CurlyDave
Elite Member
Our house in Woodside, California burned up two days before Thanksgiving. I say burned up rather than "burned down" because the shell is still standing, although all windows and doors are gone, and the interior is a complete loss.
We had it on the market for 6 months and it hadn't sold yet, so it was mostly empty. We were living somewhere else so we didn't lose personal possessions, just the few pieces of furniture and stuff in there for showing.
While rebuilding is going to present an interesting project for the next year, my immediate problem is that I am already at loggerheads with the insurance company, State Farm.
The real problem I have is that the adjustor they gave me has the company's interests first, and is a real tightwad. My personal belief is that she has already crossed the line from properly representing State Farm into "bad faith" territory, but I am waiting to make that claim formally until we get to the big money issues. I am completely aware that the relationship I have with the insurance company is adversarial in the legal sense. They want to pay as little as they can, I want them to pay as much as possible.
My biggest problem is not that I can't stand up to her, I am pretty assertive and will go toe to toe with anyone. The problem is that I don't know what is "reasonable and customary" in these cases. Already she has made statements and taken positions I feel are contrary to my best interests, and I don't know which battles to fight hard and which to only put up token resistance.
I have talked to lawyers and "public adjustors" and I am not certain they can help me that much. They also feel that way. We think the settlement is going to come close to the policy limits, and if I can get close to the max on my own, it just doesn't make sense to give 7-10% to a public adjustor, or 25-30% to a lawyer.
I have to admit I haven't looked very hard for a lawyer to work by the hour, and I will do that if I have to, but the one I talked too, didn't seem too interested in working with me (I think he wanted a big-dollar percentage.) I think if I had a little advice from people experienced in insurance I could handle this on my own. OTOH I need to avoid making mistakes at the beginning which could prejudice my chances for success in getting a fair settlement later on.
Just a few examples of the problems I am having with the adjustor.
1. Because I had moved to Oregon prior to the fire, she tried to tell me that State Farm wouldn't pay for renting an alternative house while mine was being rebuilt, even though I had clearly told her that I was moving back to CA in order to supervise the rebuilding. Eventually, I got the insurance to pay for temporary housing, but it was a real tussle to get what the policy clearly said I was entitled to.
2. Every engineer or fire professional who has looked at the house says it is a total loss, demolish down to the foundation and rebuild. Adjustor says she wants to salvage the charred and burned framing. I think this is crazy & will end up costing more. She will not say why she believes it is salvageable.
3. Adjustor refuses to communicate by email. Only phone or fax. She claims it is for "security", I think it is to make it much harder for me to keep a record of what the insurance company says. If she sent emails, I could cut and paste into a word processing program and have an electronically searchable file of what they had said in the past.
Anyway, if there is anyone who has experience with insurance companies, especially in the area of usual or typical settlements I would dearly appreciate a PM.
We had it on the market for 6 months and it hadn't sold yet, so it was mostly empty. We were living somewhere else so we didn't lose personal possessions, just the few pieces of furniture and stuff in there for showing.
While rebuilding is going to present an interesting project for the next year, my immediate problem is that I am already at loggerheads with the insurance company, State Farm.
The real problem I have is that the adjustor they gave me has the company's interests first, and is a real tightwad. My personal belief is that she has already crossed the line from properly representing State Farm into "bad faith" territory, but I am waiting to make that claim formally until we get to the big money issues. I am completely aware that the relationship I have with the insurance company is adversarial in the legal sense. They want to pay as little as they can, I want them to pay as much as possible.
My biggest problem is not that I can't stand up to her, I am pretty assertive and will go toe to toe with anyone. The problem is that I don't know what is "reasonable and customary" in these cases. Already she has made statements and taken positions I feel are contrary to my best interests, and I don't know which battles to fight hard and which to only put up token resistance.
I have talked to lawyers and "public adjustors" and I am not certain they can help me that much. They also feel that way. We think the settlement is going to come close to the policy limits, and if I can get close to the max on my own, it just doesn't make sense to give 7-10% to a public adjustor, or 25-30% to a lawyer.
I have to admit I haven't looked very hard for a lawyer to work by the hour, and I will do that if I have to, but the one I talked too, didn't seem too interested in working with me (I think he wanted a big-dollar percentage.) I think if I had a little advice from people experienced in insurance I could handle this on my own. OTOH I need to avoid making mistakes at the beginning which could prejudice my chances for success in getting a fair settlement later on.
Just a few examples of the problems I am having with the adjustor.
1. Because I had moved to Oregon prior to the fire, she tried to tell me that State Farm wouldn't pay for renting an alternative house while mine was being rebuilt, even though I had clearly told her that I was moving back to CA in order to supervise the rebuilding. Eventually, I got the insurance to pay for temporary housing, but it was a real tussle to get what the policy clearly said I was entitled to.
2. Every engineer or fire professional who has looked at the house says it is a total loss, demolish down to the foundation and rebuild. Adjustor says she wants to salvage the charred and burned framing. I think this is crazy & will end up costing more. She will not say why she believes it is salvageable.
3. Adjustor refuses to communicate by email. Only phone or fax. She claims it is for "security", I think it is to make it much harder for me to keep a record of what the insurance company says. If she sent emails, I could cut and paste into a word processing program and have an electronically searchable file of what they had said in the past.
Anyway, if there is anyone who has experience with insurance companies, especially in the area of usual or typical settlements I would dearly appreciate a PM.
