Hurricane and Storm Claims

Hire an experienced insurance attorney to help with your wind and storm damage claim

Note: Hurricane Sally deadline for filing, reopening or supplemental claim is September 15, 2022. Don’t delay, contact us today if you feel you still have related claim issues. 

Hurricane claims involve windstorm coverage and flood coverage. These claims can become complicated due to the various coverage issues. Having an insurance attorney who understands policy language, negotiate your insurance claim with your insurance carrier can have many benefits.

Your homeowner’s insurance policy is made up of two different components: A homeowners policy and a flood policy. When you have a hurricane, you may have multiple peril situations. You could only have windstorm but also flood, which is common. Parsing out who is responsible for what damage is an important component of a hurricane claim. There are very specific rules about deductibles and how those can be applied.

One of the biggest problems homeowners face in a hurricane situation is that the homeowners have to leave the property because they have been evacuated. Meanwhile there is water intrusion and wind damage and there is no electricity for a period of time, which results in mold. When you return to your property, document all the damages immediately before you make any temporary repairs to avoid additional damage. Insurance companies have been able to severely limit mold coverage. They will use this to their advantage. For example: You may have $50,000 worth of mold damage, $20,000 for other damages, and your mold coverage is capped at $10,000. The insurance company will offer you the $20,000 for other damages and the capped amount of $10,000 for mold damage. You are most likely entitled to more. For example, once the dry wall gets wet, it needs to be replaced. The fact that mold later grew over it does not matter, the real peril to that was water which increases how much your claim is worth.

The unsuspecting property owner can look at the policy manipulations by the insurance company and really undervalue their claim. As soon as possible contact your insurance company and ask them to explain your policy, reimbursement for additional living expenses, deadlines that apply to your claim, and so forth. Know your rights! There are very strict guidelines on flood policies. They have specific and short deadlines for submitting a claim and documentation. If you miss those deadlines it becomes a real problem. As property insurance attorneys, we can help you decipher tricky policy language and getting around the carrier’s interpretation of your policy limits. We can also make sure you are meeting your obligations under the policy so as not to hinder the claims process. Our goal is for you to receive everything that is owed to you and have your property put back to the condition it was in before the storm.

Feature Article: Know What Hurricane Insurance Will and Will Not Cover