Home Insurance Water Damage Claim Questions?

Long story short-ish...couple weeks ago came back from a wknd of camping to find the upstairs toilet leaking which caused water to rain down into the kitchen then down into the finished basement. Water damage to walls, ceilings, cabinets, floors, carpet etc. Disaster crew promptly on scene to dry things out then start some demo. Week later insurance adjuster comes out and all seems promising as far as his take on what needs replacing. Insurance co dragging their feet but finally respond with their take on damage/replacement cost. I peruse through it and some things seem a little low on pricing and/or quantity (I know, shocking). send to the contractor and he also said that a lot was missing from his initial estimate (he's tied in with the disaster clean-up crew).
Anyway, just wondering what to expect from here. sounds like there may be some back and forth between insurance and us/contractor regarding cost but not sure how that works or ends up? we are waiting for some floor and rug samples to come back from analysis for better pricing so that will factor in. I know a third party adjuster can come in at some point but not sure if that is the norm or rarely has to happen.
anyone have any experience with this?

Have you asked the adjuster why some of the items are different from the contractor estimate? Is your contractor’s estimate a “worst case” and the insurance estimate a “best case”?

It your insurance company. just ask.

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Originally Posted by Peruvian

Have you asked the adjuster why some of the items are different from the contractor estimate? Is your contractor’s estimate a “worst case” and the insurance estimate a “best case”?

It your insurance company. just ask.

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an independent adjuster/inspector came to the house to assess the damage then gave his report to our insurance company. their report seemed to be missing a lot so seems like the original inspector might have missed it or the insurance co changed it (which they claim they didn't). doesn't help that our insurance agent skipped town for a couple weeks and now we're getting passed around to other agents.

did you send in your contractors estimate? can you point out the differences to the adjuster? lots of claims involve supplemental payments and/or inspections.

Watch out. Royal screwing in the works.

All insurance companies now have set pricing in their systems. Doesn't matter what the contractor says, they pay based on competitive pricing.

Sometimes, the contractor can go back afterward and ask for a supplement for things they uncovered that were not on the initial estimate. But, to pull stuff off on the front end is rather shady.

IME you should be prepared to fight with the insurance co with the adjuster as more or less the go between

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Originally Posted by Peruvian

did you send in your contractors estimate? can you point out the differences to the adjuster? lots of claims involve supplemental payments and/or inspections.

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sounds like this is happening now. contractor is writing up what he thinks was missed and sending to insurance. I assume this is normal protocol?

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Originally Posted by TNKen

Watch out. Royal screwing in the works.

All insurance companies now have set pricing in their systems. Doesn't matter what the contractor says, they pay based on competitive pricing.

Sometimes, the contractor can go back afterward and ask for a supplement for things they uncovered that were not on the initial estimate. But, to pull stuff off on the front end is rather shady.

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yea I get the set pricing and I guess can understand it. more concerned w some of their quantities. for example, only some of the hardwood got "ruined" but according to the inspector, pretty much all of it needs to come out so that it all matches afterward. doesn't seem to be the case on the insurance estimate. maybe it was just "overlooked" but this whole thing seems like it will be a bit of a back and forth pissing match. not that I should really be surprised.

Yep it will be a pissing match. When it gets real bad, mention "bad faith."

I have a guy right now that took his Harley with 1,900 miles on it to the dealer for repair. $40,000 bike. He added another $38,000 in after market parts and upgrades, of course sold to him by the dealer. At this point, the $88,000 bike is a year old.

Dealer's mechanic hits a rock in the road and totals it. The insurance company offer is $37,000.

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Originally Posted by TNKen

Yep it will be a pissing match. When it gets real bad, mention "bad faith."

I have a guy right now that took his Harley with 1,900 miles on it to the dealer for repair. $40,000 bike. He added another $38,000 in after market parts and upgrades, of course sold to him by the dealer. At this point, the $88,000 bike is a year old.

Dealer's mechanic hits a rock in the road and totals it. The insurance company offer is $37,000.

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just because someone created their dream bike by paying $78k doesn’t mean that’s the value of the motorcycle.

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Originally Posted by criscam

only some of the hardwood got "ruined" but according to the inspector, pretty much all of it needs to come out so that it all matches afterward. .

