YOU DON’T NEED AN ATTORNEY TO GET COMPENSATED
Many claimants have been pushed up the wall when making an insurance claims help because they go to the claims adjusters unprepared for the fireballs and later on have to hire appraisers attorneys and who-know-who-else. There are times you don’t need to have these people in your team…actually you don’t need them and you never will. You are the only person who knows the value of your car and your home; both of which have been reduced to shells. You are the only one who can make the claim authoritatively; an attorney will just take a big chunk of your money and will make a loser out of you.
The trick is to arm yourself with enough fireballs to counter the ones that the insurance loss assessors may have. Make sure you know your policy through and through. It will not hurt to get a legal expert to have a look at it for you. Make sure you have a valuation of your property lost and have the receipt you used to repair the damage after the loss. Meet the adjuster; be calm, polite and informed. This will give you the leverage to settle for nothing less than the amount of money you want.
Types of Homeowner Insurance: Broad Homeowner Policy
The Broad Homeowner Policy, or HO-2, covers the eleven listed perils in the HO-1 policy, plus six more. In addition to fire, lightening, windstorm, hail, explosion, riot or civil commotion, aircraft, vehicles, vandalism or malicious mischief, theft, smoke, damage by glass or safety glazing material that is part of the building, personal liability, and volcanic eruption, falling objects, weight of ice, snow, or sleet, three different types of water damage (not including flooding), electrical surge damage, freezing of plumbing, and damage caused by electrical and/or heating systems is included. The HO-2 house insurance policy premium costs about 5 percent to 10 percent more than the HO-1 policy because of these added situations.
Like the HO-1 policy, the HO-2 policy explicitly lists covered events; events outside of these named situations are exclusions.
HO-2 policies are outdated and now very few companies ever issue them, especially with HO-3 policies available. In losses from an HO-2 policy, the policyholder has to prove to the home insurance company that the losses incurred were on the 17 perils. This can become frustrating and time consuming, and in the end much more expensive than the small hike in premium jumping from an HO-2 to an HO-3.