Hello,
Im dealing with a case of insurance lowballing the payment of water mitigation services that were provided by our contractor. The insurance adjuster never came to the property. They are basing their decision off photos and dry logs submitted by the mitigation company. We have reached the point of utilizing the appraisal clause. My question is what information do I provide to the appraiser. Do they only get the photos and dry logs or do they also get copies of what the mitigation company billed? I should add that the rebuild of the room has already been completed. The appraisers selected by both myself and the insurance company will have to rely on the photos/dry logs.
Posted by Wonderlust2010
8 Comments
So are you telling us that your insurance company, is not letting your contractor, and the mitigation company get over on them?
Did they think that they had a blank check to rebuild everything, and it would just get paid?
I do appraisal clause work in the auto world: the answer is everything. Give them all the info you have, if you think it’s relevant or not and let them put a case together for you.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve asked clients about recent repairs and they say “yeah but my insurance company says that doesn’t matter”. That’s why we are going through this process, so a neutral pair of 3rd parties can decided what is and ain’t relevant to the claims/loss.
Got stuck in a similar mess with my insurance company after some water damage in my barracks housing last year – they love playing games with mitigation costs when they cant physically see the work done
For the appraisal process you definitely want to give your appraiser everything – photos, dry logs, AND the actual invoices from your mitigation company. The appraiser needs to see what work was actually performed and what it cost to make a fair determination. Don’t let the insurance company limit what evidence gets presented cause that just helps there lowball strategy
” My question is what information do I provide to the appraiser.”
You might misunderstand the process. You have your appraiser, the insurance company has theirs. If those two people cannot agree then they pick an umpire. So you give _all_ your information to _your_ appraiser.
Did the insurer provide you with a comparative estimate for the mitigation scope? If so, did they provide their summary as to what was unsupported and the reasoning on the 3rd party scope?
Who is pushing for the appraisal clause to be used?
What’s the rough scope of damages/repairs and what dollar amounts is the insurance carrier and mitigation vendor currently at?
Using appraisal for mitigation is crazy. What’s the cost of the mitigation work vs what your insurance company is paying?
This thread gives me PTSD on just about every water damage claim I handled.