If your home or business has experienced property damage or business interruption due to a fire, flood, hurricane, or other disasters, we can help you.
COMMERCIAL AND RESIDENTIAL CLAIMS INSURANCE COVERAGE
Catastrophic loss can be predictable when storms occur. However, property loss is always a looming risk, not only from the weather, but fire, flood, accident, and even vandalism. When a commercial or residential property damage claim is filed, insurance companies base their settlement offer upon their adjuster’s opinion. Unfortunately, adjusters have a vested interest in protecting their carrier’s bottom line and accepting an offer of settlement without an advocate can easily lead to a settlement that is far less than what you are entitled to receive.
An insured is entitled to have insurance restore their property to pre-loss conditions within the limits of insurance purchased. However, a commercial property insurance claim must also consider maintaining the business during the rebuild or repair to damaged property as well as any interruption to the business while operations are suspended. Moreover, a business may be entitled to receive benefits for Contingent Business Interruption, when a third party’s property has been damaged and your reliance on their product causes you lost profit or extra expense. Depending upon the coverage purchased, commercial policies may also provide for loss of rents and payroll as a continued expense.
If your home or business has experienced property damage or business interruption due to a fire, flood, hurricane, or other disasters, we can help you.
Frequently Asked Insurance Claim Questions
What is the Duty of Care of a Commercial Landowner?
A commercial land owner is a business. If you are shopping in a business or if you're in a restaurant, you've essentially been invited into the premises and are known as a business invitee. A commercial landowner has the responsibility to locate any dangers on their property and make you aware of those dangers. If they don't and you are injured, and you're injured by stepping in a pothole, or slipping and falling on wet ground, you may have the right to bring a lawsuit for any injuries that you've sustained.
When Should I Hire a Florida Property Attorney?
Uninsured should consider seeking legal representation if and when they have any questions regarding their claim, or have any questions regarding submitting a claim to an insurance carrier. What's important to point out is that insurance companies have employed staff, lawyers, adjusters, working to resolve claims to their advantage. If you're not represented and are submitting a claim, you run the risk of being disadvantaged by not having representation to act in your best interest.
What is the Difference: Lawsuit vs Insurance Claim?
An insurance claim is an application for benefits under an insurance policy after an insured experiences a covered loss. When the insurance company, or rather, if the insurance company doesn't make full payment or refuses to honor the claim, they disclaim coverage. A litigation is the necessary next step to bring the insurance company into court to hopefully establish their obligation to insure the individual for the loss that they've sustained.
What is the Difference: Claim Denial vs Short Pay?
If you're in a situation where you have to submit an insurance claim, the insurance carrier has the obligation to make you whole, to put you in a position as if you would have been had you never experienced the loss. A denial simply is that. The insurance company says we're not going to cover or insure you for your loss. A short pay is when they say the loss is covered. However, the amount of money we're going to offer you in settlement isn't the complete amount necessary to make you whole.
What is an Assignment of Benefits?
An insurance policy affords an insured rights and benefits under the insurance policy, which is a contract. Under certain circumstances, such as a property damage loss, an insured might need to emergently hire a contractor to assist usually a little restoration on mold for mediation. Rather than pay the contractor at the time of service, the insured assigns their rights or certain rights under the insurance policy that allows the contractor to submit their bills directly to the insurance carrier. An assignment of benefits should be used only in emergency situations.
What is a Mold Protocol for Water Damage?
Mold is a dangerous condition that is endemic after a flood. The flood could occur as a result of a pipe break, it can occur as a result of roof damage. A mold protocol is when a mold tester comes to a property after there's been some type of water leak or flood and they test for the presence of mold. If mold is determined to be present in the property, a mold protocol is set forth to make a determination of exactly what type of remediation has to occur in order to mitigate the mold condition.
How Much Does it Cost to Retain Steven C. Kletzkin, PLLC?
The disproportionate majority of cases that I handle on behalf of clients are under a contingency fee basis. What that means is, you'll never have to pay me anything in order to have me represent you. It means that I am only paid if we're successful in our litigation and if we are successful in our litigation, my fee is paid based on the award that we receive.
How is a Property Damage Insurance Claim Resolved in Florida?
A property damage insurance claim should be resolved when the insurance carrier makes payment on the claim to the insured satisfaction. However, that often does not occur. A property damage claim might result in a denial, it might result in a short pay and ultimately that results in intervention usually by and attorney acting on behalf of the insured. There are means to expedite a claim being resolved such as mediation, or arbitration, or even litigation, but one of those three options is the means to resolve an insurance claim.
How is a Florida Insurance Lawyer Compensated in a Property Insurance Claim?
When a insured is forced to litigate a property damage claim, the State of Florida has statutes that entitle the insured to have their legal fees and their attorney fees paid by the insurance carrier as a result of their necessity to bring the claim into suit. This applies in the State of Florida and not all other jurisdictions.
What is a CRN (Civil Remedy Notice of Insurer Violations)?
A civil remedy notice of insurance violations applies to Florida commercial and residential property damage claims. Insurance carriers are obligated to conduct themselves in good faith. If they do not conduct themselves in good faith, you have the right as an insured to make a complaint, a civil remedy notice, a CRN, with the Florida Department of Financial Services. That obligates the insurance carrier to rectify any bad faith conduct which they may be liable for in the form of extra contractual damages.
What are Your Responsibilities as an Insured?
In general terms, an insurance policy protects an insured against foreseeable loss. As an insured, you have the responsibility to attempt to prevent that loss from taking place. However, if that loss does take place, the responsibility of the insured is, at the very least, to assist the insurance carrier in investigating the claim after it's been submitted to help them determine whether or not the loss is covered and to what extent they're responsible to pay out on that loss.
How Long Does it Take to Resolve an Insurance Claim?
There's no set period of time to resolve an insurance claim. Unfortunately, carriers don't often act in the best interest of their insured and it might delay a resolution to a claim. I think the most important thing for an insured as well as for an attorney is to make sure the claim is resolved in the best interest of the client and to the client's satisfaction. If an insurance company is willing to expedite a positive outcome, it could happen very quickly. However, unfortunately claims may take many weeks or months to resolve and if a claim can't be resolved it could result in a litigation, which will extend the length of time to bring a resolution.
You never pay us a dime unless we recover money on your behalf.
Steven C. Kletzkin, PLLC has recovered millions of dollars for our client's claims. In order to give our clients the best representation possible, we are very selective in the cases we handle. Once you become a client, you can count on us to not only aggressively pursue your case but also to advance all costs and expenses associated with your lawsuit.