When a Simple Hail Claim Becomes a Battle
It seems easy enough. You pay insurance premiums and hail cascades from above, causing damage to your property. You think you have an easy insurance claim against your insurer. However, with insurance carriers, nothing is ever easy.
Despite both the physical impact and the financial impact of hail damage, many homeowners discover that filing a claim is complicated, likely unnecessarily so. Insurers often respond with delays, denials, demands, or settlement offers that fall far short of the true damage sustained. What may appear to be obvious roof damage may be labeled by an insurer as “cosmetic”, or the result of “installation defects” and “wear and tear”. Later appearing “hidden damage” claims are common but are equally denied by insurance carriers for these and a variety of other reasons.
Unfair Denials — Even When Your Neighbors Get Paid
Shockingly, we have even seen cases in which properties within the same community, and even properties on both sides of a given property are damaged by hail, and that damage is paid for, but the property in the middle is denied coverage.
Miscalculated Deductibles, Manipulated Inspections, and the Fear Factor
Just as shocking is the fact that frequently policy deductibles are misapplied or miscalculated and/or policy terms or the results of property inspections by insurance carrier “experts” are manipulated to result in no payments being made. Equally shocking is the fact that many insureds do not pursue their claims because of being afraid of policy cancellation or the possibility of increased premiums. Policyholders are intimidated by the “deep-pocketed” carriers who loudly proclaim in the media (usually bought and paid for by insurance companies) as “lawsuit abuse”.
Does Your Policy Cover Hail Damage?
Most insurance policies do cover hail damage, but as you will see from a reading of the above, that is not the end of the story. It is only the beginning.
Don’t Wait — Hail Damage Claims Have Deadlines
If hail has damaged your property and your insurance company is not treating you fairly, do not wait. There may be shortened claim deadlines for both reporting a claim and for filing suit which your insurance carrier may fail to mention, yet another reason for not being unjustly impacted when you have a legitimate hail damage claim.
Why Vishio Watkins & Forry Can Help
We have both the resources and experience to take on insurance carriers in hail damage cases and related first party property damage cases. This broad range of experience and our results obtained are well known throughout the legal community. When an insurance carrier attempts to use a policy exclusion to deny a claim, we are familiar with that exclusion and know ways around it. When an insurance carrier retains a forensic expert to contest a claim, we retain our own courtroom tested forensic expert. When an insurance carrier retains legal counsel to defend a claim, we counter with our own experienced legal counsel, many of which are former insurance defense lawyers, who know how the game is played. And, finally, when it comes time to talk about money, we speak with authority, frequently obtaining more money than many other lawyers would even dare to ask for.
If your residence or commercial property suffered damage due to hail damage and your insurance company refused to pay you what you’re owed under your insurance policy, contact our experienced property damage insurance claim lawyers at Vishio Watkins Forry for a free consultation. We’ll help you stand up to the insurance companies and get the compensation you’re owed for your losses.
