane Katrina.
This was the biggest disaster ever to hit the United States and it created a big mess.
When big storms like this hit, your insurance companies don't have enough adjusters on their staff to handle the enormous volume of claims that is called in by you and the rest of their insured's.
So what happens is your insurance company calls upon independent adjustment firms to deploy their staff of qualified adjusters.
These men and women are trained and certified through their individual state, and will have an insurance adjusters license qualifying them to review the damages to your home or business and prepare an estimate of damages on behalf of the insurance companies.
During these first few days and weeks if you've been through one of these disasters, you know how chaotic everything is.
Insurance companies are trying to push to get their customers (you) taken care of as fast as possible and claims are closed pretty rapidly, especially during the first weeks.
People with claims are getting their homes and businesses inspected.
The usual process is to take the most severely damaged homes and people with the most urgent needs taken care of first.
All the insurance companies' rules are steadfast and written in black and white, but I can tell you as time goes on and it starts to be weeks then months after the storm the insurance claims examiners start to become more rigid in their claims processing.
About your insurance policy- Do you remember when I told you that your insurance policy states you are required to prove to your company that you actually had a loss? OK I know you are thinking uh, duh, my home is completely destroyed or half of my roof is missing.
So yeah, you say you had damage to your home.
Your exactly right.
Your home is damaged along with most of your personal contents.
Your furniture, clothes, bedroom suite, kitchen appliances, tools all damaged from the storm.
Your insurance policy states you are required to show proof of ownership of your personal property.
However just like life sometimes circumstances surrounding a natural disaster demand that the rules involved are not abandoned, but maybe bent just a little.
Think about it.
Your insurance company during one of these big storms is attempting to help many thousands of people get their homes and businesses inspected by their adjusters, and to get their insured (you) a check for the repairs of your damaged property.
The biggest part of the claim is usually getting the estimate of repairs or replacement on your home or business completed and to get you a check so you can get the repairs started.
Take note of this: When half your roof is gone and the rain enters, your contents get damaged or destroyed as well as the building being damaged.
Insurance companies want to get as many claims inspected and closed as fast as they can, so they can get you paid.
This is when the companies will look at all the property, or contents claims and say that at a certain dollar figure and under no receipts or photos will be required for that part of the claim to be paid.
An example would be- Say XYZ Company says their limit on personal property claims is $1,500.
00.
They will pay on those personal property claims and will not require receipts or photos for them to be paid.
However, as the days and weeks go by and the insurance companies start getting more and more of their claims closed their requirements for your personal property claims get more stringent.
Sometimes...
People in disaster situations are emotionally distressed and act and do things they normally would not do.
During Hurricane Katrina there was a certain area that was decimated by the flood waters after the levees broke.
It may sound funny but it seems every home in that area had a 72 inch plasma screen television.
Of course they didn't but this just shows you what can happen during these times.
This is just one of many reasons why insurance companies make you document the ownership of your property.
Take a look at this example: If you recall in 2005 we had five (5) major hurricanes make landfall.
One of the big problems this made was before you could get your home or business looked at by an adjuster, or if you were lucky enough to get your home inspected the next hurricane had hit and additional damage occurred.
- How can the adjusters be certain which damage was which? - Were the damages being reported caused by the new storm or the one before it? Problem Solved- After 2 1/2 decades working all kinds of insurance claims, and working through those five storms in back in 2005 I just plain got tired of watching as people just like you struggling to get paid on their claims.
I was just sick and tired of being sick and tired! Watching the people I was helping get back on their feet, to have their claims delayed for days, sometimes weeks, and longer because they didn't have receipts or photos to prove ownership on the dollar amount of their personal contents claim.
This just made me sick.
When I work an insurance claim as an adjuster I always worked each claim as if I were adjusting that insured's claim like I would my own mothers.
I would hate for her to have her claim delayed or not entirely enumerated because she did not have photos or receipts of her personal property.
SOLUTION TO THE PROBLEM- Insurance companies understandably must control their costs on insurance claims.
Yes they should require their customers to show proof of ownership when presenting their damage claims to their homes and personal property.
The answer is simple but nobody ever takes the steps to solve the problem.
Take a digital camera and photograph your home or business.
You should take a few exterior photos of the building and any other buildings on the property that are covered on your insurance policy.
Then photograph the interior.
Get photos of all your personal property, but take the photographs in a chronological order of each room.
You want to take the pictures like you are telling a story of what your home looks like.
You want to show what kind of shape everything is in and if there is any old damage from previous storms either that has been repaired or not repaired.
Both should be shown in the photos.
Source...
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