| Author |
Message |
J.P. Theriot (Jpt)
| | Posted on Saturday, May 12, 2001 - 10:27 pm: | |
Well said David. Ditto!!! |
David P Bennett (Whitey)
| | Posted on Saturday, May 12, 2001 - 12:04 am: | |
Mr. Cook, you are right, you do it for money and that is the problem. We as adjusters assist our friends and family when we believe a wrong assessment has been made. The public adjuster submits an assessment that is inflated, overscoped, overpriced and in some cases flat out fraud. The public adjuster solicits claims, whether real or manufactured, attempts to turn wear & tear items into occurences, twists wording to support their positions and in general take monies rightfully due the insured as their fee. Now there are situations where a public adjuster may be beneficial, when the insured is unclear and so outrageous, that a PA is welcome. At least the PA generally has a knowledge of what will be paid or not under the policy.
Its funny, in my area, the PA's are holding seminars, telling people they can make 6 figure salaries as a solicitor. The speal is to go out solicit people, where you observe some type of damage or possible damage to their homes. Doesn't matter whether its wear & tear, long term deterioration or what. Get the people to sign up and present a claim. I could go on with the outrageous example they use to sucker the people into paying 279.00 for training classes to obtain a solicitors license, but won't.
I was supposed to have been excluded from the presentation because of my insurance background, but funny thing, they advertised free to the public and were unable to exclude me. Seems the presenters at this session became slightly confused or at a loss for words when specific questions were poised to them.
Anyway, don't hate PA's don't love them either. Some are good and act for the insured when the insured is to busy with their personal agenda to deal with the situation. Some are, lets say a little questionable, in their practices of manufacturing claims, exaggerations and aggressive attitudes.
Bottom line, what you do and what we do are light years apart. |
William S. Cook (Wscook)
| | Posted on Wednesday, May 09, 2001 - 9:34 pm: | |
What in the world are the neighbors of Ms. Martin, that are insured by the major carrier to do about their denied roof claims and their cans of worms. It appears that an aggressive knowledgeable claims person, acting for and on the behalf of a dis-satisfied insured, has persevered against a formidable team of adjusters, insurers, engineers, and the Department of Insurance and has caused a favorable reversal of another adjusters claim. He did it for love, I do the same thing for money. I hope the neighbors can find an equally talented public adjuster to advance their cause.
William S Cook
Public Adjuster |
R.D. Hood (Dave)
| | Posted on Wednesday, May 09, 2001 - 8:18 pm: | |
They are also using a surface dye applied to the exposed side of the asbestos shingles (in New Orleans) to prove that the hairline fractures on the surface do indeed migrate through the asbestos and this shows up as a cobweb effect on the underside. Proving that the shingle is damaged.
The carriers will fight this tooth and nail, and the engineering firms disagree on the friability issue.
IMHO, Daryl is correct, if the risk has sustained "direct physical loss" it should be a covered loss.
Many have fought this issue, and thankfully some are winning, albeit, FEW. |
Darryl Martin (Darrylm)
| | Posted on Wednesday, May 09, 2001 - 10:40 am: | |
I would like to share a personal experience concerning this material. My mother's residence had rigid asbestos roofing that went through a hail storm. A major carrier said that there was no damage, just speckling (white spots). I checked the roof and could see that the surface had its surface penetrated and you could see the fibers below. I questioned the denial they issued. I was told that there was no damage but if I liked they would have an engineer look at it.
An engineer examined the roof and said that their were in fact some indentions where the surface had been penetrated but that there was no loss of life expectancy and the fibers were not friable (easily crumpled and able to become airborne).
The carrier said this upheld their position. I disagreed. I tried to explain that nowhere in the insurance contract (policy)did it insure against loss of life expectancy. I pointed out that the carrier routinely paid for dented aluminum, where no loss of life expectancy occurred. I pointed out that the contract called for 'direct physical damage' and the fact that the surface material had been breached and the underlayment (asbestos fibers) were exposed met the definition of direct physical damage.
I was told they were standing by their position that there was no damage since there was no loss of life expectancy.
I wrote to the State Insurance Commissioner and sent my interpretation of the policy language along with the fact that I thought the carrier was acting in an arbitrary and capricious manner.
After the carrier had been contacted by the Commissioner the carrier got back in touch with me and we again went around and around on what the policy said.
The carrier asked that the engineer be able to inspect the roof again. I agreed. I met with the engineer and he basically said the same thing again. However, after receiving the second report from the engineer the carrier paid for the roof with no additional explanation.
MY OPINION: I feel that after reviewing the argument concerning the policy language the carrier was looking for a way to pay for the roof but did not want to admit their faulty logic as it would open up a 'can of worms' concerning all other claims they had been denying.
After all the above I guess what I'm trying to show is that if there is direct physical damage, there is coverage. Most policies don't define direct physical damage. I relied on Black's Law Dictionary and training material from different insurance institutes, seminars and companies as my reasoning for my interpretation.
Darryl |
Dan Stelly
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 01, 2000 - 10:15 am: | |
Ther is a roof coating material out there called "Conklin", I experienced it in Midland and in Conroe Texas. It can be applied by mopping or spraying. Let me see if I can find a contact number for you...Dan |
Tomj (Tomj)
| | Posted on Tuesday, August 01, 2000 - 8:21 am: | |
Check with Haig Engineering in Dallas, TX. They have done extensive hail studies. |
sfoster
| | Posted on Monday, July 31, 2000 - 11:31 pm: | |
Does anyone know of resource material that covers unusual roofing materials like asbestos tiles. I have a few questions. What constitues hail damage on asbestos tiles? I have heard that the white spots created by hail impact aren't damage and don't compromise the tile. But some say that the white spots, "points of impact" cause hairline fractures that you can't see.
Thanks |
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