dealing with homeowners insurance co.

[chalupa]

Its been a month since we had storm damage to our house and we finally got the adjusters report and check today. I know the insurance co. holds back money ,but now i find out that the mortgage co. is also on the check and has to endorse it to. But the kicker is i send them the check and they hold back 1/2 till you get 90% done then they send you the rest. The problem is whats left to give the contractor isnt enough to cover what he wants down for the job, anyone else run into this and what options are there?

[dougger222]

It's common practice for mortgage companies to hold onto insurance proceeds. Some mortgage companies sign off and send the check backs while others want to see copies of permits, licenses, contracts, proof of insurance and workmans comp, and the insurance claim paperwork. If you are behind on your mortgage the insurance proceeds are used to "catch up".

Most of my work is insurance work since 2006 so have to deal with this type of thing every weeek. What I do is bank roll the materials and labor until the job is complete and the final check is paid. Very few contractors do this but being debt free allows me the capitol to do this. You also have to have a sizable bank roll to allow this. Some jobs are paid several months after the materails and labor have been paid for.

On the flip side have done insurance work were the mortgage companies signs off on claims as much as $50K without wanting to hold back a dollar or see any paperwork.

Your contractor is going to have to work with you and your mortgage company if he or she wants the business.

[harvey lee]

Exactly what happenned to me when I had a tornado hit the place years ago.

[chalupa]

So what did you end up doing

[chad austin]

Chalupa,

If you don't mind me asking who is your mortgage company and who is your insurance company?

Does your contractor specialize in insurance claims work?

[Surface Tension]

"Your contractor is going to have to work with you and your mortgage company if he or she wants the business."

Ditto

[harvey lee]

The contractor worked with me and it all worked out fine.

[chalupa]

My mortage co. is citi mort. and insurance is American "we take our sweet time" Family. This our first claim in 12 years and have had the same insurance company all this time. My contractor says he works with insurance companys all the time, so i cant say for sure if he specializes in them or not. Just seems like alot of hoops to jump through to get the house fixed.

[chalupa]

And just wanted to add that the adjuster has conviently left off a few things that he said would be covered on his report,so im sure things wont be getin easier from here on in.

[harvey lee]

I have been with American Family for close to 30 years with all of my insurance. I have had claims up to $50,000.00 in property damage and also other smaller ones and have never been nothing but 100% satisfied with them.

Yes, I do have replacement cost insurance so there has never been any hassle on dep. or anything else.

[chalupa]

Just got off the phone with the insurance co and asked why they werent covering my tv that got zapped in the storm. The letter stated that any damaged caused to property by a unatural power surge isnt covered , so after a 1/2 hour on the phone the fella said that after looking at my policy, that there is no such clause in my plan and in his own words to me "i dont know what that adjuster was smokin". Im gettin my tv replaced.

[chad austin]

am-fam in my experiance has been just o.k. to deal with, I just wrapped up a claim in which I was the contractor representing the homeowner (the claim took over 8 months to finalize) once all the details were worked out things went very smooth. Long story short, in the end the customer was happy, got what they deserved and thier home was restored to pre-storm condition.

[BoxMN]

I have AmFam, and had hail damage a few years ago. I gotta say, they were great to work with, and the adjuster came out fast, gave the report fast, and even the "hold back" was not aproblem, as the contractor was accustomed to working like that. I didn't have to shell out anything but my deductable.

Also know that the insurance company doesn't care how you fix it, as long as is fixed properly. Meaning, I changed from alum siding to vinyl (both both garage and house, rather than just the damaged house) and removed poorly installed brick and switched to siding, and did some window work, all for the cost of the insurance on the siding.

I made sure this was kosher with ins company, and they said it was. They just wanted to know the damage was fixed properly and the money was being spent on repairs. So if you ever planned on doing anything else (new windows, etc.) you CAN wrap it all up into one big bid for some economies of scale savings.

Also, my estimate for all my stuff was very fair. Good luck, it sure can be a PITA.

[chalupa]

Just got done talking with my contractor and got the ball rolling,well see.

[dougger222]

I have been insured with Am Fam for a few years. Had a deer hit with the dually last Summer which has yet to be fixed and last week a rental property and one car got hit with hail.

Just like any insurance company there are good and bad adjusters. You could have two claims per week with each insurance company and one could be good and the other could be bad.

The ticket is to meet with the first adjuster on site and go over all the damages with them. If a home owner is going to do the repair they need to be present with the adjuster. It's not a bad idea to inspect the property thuroughly(sp?) prior to meeting with the adjuster so everything can be looked at that may have damage.

Last week finally got word on an Am Fam claim in WI. First adjuster said no hail, second adjuster said no hail after looking at everything for over half an hour. Engineer said some hail but not a lot. On Friday the home owner called to inform me that the inside adjuster finally reviewed all the data and decided to grant her a new roof. This claim will be around $40K.

Waiting on another loss that both adjusters said no hail and the engineer said some hail.

Only heard of a few home owners who didn't get a roof after fighting back and forth with the insurance provider. Some will get what they want just to make them happy and keep them as a customer.

