There’s only one thing worse than a hurricane — filing an insurance claim.
A Los Angeles based law group that specializes in taking insurance companies to task is providing free seminars for folks living in one of Brooklyn’s most devastated neighborhoods, Gerritsen Beach, where the legal eagles will share some tricks of the trade when it comes to dealing with claims adjustors — whose job is basically to keep policyholders from collecting their full claim.
“The tremendous amount of damage suffered in Gerritsen Beach is why we selected the town for our seminar. Towns near the water typically are also the ones with the greatest amount of damage and they also tend to be the areas that the insurance companies have the most risk,” said Price Law Group attorney David Chami.
“Regular homeowner’s policies oftentimes have flood exclusions and other provisions that the company will try to use as a way to avoid paying a claim,” said Chami. “We wanted to educate the public as to how to spot these tactics and avoid the pitfalls of dealing with the carrier.”
Chami said some claims adjustors use misinformation and pressure tactics to con policyholders into accepting settlements designed to save the insurance company money rather than honor the terms of the policy.
“It is our experience that most insurance companies will do everything they can to avoid properly paying a claim, and they oftentimes incentivize their adjusters based on their ‘profitability,’ ” Chami explained, meaning that adjusters’ pay depends on how much they shave off claims.
In one instance Chami cited, a woman’s home shifted during October’s hurricane, creating a small gap between the homeowner’s first floor and the two-feet-tall crawl space beneath. The adjustor used this seemingly trivial fact to make a case that the woman’s cramped crawl space had been transformed into a full fledged basement — thus depriving her of her rightful claim, since her policy didn’t cover basements.
“She [the homeowner] argued with the adjuster that the crawl space was not a basement,” Chami recounted. “At the end of the conversation, he told her that if she called it a basement he would get her the money she needed to fix the home, and finally she said to him, ‘If it will get me the money you can call it whatever you want.’ Based on that statement, he sent her a denial of the claim because they don’t cover basements!”
As part of the seminar, a licensed claims adjustor will provide Gerritsen Beach residents with instructions on how to beat a system that can seem rigged against policyholders. One tip: the best defense against an adjustor pulling the wool over your eyes is another adjustor.
“The first rule we advocate is having someone there that is knowledgeable, to keep the adjuster honest,” said Chami. “Sometimes that person is a contractor or an independent adjuster hired by your lawyer. Don’t go into it alone!”
There are few places in Brooklyn where these tips will prove more useful than in Gerritsen Beach. Pretty much everyone who has suffered property damage in Gerritsen Beach — which is pretty much everyone in Gerritsen Beach — has been struggling to have their claims fulfilled, according to George Broadhead, president of the Gerritsen Beach Property Owner’s Association.
“I would say every single individual has had trouble with their insurance companies,” said Broadhead. “I do believe in free enterprise, but these insurance companies need a swift kick in the a–. They’re jerking people around something terrible.”
Seminar at the Ancient Order of Hibernians [2750 Gerritsen Ave. between Everett and Florence avenues in Gerritsen Beach, (718) 891–6622] March 29, 6 pm and 7:30 pm. Free
Reach reporter Colin Mixson at cmixson@cnglocal.com or by calling (718) 260-4514.
