| Author |
 Topic  |
|
CCarr
Canada
1200 Posts |
 Posted - 03/13/2003 : 22:21:38
|
Damn it, makes up your minds, am I a partner or just an insured? I already gave my jag to the 'inside' man last month.
I'm going to have these wild visions tonight, I'll have to hang onto the Mrs. pretty tight tonight.
A Mississauga Ice Dog, wearing a toque eh, going out cow tipping with one partner for a while, after a good meal of tartar; then going over to our other southern partner's place, who is wearing shorts and serving us mint juleps on the porch who is giving me hell whether I raised or reared my dogs properly. Wow! |
 |
|
|
JimF
USA
1014 Posts |
Posted - 03/13/2003 : 22:29:43
|
"Dammit CD, I told you what to expect from these new young upstarts."
"He reminds me a lot of Ol' Newt, that other new hire we made last week down in Alabama."
'Ah youth. To be wasted on the young.'
"What's next CD: You wanna hire Ghostbuster too?"
Let's bring 'em all down to the farm for a snipe hunt! |
Edited by - JimF on 03/13/2003 22:31:42 |
|
|
|
katadj
USA
315 Posts |
Posted - 03/13/2003 : 23:17:04
|
Sorry if the post was confusing, as to the use of the term "solicitor".
Here is how it works in PA and somewhat similar in NJ. The "solicitor" is an agent that is allowed to "solicit" the consumer, but not allowed to function as a public adjuster. This requires them to post a bond in the amount of $8,000.00.
Now, the PA, who has on his staff from one to 20+ solicitors, has to post a bond in the amount of $50,000.00 to function as a Public Adjuster.
With regard to the other activities mentioned, the PA's have an ensemble of cohorts which include many of the emergency services people, also plumbers, electricians, roofers etc. that tout them on a possible covered loss. The PA's make sure the leads are good and then take care of "their people", IYGMM
Almost every PA solicitor in this area, uses a police / fire scanner and there have been serious street fistfights over a "good loss", before the fire is out.
The ones that have been here for 20+ years enjoy a decent rep, as far as a PA's rep can go. Some of the ones that I have dealt with are as knowledgeable as any adjuster that I have met.
With regard to the question regarding a choice of a PA or a lawyer, I would think that you are locked in with the PA %, which is always negotiable, in lieu of a lawyers T&E billing or even their %, which seldom goes below 1/3.
Some lawyers know next to nothing about insurance, less about construction or the processes that must be followed. Some just file suit, and then are led through the policy provisions that include the appraisal process before bringing suit. This becomes very time consuming and expensive.
Perhaps, if the policies were followed correctly, and the appraisal process was implemented and followed as intended " to be a swift resolution" to a dispute and prevent or inhibit the suit process, the claims would be settled fairly and simply.
IMHO, the appraisal process, utilizing skilled, competent appraisers and knowledgeable umpires, will bring the claim to a proper and swift conclusion.
Unfortunately, little is known about this really useful tactic in claim settlement.
|
Edited by - katadj on 03/13/2003 23:34:27 |
|
|
|
canduss
USA
120 Posts |
Posted - 03/14/2003 : 00:56:05
|
| What is the big surprise?......I'm sure all of us along the way have experienced the typical newly trained Insurance adjuster who passionately conserves and negotiates Insurance settlements on behalf of their Companies......PA's are the direct result of the Insurance companies inability to maintain experienced adjusters who honorably satisfy their insureds of adequate settlements in order to properly conclude claims within their policy guidelines........ |
|
|
|
Writer
USA
2 Posts |
Posted - 03/17/2003 : 09:00:10
|
I'd like to make my story personal and not just about what happened with Allstate. While, who I am and what my life was like doesn't have anything to do with adjusting, I think it is important to try to give some context to this catastrophe. As I am sure you all know, each insured would be effected differently even if the physical damage to their homes was identical.
The Northridge quake was a very traumatic experience for me. I was surprised at how traumatic it was because having lived in California for a number of years I had experienced many earthquakes. But when you are smack in the middle of a big one, nothing can prepare you for the sheer terror.