Most of the people I know who work construction who specialize in insurance restoration have Am Fam for all there insurance. I think that says something.

BTW, I do a lot of claims for Farmers and State Farm and they are good to work with to.

[dougger222]

It would be considered insurance fraud if you took off aluminum siding and put on low grade siding. Weatherguard Const. out of Stillwater got in big trouble for this back in 2002. Talked with the head inspector of Stillwater and she told me what occured as well as a couple insurance adjusters who had to testify against Weatherguard.

Funny thing is they seem to be doing better than ever and you don't have to drive much to see there pretty little yard signs.

They are working the area of my rental home that got hit with hail last week really hard. One home owner said they were out to visit only a few hours after the hail hit.

[chalupa]

Still waiting for my first check to come back from the mortage co, they are sending me 1/2 of what the insurance co. sent me. Iget the other 1/2 when job is 90% done. I called my agent and told him about the experience I had with the adjuster, He then called the adjuster to hear his side of the story, giving him the benefit of the doubt , maybe he had a bad day or something. The adjuster denied it all, glad my contractor was with me when the adjuster looked at the house. My agent knows my contractor and he backed me up on what went on. I dont have any problems with am/fam, so far they just picked a crappy adjuster to send my way. and the beat goes on.

[BigWadeS]

We have State Farm and they have been great to work with. From a hail/storm damage claim, to a water/flooded basement claim, quick, responsive, and great to work with. They are also great with auto insurance as well.

Good luck because it can be a big pain

[chad austin]

Dougger,

I don't agree that down grading is in fact ins. fraud and this is why:

If you have alum. siding on your house and it is damaged by hail the insurance company is obligated to "pay" for the alum. siding to be replaced. If you as the homowner decide that you want vynal siding then thats your choice, but when the next storm comes through they will only pay for vynal.(It's no differnt than totaling your BMW, taking the insurance proceeds and buying a ford escort. But know that the next time you total your car it won't be a $40,000 check to replace your car)

The contractor mentioned above was doing this without the homowners concent and therefore was commiting fraud, they have also been known to apply "ALL" insurance proceeds to the roofing meaning if your total project with siding, roofing, and gutters came to $45,000, all of that money would cover the roof and the homowner was left to pay for the siding and gutters out of their own pocket.

[chalupa]

We recieved our portion of the check and signed off on it and gave it to the contractor, work will start in a couple days, also got the additional money for some work the contractor thought would be needed. So far it seems the longest time was just to get the initial ball rolling. And by the way the adjuster that did my place doesnt have to wait for a call from am/fam anymore, apparently one bad aple can really pi$$ off alot of people up the food chain. I comend am /fam for their swift action. and the beat goes on..

[harvey lee]

Good to hear that its getting done.

I have always had very good luck with claims with Am. Family.

I checked out what others were charging for insurance for vehicles, house, boat and the rest.

I'm now with State Farm as Am Family was charging me way to much money and thats after being with them for close to 25 years.

[chalupa]

Thought i would give an update on how things turned out. It turned out it wasnt the insurance co. I had to worry about, but My contractor. I picked a local contractor for all the right reasons, He told me it would be 2 weeks and he would be finished, He understood that We wanted to get our house on the market yet this year. It turns out his definition of 2 weeks and mine are completely different, 31/2 months later! I heard all the exscuses in the world, If you want the name of a contractor not to use, Let me know and I will e-mail it to you. Im done venting.

[BobT]

I've experienced similar situations with contractors and have seen plenty in other places. How often is it that a contractor bids a job with a school district, city, or whatever and the referendum passes only to find out later that we the tax payers are hit up for more revenue because the contractor had issues?

I had a contractor bid on a remodel for my home once. He came out, took his measurements, and sent me the bid. He even went so far as to order the parts when I gave him the green light. This was in the early spring of the year and the project was supposed to be finished within three weeks. By August I got tired of waiting for him, did the work myself, and left him deal with the restocking of the materials he ordered. I haven't heard from him since he took measurements so I don't even know what became of those materials.

I've seen stuff like this happen all the time with contractors. It's really rude and unfair for them to sign up a customer and not be able to deliver as ordered. In the mean time their customer is left in the dark. I don't give too much tolerance for that myself. For this reason, I won't put any money down until they show up to do the work. If they can't deal with those terms, they don't get hired.

[echotrail]

My only experience with Am. Family was 2 weeks ago. Someone hit large tree on the edge of my property during the night and broke the front axel on their SUV. It ended up in my front yard after plowing a 25' trench about 10" deep and 18" wide as they tried to drive off. I found it in the morning and called the police. After towing it away and talking to the owner(s) the officer returned about 1 hour later with the Am Family policy number so I could file a property damage claim. Three days later I filed the claim with an estimate from a nursery to repair the damage. I got the check two days later with my name only on it. IMO it was very good service from Am. Family.

[chalupa]

Yea the insurance co. was easy to deal with after they found out how the adjuster had treated me. Its the contractor i would like to have been able to change after 3 weeks went by and very little had been done to the house and garage.