If a fire damages your home, your homeowners insurance policy should provide financial compensation to return your home to its pre-loss condition. When fire causes devastating structural and cosmetic damage to your residence, the process of pursuing a claim for damages can be both confusing and complicated. The challenges of resolving your insurance claim will be more difficult if your insurance company puts its concern for protecting profits above your rights and interests under your homeowners policy.
Policyholders often assume that an insurance adjuster can be trusted to guide an insured through the claims process, but this common misconception is rooted in a fundamental misunderstanding regarding insurance company motivations. When you need to file a claim, you should speak to a fire damage claims attorney to assess your rights and to advise you regarding immediate steps to safeguard your claim, such as providing prompt notice of your claim, mitigating the risk of further damage, investigating damages, and complying with policy conditions such as submitting a sworn proof of loss.
The accuracy of the property itemization and the claimed values in your sworn proof of loss is particularly important when filing a fire damage claim because insurance companies often assert disingenuous allegations of insurance fraud to avoid paying the full value of a fire claim. An experienced fire insurance claims attorney can be indispensable when insurance companies raise false allegations of insurance fraud and arson to challenge fire damage claims. The insurer might threaten to pursue criminal charges based on the claim that an insured started the fire. While these types of trumped up claims, which are designed to intimidate a policyholder into abandoning or avoiding an insurance claim, constitute a bad faith practice, this is a far too common tactic in the face of insurance claims related to fire damage.
An experienced fire damage attorney can expose such bad faith tactics and help an insured evade pitfalls and traps that insurance companies use to defend such tactics. If your insurance company insists on pursuing this form of bad faith strategy, your insurance claims lawyer might file an insurance bad faith lawsuit to protect your rights. This form of relief can justify damages that go beyond the full value of your insurance claim. Even if a bad faith action is not justified, insurance companies are more likely to act reasonable when they know that a policyholder is represented by an experienced insurance claims attorney.
You can reach Miami Insurance Claims Lawyer J.P. Gonzalez-Sirgo by dialing his direct number at (786) 272-5841, calling the main office at (305) 461-1095, or Toll Free at 1 (866) 71-CLAIM or email Attorney Gonzalez-Sirgo directly at[email protected].