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Had probably 10% of my flooring ruined by water damage from an upstairs neighbor. My insurance paid for all new connected flooring (of the same type/quality) so that it would match. I have state farm FWIW. It sucks, but dont settle for less than you feel you deserve.

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Originally Posted by TNKen

Yep it will be a pissing match. When it gets real bad, mention "bad faith."

I have a guy right now that took his Harley with 1,900 miles on it to the dealer for repair. $40,000 bike. He added another $38,000 in after market parts and upgrades, of course sold to him by the dealer. At this point, the $88,000 bike is a year old.

Dealer's mechanic hits a rock in the road and totals it. The insurance company offer is $37,000.

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The dealer should have garage keepers coverage that should replace the bike with like kind and quality. It's a property damage liability claim. Or symbol 8/9 comp and collision on their auto policy.

Did the bike owner notify his insurance company that he did the upgrades and negotiate a replacement cost contract and pay a higher premium? Or did he insure his bike on a common actual cash value contract and report the initial cost of the bike at $40k and then not update them with upgrades and pay insurance premium on that? If he did the former, he could submit to his insurance company and let them subrogate against his mechanic.

There's more to this story.

How do you spend 38k on upgrading a 40k harley? I'm genuinely curious what it looked like.

I think that a claim remains open, until a Release is signed. In water damage cases, adjusters miss stuff all the time. Supplemental reports and undiscovered damage are commonplace. I would probably let them give me the check that with the understanding that there may be additional problems discovered during the course of repair. Do not sign a Release in return for the initial check.

Don't sign a release until you're happy. When you look at a claim from the ins company's side, it will have a paid column and a reserve column that they think they could pay out in addition to already paid and that column doesn't go away until the claim is closed.

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Originally Posted by TNKen

Watch out. Royal screwing in the works.

All insurance companies now have set pricing in their systems. Doesn't matter what the contractor says, they pay based on competitive pricing.

Sometimes, the contractor can go back afterward and ask for a supplement for things they uncovered that were not on the initial estimate.

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This is false. Most companies use Xactimate, a pricing program that is designed for contractors. Now everything doesn’t fit into it, but most stuff will. If you have hand cut marble imported from Italy, that won’t have a price in Xact. The bit about they pay based on competitive pricing is true. What do you expect? They just say ok to the contractor who wants $500 / sq ft to remodel a job that should cost $180?

Op your adjuster was probably just a bit lazy or conservative in the estimate. They revise their estimates all the time based on missing items. You should ask the adjuster to come back and meet with the contractor and go through all the items. Unless your floor can be exact matched, they will replace the whole thing.

The “third party” adjuster you are referring to are Public Adjusters. They are generally a mix of used car salesman bred with fly by night roofing contractor and failed night school attorney. Their standard fee is 20% of YOUR settlement. They will tell you that they will get you enough to cover their fee blah blah blah. Sometimes that works but often it doesn’t. But once you sign that paper they get 20%, doesn’t matter if they help you get more or not. If you get denied or really have problems it might be worth bringing one in, but probably better to go straight to an attorney. (If it’s a legal issue hire an attorney if it’s a quantum issue hire a PA). If you really have to fight them in court the public adjuster can get 20%, the attorney 40% and you get the remaining 40%.

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Originally Posted by MarcusBrody

How do you spend 38k on upgrading a 40k harley? I'm genuinely curious what it looked like.

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$78k Harley? ROTFLMAO

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Originally Posted by Vt-Freeheel

$78k Harley? ROTFLMAO

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Yep, my question too. I've got the receipts, so it appears to be true. Custom seat, grips, stereo, pipes, carbs, paint, saddle bags, side plates and covers, wheels, and the list goes on for pages.

Nope, didn't update it as a custom with his carrier, so a no-go there.

I've seen tons of generated estimates and fought with tons of adjusters on fire and water claims. Fixed pricing based on their assessments of industry standards. Will they move on pricing, yes. Do they miss stuff and adjust, all the time. Just like supplements on repairing a vehicle.

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Originally Posted by Peruvian

just because someone created their dream bike by paying $78k doesn’t mean that’s the value of the motorcycle.

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It does if he has replacement cost value coverage.

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Originally Posted by RootSkier

It does if he has replacement cost value coverage.

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TNKen confirmed he doesn’t