What Tactics Do Insurance Adjusters Use To Deny Claims?

After your home has sustained property damage, you may assume that your insurance company will provide the coverage you need. Unfortunately, this does not always happen. Insurance adjusters are well trained in using different tactics to deny, delay, and reduce property damage claims. Below, our Daytona Beach residential and commercial property damage lawyer explains what these are.

Tricking You Into Admitting Fault

One of the most common tactics insurance companies use against home and business owners is trying to trick them into admitting fault. They may trick you into saying you did not try to mitigate the damage, or they may argue the damage occurred long before or after the disaster. They do this to trick you into believing you were the cause of the damage, even when you were not.

Causing Unnecessary Delays

Many insurance adjusters create unnecessary delays in the hopes that you will grow weary of the process and give up. The adjuster may not call you back or respond to emails in a timely manner. Delay tactics are a form of bad faith and if your adjuster is using them, it is time to speak to an attorney.

Creating Dishonest Deadlines

There are many valid and legitimate deadlines you have to meet when filing an insurance claim. The adjuster may tell you that if you do not accept an offer by a certain date, you will lose your right to receive any coverage at all. However, there is no requirement that you must accept a settlement offer within a certain time. You have the right to fully review the settlement offer and respond when you are ready. A property damage lawyer can advise on the deadlines you must meet, and those that you do not.

Requesting Documents that are Not Necessary

You will have to provide many documents to your insurance company such as photos, receipts, reports, and invoices. While these requests are legitimate, the adjuster may also ask you for documents they know you do not have. For example, if your freeze was damaged during a storm, the adjuster may ask for the receipt from when you purchased it ten years earlier. Most people will not have this documentation and the adjuster knows it. This is just another tactic they use when trying to get you to give up on the claim.

Undervaluing Your Claim

Perhaps the most common tactic insurance adjusters use is to argue that you overvalued your claim. This is not usually true. They are simply trying to reduce the amount of coverage that is rightfully yours by shifting the blame to you. A property damage attorney can accurately value your claim and fight back against these arguments.

Our Residential and Commercial Property Damage Lawyer in Daytona Beach Can Fight Back Against Insurance Tactics

At Bundza & Rodriguez, our Daytona Beach residential and commercial property damage lawyer knows the tactics insurers use, and how to fight back against them so you obtain the full coverage you are entitled to. Call us now at 386-252-5170 or contact us online to schedule a free consultation and to learn more about how we can help.

Source:

leg.state.fl.us/statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=0600-0699/0624/Sections/0624.155.html