Home Insurance Claim Denial Lawyers
Home Insurance Claim Denied?
When you face a home insurance claim denial, you may have a legal case.
You’ve been diligent in making your homeowners insurance premium payments, hoping you would never need to use the coverage you have bought. But now something has happened (a fire, a hailstorm, a tornado, a busted hot water heater, damage from an earthquake) and when you made a claim under your insurance policy, the insurance company has treated you unfairly. Despite your best efforts to be fair with the insurance company, they won’t budge – now it’s time to hold your insurance company accountable for what you’re owed.
The expertise of home insurance claim denial lawyers can help protect your rights. Call Doug Terry at (405) 463-6362 today to find out if you have a case.
What Are a Home Insurance Company’s Obligations?
It’s important to know your rights.
Your homeowners insurance company owes its policyholders a duty of good faith and fair dealing, meaning they must treat you reasonably, fairly and in good faith when investigating and deciding whether to pay your claim. What is covered under your home insurance policy will vary depending on your specific policy language. These policies are often difficult to read and understand.
In general, however, your home insurance company has an obligation to reimburse you for covered property damage (to the home itself, your personal property and other items) as outlined in your specific policy. If you have liability coverage included as part of your policy, then they also have an obligation to protect and defend you against third parties who may be trying to bring a lawsuit against you for something that occurred on your property.
Types of Damage Your Home Insurance Policy Might Include
Check your policy language to find out what it includes.
There are many different types of damage to your home and personal property that you may be protected against as part of your home insurance policy. Of course, you’ll need to check your policy paperwork to find out exactly what’s included in your policy and what your deductible is. Sometimes the help of an experienced insurance lawyer is needed to understand the policy language. In general, though, a home insurance policy includes protection against things such as:
- Damage from natural disasters (high winds, hail, tornadoes, etc.)
- Damage from vandalism or losses from a theft/home invasion
- Damage from a burst pipe or other plumbing leak inside the home
- Damage and losses from a house fire.
Tactics Insurance Companies Use to Deny Home Insurance Claims
Insurance companies have clear strategies they use to avoid paying home insurance claims fully and promptly.
When you experience a disaster on your property, you want nothing more than to have your insurance company promptly settle your claim so you can get your home back to “normal” as quickly as possible. In the meantime, your way of life and even your quality of life may suffer.
Unfortunately, home insurance companies don’t always play fair when it comes to approving and paying out claims. Too often, insurance companies seek to take advantage of their policyholders when they are their most vulnerable – after an event causing serious damage to their home.
Undervaluation of Your Homeowners Claim
One of the most common tactics employed by a homeowners insurance company is undervaluing your claim. Insurance companies may attempt to pay less than the fair value of your claim, in an effort to add to the company’s bottom line. There are multiple ways homeowners insurance companies attempt to underpay. If you’ve received a claim payment or an offer to settle your claim from the insurance company, only to find that your payout doesn’t cover the total costs of repairs or replacement of your property (minus your deductible)—or if your insurance company is refusing to pay altogether—you may have a case. Ask Doug about the types of damages available to you as compensation.
Misrepresentation or Misinterpretation of Policy Terms
It is all too common for an insurance company’s adjuster to give the policyholder inaccurate or misleading information about what is actually covered under the insurance policy. Sometimes the adjuster doesn’t understand the coverage. Other times, the adjuster is attempting to mislead the policyholder by mischaracterizing what the insurance policy language (which is very often impossible for a normal person to understand) really covers. If you have a question about what is covered and what isn’t, the best thing to do is ask lots of questions, get the adjuster to put their position in writing and talk to an experienced homeowners insurance claim denial attorney.
Using Biased “Experts”
Oftentimes, an insurance company will call in an “expert” to examine the damage to the policyholders’ home. These can include engineers, fire experts, building contractors, etc. Many times, the “experts” the insurance company gets involved in your claim have cozy financial relationships with the insurance company. Insurance companies often involve the same “experts” in dozens if not hundreds or thousands of claims all across the country. These “experts” have an incentive to keep the insurance company happy by keeping claim payments low, so they can continue to make money being hired by insurance companies. Policyholders often pay the price for this biased arrangement.
Talk to our home insurance claim denial attorney to learn about your options.
For a free consultation with Doug Terry, call (405) 463-6362.
How Home Insurance Claim Denial Lawyers Can Help
If you had a claim denied by your insurer, you have options.
A home insurance policy is one of those things you have to have. In fact, most of us have a mortgage on our house and are required to carry homeowners insurance. The duty of good faith and fair dealing applies to homeowners claims – including those for damage to the house itself, your personal property (like furniture, clothes, personal belongings). Too often, homeowners insurance companies yet hope you never need to use.
However, if your home has suffered from damage that should be covered under your home insurance policy, such as roof damage from hail or even water damage from a burst pipe, you’ll be glad you have this type of insurance. Glad, that is, unless your homeowners insurance company denies your claim or fails to pay it fully.
Unfortunately, issues with home insurance claims happen more often than you might think, with home insurance companies looking harder for reasons to deny claims than for reasons to pay them, all to avoid paying policyholders’ valid claims to add to their company profits.
If you’ve recently had a home insurance claim denied or have otherwise been treated unfairly by your insurance company, our bad faith insurance legal team is here to help. Doug Terry has been serving the community as a homeowners insurance claim denial attorney since 1993. He is ready to put his experience to work for you.
Schedule your free consultation about your home insurance claim denial today by calling (405) 463-6362. There are no fees unless we win your case.
How Our Home Insurance Claim Denial Lawyer Can Help
Find peace of mind by working with a seasoned, skilled homeowners insurance claim denial attorney who understands the practices of insurers that deny claims.
If you’ve been let down by your home insurance company, you may be feeling the sting both emotionally and financially. Fortunately for you, attorney Doug Terry has more than two decades of experience in helping people just like you take on their unscrupulous insurance companies, with excellent results.
With a proven track record, Doug Terry is an aggressive advocate for people who have been wronged by the insurance companies that are supposed to protect them.
Find out more about our practice or schedule your free, no-obligation case consultation today. Give the offices of Doug Terry a call at (405) 463-6362.
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