Articles Posted in Hurricane Claims

The Wall Street Journal anticipates an uptick in legal disputes between Florida homeowners and Florida insurance providers now that Hurricane Ian has left behind so much devastation.

The prediction by experts is that insurance providers in the Florida market will try to bail on payouts to homeowners by blaming the property damage on flooding, which is not covered in traditional homeowner’s insurance policies.

For flood damage to be paid out, homeowners must have separate flood insurance policies, which millions of Americans do not have.

Experts believe that Hurricane Ian insurance claims will bankrupt Florida-based insurance companies. So far this year, six small Florida-based insurers have been liquidated, and many others have stopped writing new policies for homeowners.

What does this mean for Florida residents, including those in Crystal River, Inverness, Homosassa, Homosassa Springs, Dunnellon, and Sugarmill Woods? It will likely be a lot harder and more expensive to obtain homeowner’s insurance in the area.

In regards to recovering finances for property damage from Hurricane Ian, homeowners are looking at delays and denials stemming from high interest rates, inflation, repair costs skyrocketing, and other pending legal battles that insurance companies are wrapped up in. Getting a payout could take over a year to resolve, if not longer.

How to Handle Bad Faith Claims by Your Insurance Provider in Citrus County

If your insurance provider or adjuster has acted in bad faith while handling your claim, then you need to speak with our Citrus County Hurricane and Storm Damage Claims Attorneys at Whittel & Melton right away. We have seen that many insurance companies try to protect their bottom line by denying claims based on absurd technicalities or by giving you the run around, hoping that you will give up and just walk away.

Our Citrus County Hurricane and Storm Damage Claims Attorneys at Whittel & Melton will help you get your insurance company’s attention and show them that you will not give up that easily. We will negotiate on your behalf and file a lawsuit to protect your rights. As a property owner, it is very important that you understand the terms of your policy and what is covered vs. what is not covered. If you think that your insurance company is not giving you fair compensation or has outright denied your claim following damage from Hurricane Ian, then we are happy to step in and handle a bad faith insurance claim.

What Does Bad Faith Mean?  Continue reading

Hurricane Ida tore through Louisiana and the Gulf Coast, leaving millions without power, roads blocked, and sanitary services like water and sewage disrupted for what could be weeks. With so many people forced to seek shelter elsewhere, many are left wondering what they should expect next. Our Citrus County Hurricane Lawyers at Whittel & Melton encourage everyone to stay alert and be prepared for the remainder of hurricane season, especially if you reside in the Atlantic and Southeastern states.

Every hurricane season, names are given alphabetically to storms starting in June. The National Weather Service always names the hurricanes. The letter “I,” is the ninth letter of the alphabet so that means Ida was the ninth storm of the season, which usually happens at the end of September, which means Hurricane Ida was a month early. Hurricane Ida was also one of the most powerful storms the U.S. has seen, joining a few other “I” storms from the past that also left a lingering impact, 2004’s Ivan and 2017’s Irma.

2021 has been a busy storm season already and looking back at 2020 we can see that there were 30 named storms, including 14 hurricanes (7 of these were major storms), 11 named storms that hit the U.S. coastline, and then Greek letters used for the remainder of the hurricanes that closed the season.

2020 is one of the most active storm seasons ever in the waters around the State of Florida, the Atlantic Ocean, Gulf of Mexico, and Caribbean Sea.

STORM DEDUCTIBLE CONFUSION?!

Florida Property insurance policies typically have two deductibles. A standard deductible for most losses; and a hurricane deductible. The standard “Other Perils” deductible is for pretty much anything covered by the policy, such as fire, pipe bursts and appliance related water damage claims, or windstorms, etc. The hurricane deductible only applies to named Hurricanes. The last major hurricane to hit Florida was Hurricane Michael in the panhandle on October 10, 2018; and more recently in the western portions of the Florida panhandle for Hurricane Sally on September 16, 2020, and Hurricane Zeta on October 28, 2020. Hurricane deductibles are typically 2 or 3 percent of the limit of the insurance for the home which is a lot higher than the standard deductible for all other claims. The Eta storm of November 2020 started off in South Florida counties like Miami-Dade, Broward and Palm Beach County as a Tropical Storm (not a hurricane). But as storms in Florida do, things changed, and the weather system chased west back into the Gulf of Mexico where it was reclassified as a Hurricane for a short period of time before heading back to the Nature Coast across Florida again as a Tropical Storm.

DON’T GET FOOLED BY YOUR INSURANCE COMPANY!

First, an insurer may rush to slap a hurricane deductible on your claim when it should not apply because a Tropical Storm is not a hurricane. Second (and this is really the most important!), Insurers in Florida have often told their customers after a storm that unless they absolutely know that their damage is more than their hurricane deductible, then they should not even put in a claim. There are many reasons why this is terrible advice and a bad business practice by insurance companies. As the policyholder, it is not your job to know the exact amount of damage you have in the weeks following a severe storm. You also may discover that the storm caused much more damage than you initially thought or could see in the days following the hurricane. Many Floridians have fallen for the insurers gambit only to attempt to make their claims later on and be told its too late to make the claim.

If you believe you have Hurricane or Tropical Storm damage from any of these strong weather systems that brought havoc to Florida, please call us and we can assist you in determining which deductible applies, assist you with determining the actual extent of the damage to your home, and provide needed guidance through the process with your insurance company.

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