As I am sure you all know, it happened at around 4 AM, so it was pitch black. I was fast asleep. It felt like a giant had picked up the entire house and threw it back on the ground with all his might, twice. It was horrible but the fear didn't end with the earthquake because we did not know if this was the big quake or if it was a pre-quake. There were several aftershocks and each one was terribly frightening. I had been through many quakes of the same magnitude as these aftershocks that had not frightened me. But now they made me panic. This fear did lessen with time, but eventually drove me out of California. For the next three years while trying to settle my claim, fear was a factor in my life. Generally, I was afraid there would be another earthquake. And certain specific situations brought on serious anxiety. For example, getting stuck under an overpass at a red light with cars in front and behind me trapping me in position. I knew if there was an earthquake while under the overpass I would be crushed to death. While this may sound strange and an extreme reaction, I can assure you that many people I knew had similar fears, although perhaps not as pronounced. I obviously have a bit of post traumatic stress. When I prepare for a hurricane I have been known to say the earthquake is coming. While this is a bit of a joke in my family, it is telling.
Unfortunately, at the time of the quake, I was ill. So ill in fact that I had not worked for many months. A friend had slept over to go with me to the hospital in the morning for a biopsy. He was trapped in the guest room for about an hour. He had to dig his way out and there was nothing I could do to help being on the wrong side of the door. I had 3 dogs (one was brand new and deaf) and a cat with a dog door. The cat immediately left the house.
My sister was also living with me at the time. After my friend Mark had dug his way out of the guest room, the three of us just hugged each other and cried. We were so relieved to just be alive. Then we all went out to hunt for my cat. We could not find him, but he did come home on his own a few hours later. Then there was the search for the earthquake supplies. I thought I was prepared. I had 3 earthquake kits and about 15 gallons of water, flashlights, batteries, a battery operated TV, radio and canned goods. I quickly realized that we could not survive long with what we had.
I had just redecorated my house and had thick oak plank floors which had been bleached and hand distressed. They now stood up like sentinels all over the house jutting up to 3 feet high. All of the plumbing was messed up in one way or another. Several large items like TV's had been secured for earthquakes, but it seemed like everything else was in pieces on the floor. Large furniture pieces toppled over. While the humans could put shoes on, the pets could not. So we all tried to get up as much of the glass as we could. The chimney, according to FEMA could topple at any minute. So until we could get up a fence, we had to keep the pets and humans away from that area. Fortunately, it was tilting away from the house. It was quickly obvious the pets needed to stay in the house. The walls that separated us from our neighbors was gone.
We got our electricity back after about 24 hours. As soon as it went on we had an emergency. The wall separating us from our neighbors had fallen on to the pool filter. When the electricity came on so did the pool filter which started an electrical fire. Fortunately the fire department got there quickly.
Most stores were closed and did not open for days or weeks. I shopped in one small store whose floor was covered with broken glass and spilled wet food which had no electricity. The supermarket "opened" after a few of days. That meant they were selling items from a side door. They only sold water, batteries, diapers, baby food, formula and a few food items. The line wound around the parking lot like a giant snake. They would not sell pet food, all of the D and C batteries were gone and while I was grateful to buy some food, it certainly was nothing nutritious.
Another friend who lived in Northridge (I lived in Encino) had two children. One was diabetic. Since I had electricity they moved in with me because his insulin needed to be refrigerated. Another friend, Kathy moved in with her dog. Her condo was not habitable. Mark's apartment was destroyed so he stayed with me. So now we were 7 people, 4 dogs and a cat, with little food and contaminated water. We did shower and we all got scabs on our scalps. The water was contaminated for at least a month, that is how long the scabs lasted. I never drank water from the faucets there again.
My neighbor's yard had a metal fence which was still up and they let our dogs into their yard. Unfortunately a couple of days after the quake someone left my neighbor's gate open and the dogs did get out and were missing for several hours. Luckily, the deaf dog stayed with the hearing dogs and I got them all back home safe and sound. But as any pet owner knows, loosing your pets in the middle of a disaster is emotionally very difficult.
I did have unlimited additional living expenses. But due to the fact that so many places were destroyed every habitable place was snatched up immediately and no one wanted 3 dogs and a cat in their place so I was effectively stuck in my house for 3 years without any major repairs. I had to fix several things just so we could function. But Allstate would not pay for things piecemeal. They said they would pay for the repairs in the final settlement.
I don't even remember making my claim. But about a week after FEMA had been to my house the first Allstate adjuster arrived. He was very pleasant. He took a look around. He did not go up on the roof, go into the crawl space or measure anything. He said we were one of the lucky ones because we didn't have enough damage to even meet our deductible. But fortunately the man from FEMA told me he suspected serious structural damage even though it did not rise to the level of forcing us out of the house. Then an endless series of telephone calls and letters to Allstate began. I had that first adjuster for quite some time. Since I would not settle for a few thousand dollars they sent in another adjuster. This adjuster said we needed to have a receipt for anything we wanted to be reimbursed for. During the clean up I took tons of pictures so I could document what had been broken. That was not good evidence as far as that adjuster was concerned. The adjuster acted as if I were trying to pull a fast one. He practically accused me of trying to defraud Allstate! After that I demanded a new adjuster. Ultimately I had 5 different adjusters. Each one started from scratch as if no previous adjuster had been there and no file existed.
