Hurricane
Preparedness & Disaster Planning
From an Insurance Perspective
By Steven David Venook
Congratulations! All your family and friends survived Hurricane
Katrina, with no personal injuries. But your home, condominium,
or commercial building may not have been so lucky. Now comes
the rebuilding of your life and property. The first thing you
do is contact your insurance agent and notify them of your
claim. They tell you to mitigate any additional damage and you will
be contacted by their insurance adjuster.
Let's find out if you were really prepared for your Hurricane
Claim process?
First, have you purchased a Hurricane Insurance policy? This
may or may not be part of your homeowner's coverage? The Hurricane
policy or Wind coverage may be a separate policy as is your flood
policy.
Good, you have Hurricane coverage, have you reviewed your
deductible? The Hurricane deductible ranges from 2% to 10% on the average of
your building/dwelling coverage. For example, let's say you have
a $200,000 in dwelling coverage and your Hurricane deductible is
2%, your hurricane deductible is $4,000.00. For illustration purposes
you have $5,000 in building damages, you will receive $1,000.00 net
on your claim. This assumes they don't take depreciation on your
damages, and unless your home is brand new, there will be depreciation
applied. Remember it could be worse; you could have no insurance
or a ten percent deductible. Now is the time to review your policy,
you can't make any changes when a hurricane is heading your way.
Second, have you documented your damaged items? You ask how I can
document my real and personal property, as my house and its contents
are now scattered across my neighborhood. This is where hurricane
preparedness comes in to play, as now it might be too late to prove
all your damages. Remember your insurance company requires per the
conditions section of your policy for you to prove your damages.
Do you have receipts for all of your damaged items? Nobody
keeps receipts right, your insurance company wants receipts or they
are not going to pay for that 52" TV!
Well you had receipts but they blew away or got wet, you are making
your insurance company happy, because all the excuses in the world
will not prove your claim. Here is a simple cost effective solution,
take a camera or video camera and go in to each room and take a picture
of each wall, you can even record a description as you do your walk
through your house. Did you set your date menu on your camera? Did
you take pictures of all sides of the exterior of your home too?
Now that you have pictures, have you made a couple sets of prints
or copies of the video? Did you put your pictures somewhere safe?
Such as a safe deposit box outside your home, or maybe send them
to a relative out of state. Wow, what a hassle! I don't want to do
this! It's your money!
Remember your policy puts the burden of proof on you to prove your
claim of damages, the bigger your claim for damages the more you
need to hire Advocate Claim Service to help you.
Call 1-888-443-4403
Remember … the bigger the claim the more you need the advocacy of a
licensed Public Adjuster.
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