A hurricane can be devastating for your home as it may destroy your house or even a section of your home. Hence, it becomes essential that you evaluate the damage that your house has suffered after the hurricane is over and then submit a claim to the insurance company.
According to a Hurricane Damage Property Claim Lawyer at the Louis Law Group, one of the most adversely affected sections of your home and hence, you must evaluate the loss suffered by the roof of your house before you start repairing it. If you were to consult a Hurricane Damage Property Claim Lawyer or a Roof Damage Property Claim Lawyer, they will tell you that you should not start repairing your home immediately after the hurricane. Tempting as it may sound, you should put it off till after the insurance claim comes through.
When you consult a Hurricane Damage Property Claim Lawyer, he or she will tell you that insurance companies need to carry out extensive investigations before the claims can be processed. You must leave the damages that your house you suffered intact. This will help the investigators understand the losses that your home has suffered due to the hurricane. This will make the insurance claiming process simpler and more manageable. According to a renowned Denied Claim Property Damage Lawyer in Florida, there are certain things that a homeowner should do after a hurricane, to simplify the insurance claiming process. Some of these are as follows:
1. Go somewhere safe
You do not want to be living in a house that has been severely damaged by a hurricane. According to several law firms, natural disasters like flood damage can cause extreme damage to a house. Hence, even if a home may seem to be safe externally, it may not be safe to start living there. It would be best if you first got your house checked by engineers, plumbers, and technicians, to ensure that you can stay in your home. Once your home has been designated as safe to be moved into, only then should you consider moving back into your home.
2. Hire an insurance claims lawyer
Before you can start repairing your home, you must hire a lawyer who will help you with the claims process. Lawyers will help you understand the claims that you can ask the insurance company to pay and accordingly help you with the paperwork. Moreover, based on the damage that your house has sustained, you should hire specific lawyers. Some of the lawyers you should consider hiring based on the cost that you will have to bear based on the damage suffered by a hurricane are as follows:
- If strong winds have severely damaged the walls of your house, you will need to hire a Wind Damage Property Claim Lawyer to evaluate the claims you can demand.
- If sections of your house have burnt down due to electrical fires caused due to the hurricane, then you need to hire a Fire Damage Property Claim Lawyer to understand your insurance claims.
- If excessive rainfall caused by the hurricane has damaged your home, you need a Water Damage Property Claim Lawyer to help you with the claims process.
- Say, for instance, sections of your home have been affected by mold. Usually, this is caused by the rains and humidity as a subsequent result of the hurricane. In that case, you need a Mold Damage Property Claim Lawyer to evaluate the losses and help you with the claims process. The Mold Damage Property Claim Lawyer will also help you understand
Thus, depending on the damage your house has suffered due to the hurricane that you should hire a lawyer. Additionally, specialized lawyers will be able to identify the amount of money you need to claim for the special damages. This will make the whole claims process more manageable.
3. Be calm and collected.
A hurricane can cause significant disruption to your personal and professional life. You may also face income loss and loss at your business if you are an entrepreneur. Hence, it is essential you remain calm and collected to evaluate the total monetary damages that you are looking at. For that, you can even consider hiring a Business Interruption / Income Loss Property Claim Lawyer. A Business Interruption / Income Loss Property Claim Lawyer will also help you understand if you can claim any losses from the insurance company for the income loss that you have faced because of a natural disaster. A natural disaster is an unforeseen circumstance, and hence, there can be methods by which you can claim money from the insurance company.
Similarly, after returning to your home, you might notice things missing or your home has been woefully damaged. Here you must hire a Theft/Vandalism Damage Property Claim Lawyer to evaluate your loss. The Theft/Vandalism Damage Property Claim Lawyer will also help you with the filing of the documents required to claim a specific amount of money concerning the losses you have faced, as valuable items were stolen from your home. This happens primarily because you had to leave your home unguarded because of a hurricane. This makes your house an easy target for thieves and vandals.
4. File the claims
When you have understood the losses that you have faced, you should look at filing the claims as per Florida law residents who install wind resistant features are eligible for discounts and simplified claims process. Hence, you should present the applications once the hurricane is over to make it easier to get the money of the insurance claim.
Thus, after the hurricane is over, there are certain things that you should do to simplify the claims process and also make it easier for the insurance companies to carry out the investigations. The quicker they carry out the investigations, the faster it will be for you to receive the insurance money and you can begin the repairs of your home.
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