Eventually, at some point I got a contractor. He said there was structural damage which he could see when he went into the crawl space. He said the only way to really know what needed to be done was to have an engineer do some destructive testing. This became a major sticking point with Allstate. They would not pay for destructive testing or cover the damage the tests would create. I then hired an engineer at my own expense. He said that the contractor was correct, there was structural damage, but that the extent could not be determined without destructive testing. He also said destructive testing could expose asbestos since it was an older house. Since I had spent a good portion of my savings when I was working to redecorate my home, and had been out of work living on my savings for months, I could not afford to do the destructive testing or pay for the damage the testing would cause. And since I could not rely on Allstate to act in a timely fashion, I was afraid to expose any asbestos. Of course since there was no proof Allstate would accept of structural damage Allstate took the position that there wasn't any. No one from Allstate ever crawled under the house to look at what the contractor and engineer had found and they consistently refused to pay for destructive testing.
Another "issue" for Allstate was rebuilding to code. They claimed that their only duty was to rebuild to the code that existed when the house was built, not to existing code. That seemed crazy to me. If the house was not built to code not only would it not be safe, I would never be able to sell it. And I certainly did not have the money to pay to bring it up to existing code.
There were a million other little issues that were just stalling tactics. For example, they said they did not believe in the line of sight rule. So if a wall needed to be rebuilt they would only paint that wall, not the entire room. They would not pay for any clean up or dumpster. Their list of what they would not pay for was endless.
As I mentioned in my original post, survivors of the Oakland firestorm came down to warn us about Allstate's tactics. One of the things they told us was the Allstate would not deal fairly with women. So after two and a half years of trying to settle the claim myself (I am an attorney!) I realized I would have to hire a male attorney to deal with them. He was able to finally up the amount they offered (which was exclusive of structural damage and many other items.) Unfortunately, after the attorney would take his cut, I would wind up with less than I had negotiated before I had hired him. I was sick and had to be hospitalized, tired of fighting a loosing battle with Allstate, and broke. All I wanted to do was get out of the ring of fire, get out of that damaged house, so I settled. But I have to say that I felt Allstate raped me.
When the insurance commissioner finally decided years later not to fine Allstate the hundreds of millions of dollars his own panel had suggested, I felt raped again. Allstate defrauded thousands of people, turned their lives into living hells, saved millions of dollars doing it and got slapped on the wrist. To this day I feel like I have been kicked in the stomach whenever I see an Allstate commercial claiming you are in good hands.
It was my belief that all of the adjusters I dealt with were employees of Allstate but I never asked. I believe that all of the adjusters I was working with were in on the "conspiracy" to not pay me what I was owed. While that may sound paranoid, apparently a lot of other people reported the same or similar experience. They acted in the same despicable fashion with their earthquake insureds as they did with the Oakland firestorm insureds. It was a fraudulent pattern of behavior. As I am sure you all know they were investigated by the FBI. How charges were never brought against them I will never understand. There was literally a mountain of evidence against them. I was also disapointed in the State of California for not stepping in. No one protected the insureds and no one punished the insurer.
I think all insureds are at their most vulnerable during and after a disaster such as the Northridge quake. Had I not been ill and out of work, with an overwhelming desire to get out of that house and the ring of fire, I would have sued them for bad faith and fraud.
|
Donna |
|
|
|
CCarr
Canada
1200 Posts |
Posted - 03/17/2003 : 10:27:36
|
Donna, while the story you convey, is one of a true nightmare; I just don't understand why you didn't at some point, bring an action for bad faith or fraud.
Weren't these claims allowed to 'reopen', several years ago?
Trying to visualize the physical damage to your home that you relate, could you let us know what your deductible was; so that can be put in context with your commentary?
Would it be correct to conclude, that your policy in force at the time; did not contain "Ordinance or Law" coverage, to deal with the code "issue" you describe?
It certainly would be enlightening to you and all of 'us', since you have shared your story; to be able to 'examine' or read the other 1/2 of the story - i.e. the adjuster file.
Within the context of this thread, obviously in hindsight, do you feel you may have been better served with the services of a Public Adjuster? |
|
|
|
Topic |
|
|
|
Public Adjusters.......who needs them?
Forum Locked
