Fort Pierce Beach House - Hurricane Irma Damage and Flood Damage

Flood waters, as well as wind from Hurricane Irma damaged a Fort Beach vacation property

Fort Pierce, Florida - Shortly after Hurricane Irma had passed, our public adjusters were contacted by two potential clients (B.S. and R.S.) who lived in Miami that own a beach house in Fort Pierce, just a few blocks from the Fort Pierce inlet. This home was their vacation property that they use to get out of the city and relax at the beach. 

Without having seen their property yet, they asked if VIP Adjusting's public adjusters would check out the property for them to make sure it was still standing and we were happy to oblige. Luckily, the home was still standing, but there were flood waters inside the home and pretty clear wind damage to the outside. 

The Loss - Hurricane Irma and related storm surge/flooding

Being directly adjacent to the ocean, it's no surprise that the storm caused damage to this Fort Pierce beach house. The unfortunate part for the homeowners was that they had recently purchased and renovated this property and were now looking at having to deal with two insurance companies and then renovate again.

The Flood Claim - NFIP

There was a clear flood line in the home indicating where the flood waters had risen to, causing damage to the new kitchen cabinets, flooring, and brand new appliances, as well the baseboards and about a foot of drywall.

The public adjusters at VIP Adjusting have handled flood claims in the past, which are vastly different from the average homeowners insurance claim and standard property damage. The NFIP, or National Flood Insurance Program is a program through the federal government to make sure all homeowners are able to get flood insurance. Nationwide premiums, as well as FEMA, serve to keep the premium costs low for situations such as these.

There are also a completely different set of guidelines in how to present and handle these claims. Ultimately, following the initial claim presentation, this process went pretty smoothly for this insured and all of the damaged items were fairly compensated. 

The Hurricane Claim - A Florida Insurance Company

The wind damages to the property from Hurricane Irma were a different story and went as expected. There were clear wind damages to the roof of the home and the exterior air conditioner, and interior water staining to the ceilings and upper drywall from roof leaks (not damaged by flood).

The insurance company accepted coverage but refused payment as being under deductible. After ignoring the public adjuster's estimate a lawsuit was filed and after just a few months the claim was ultimately paid fairly, but not without having to jump through all the hoops. 

Complications with split cause claims

It doesn't often happen that damages to a home from multiple sources, but when it does, it can be tricky for both the homeowner or insured and their public adjuster. It's important to claim all of the damages, while at the same time, the damages need to clearly be attributed to one cause of loss or another, instead of both. If it's unclear which source was the ultimate damage, it needs to be specified to the insurance company or companies so that the insured and public adjuster aren't pursuing double damages, which, if intentional would constitute insurance fraud. 

The flood and hurricane scenario is one of the most common split cause of loss claims, but it can also happen in daily claims where a plumbing leak and the change in pressure results in multiple leaks at once, or a leak detection finds multiple leaks which may or may not have been long term.

In this instance, for our client, it was invaluable to have an experienced and local public adjuster in the Fort Pierce area, both to handle the overlapping damages caused by wind and flood, and to facilitate the entire process at their vacation home that was several hours away from their primary residence. 

Hurricane Irma damage to West Palm Beach home denied as under deductible - Roof paid in Appraisal

West Palm Beach, Florida - A two-story 3,000+ square-foot plantation-style home in the Southland Park neighborhood of West Palm Beach was damaged by hurricane Irma, resulting in water damaging several areas of the home's interior ceilings and floors. Due to the value of this home, it unfortunately carried a high deductible on its windstorm insurance. The homeowner (G.W.) contacted the public adjusters at VIP Adjusting before reporting the claim, and although it didn't start smoothly, the insured was paid enough to replace their roof, even after their deductible was applied.

The Loss - Hurricane Irma

Hurricane Irma had a hurricane-force wind field that exceeded the width of the entire state of Florida, and affected nearly the entire state as it traveled from south to north. Some homes escaped damage from the storm, while others suffered only minor damages. Many homeowners weren't so lucky and had severe damages to their homes.

Luckily for this homeowner, the hurricane damage to this home fell somewhere in between. After the storm had passed, the insured noticed there was some staining in a few areas of the home, including in some of the bedrooms, the downstairs tray ceilings in the main living area, and there was also damage in some areas of the wood flooring throughout the home. 

The damages to the home

In order for the insured to have noticed the interior staining, there first had to be damages to the roof caused by the storm. VIP Adjusting's public adjuster got on that second story roof, and verified and documented the damages that allowed the water to come in.

On top of that, near the children's bedrooms, there was a musty odor and it was verified that some areas of mold did develop in the aftermath of the storm while most homes were without power.

The Insurance Claim and Outcome

Our public adjusters reported the claim on the homeowners' behalf and documented the damages while also preparing estimates of the damages. The insurance company's original inspector, perhaps in the post-storm haste, took a look at the policy's huge deductible and simply declared that the damages wouldn't exceed it. To be fair, this property's deductible was larger than most other homeowner's insurance claim value entirely.

In any event, our public adjusters persisted, submitting our estimate to the insurance company and demanding appraisal.

The appraisal process

Some insurance policies require an insurance appraiser to be neutral or disinterested in a claim. Other times it's a tactical decision to use an outside appraiser to lend credibility to the claim. In this instance, a licensed and insured general contractor with extensive insurance appraisal experience was selected as the homeowner's appraiser.

The insurance company inexplicably selected an out-of-state vice-president of a large national construction company who didn't appear to have any ties to Florida, nor had any of the reputable appraisers or umpires our public adjusters have built relationships with even heard of the guy. This struck us as odd for an insurance company marketed as a luxury homeowners insurance company, but an insurance company’s choice of appraiser isn’t up to the insured or the public adjuster. Little did we know that was only the beginning...

We initially tried to reach out to the appraiser for the insurance company, proposing umpires, only to be completely ignored. When we reached out to the insurance company after a more-than-reasonable timeframe had passed, the appraiser responded, lying that he had responded, when he had done no such thing. The insurance company's appraiser elected to carry that unprofessional behavior throughout the rest of the appraisal process. 

The insurance company's appraiser was incredibly rude to our insured's appraiser, and elected to bring in "experts" whose credentials we verified did not qualify them to provide the opinions they were offering, including unlicensed contractors and individuals from out of state who were unfamiliar with Florida building practices and Florida building code.

As a result of the ongoing dispute, the umpire was invoked and an additional inspection was conducted with both appraisers and the umpire. At the umpire meeting, the insurance company's appraiser started yelling at our appraiser in the insured's home in front of the insured who had to excuse themselves from their own home. 

The umpire cut that behavior off quickly, but not before the insured had to be subject to such an unprofessional outburst from their insurance company's representative. 

Ultimately, the umpire agreed with our appraiser and issued an award of more than $110,000. Despite the high deductible and previously having been offered $0 by the insurance company, our client was able to replace the roof and adequately repair the interior water damages to the home.

Post-appraisal follow up

In addition to the favorable award, the insurance company was notified of the unprofessional behavior by their representative in the insured's home, and were apprised of all of this insurance company’s core values that this behavior goes against. This so-called “luxury” insurance carrier offers insurance policies that waive hurricane deductibles, and also had waived hurricane deductibles in the northeast after Superstorm Sandy, so we requested that be done here, as well as refunding the insured the costs associated with the umpire, since the dispute could have easily been resolved with a reasonable and qualified appraiser on behalf of the insurance company, as evidenced by the appraisal award in our favor. The insurance company's representative declined the deductible refund, however did agree to provide compensation for the behavior including the costs of the umpire.