Hurricane Damage Insurance Claim

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Hurricane  Damage 

& Wind Claims

About Hurricane Insurance Claims: Typically a property insurance policy covers direct physical damage from windstorm. If direct physical damage is obvious, such as entire roofs/walls or portions of roofs/walls blown away, then a coverage determination becomes easy. Then the major concern...

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Hurricane Irma and Michael Insurance Claim Public Adjusters

If you have experienced residential or commercial property damage from Hurricane Irma and Michael please accept our sympathy and best wishes for a speedy recovery. Getting a public insurance adjuster involved early in your claim can help you spend time on getting your life back together while an expert manages your property claim.

In the aftermath of a storm like Hurricane Irma & Michael, we often find policyholders can be easily confused about how to properly navigate the insurance claims process and encounter difficulty determining if they are being properly compensated for their loss. The Effects of Hurricane Irma & Michael in Florida where really substantial and generally the  Insurance policy contract language can be technical and difficult to interpret. Don’t wait to get a low ball offer or for your insurance claim to be denied. We at    Master Adjusters & Consultants have public insurance adjusters ready to help you file, document and negotiate a fair property insurance claim settlement. Having a public adjuster on your side can help ensure you comply with the policy requirements and the insurance company is offering you a fair settlement. 

Regardless of whether your loss is large or small Master Adjusters & Consultants 
will perform these services for you:
  • Analyze your policy to get the maximum claim coverage.
  • Inspect the property damage and estimate all losses with our computerized system.
  • Notify the insurance company of your loss and ensure they have proper documentation.
  • Set all appointments with insurance company staff and provide them with preliminary estimates for building and contents damage and loss of business accounting figures.
  • Negotiate with insurance company for a fair and equitable settlement.
  • Prepare all documents in order to obtain payment.
  • Provide a list of trusted professionals for reconstruction if required.

For over 8 years, the licensed public adjusters at Master Adjusters & Consultants have worked exclusively on behalf of policyholders to properly value the loss, take over the stressful process of managing the claim and negotiating a fair settlement while you focus on getting your business and family back together. Statistics show that policyholders who hire their own adjuster receive more for their claim than those who go it alone. If you need assistance or advice, our insurance claim adjusters are available for a free no obligation review of your loss. Call Us Now: 1-844-444-Masters or contact us.

Master Adjusters & Consultants, 
Hurricane Damage  
& Wind Claims Experts

Typically a property insurance policy covers direct physical damage from windstorm. If direct physical damage is obvious, such as entire roofs/walls or portions of roofs/walls blown away, then a coverage determination becomes easy. Then the major concern of the property owner becomes, "What is the full value of repair or replacement to make me whole again?" Business owners will suffer down time creating the need to document business interruption losses. Homeowners will want to know where they will live while their home is being repaired. Not only is the building loss a concern, but business inventory losses and personal property damage frequently become a major portion of the windstorm damage insurance claim. 

Sometimes however, the damage from a covered peril is not so obvious. The expert public adjusters at Master Adjusters & Consultants can point you in the right direction.

What about water damage resulting from a hurricane or a windstorm event? One must always look to the specific policy language of the loss in question. Typically, if the windstorm or hurricane event causes a breach (break) in the building envelope (that is, the roof or walls) and water comes into the building due to that breach, then you have coverage. This would include water damage to the building itself, such as drywall damage, particle board expansion, electrical damage, mold, etc. 

Water damage to contents would also typically be included as part of the loss. Wind driven rain can also be very problematic in a hurricane as many insurance companies will not pay unless there is a breach or opening in a structure. Master Adjusters & Consultants has helped property insurance policyholders involved in every hurricane for the last 8 years and as many or more tropical storms, tornadoes and severe windstorms. 

And remember, during a declared state-of-emergency in Florida, Public Adjuster fees are capped at 10% of the loss amount. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise. Let the experience and expertise of our public adjusters pay off for you. Tell us about your insurance claim.


More people live and work around the United States coastline than at any other point in our history. Coupled with the ever increasing cost of scarce materials and labor following a catastrophic windstorm event makes exposure to hurricane events more severe than ever. Damage from hurricane events, especially in our coastline areas have high exposure to both windstorm and flood damage. This creates the wind vs. water controversies that fill our courtrooms following hurricane events. Why?

The primary reason is that property insurance contracts that do cover windstorms normally exclude the peril of flood, and flood policies cover flood but not the peril of windstorm. So what happens when a hurricane damages properties, especially near our coastlines? Will the windstorm carriers and the flood carriers point fingers at each other, and leave you, the policyholder, caught in the middle. Our experience is if you have a loss from wind and flood you need to be prepared to prove which caused what part of your damage. Note that the National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP), part of FEMA, underwrites the flood policies. How does one sort out this controversy? The public adjusters at Master Adjusters & Consultants frequently become part of this equation to assist policyholders in sorting out what is wind and what is flood.

Some Florida Hurricane History
Most property insurance contracts cover the peril of windstorm to include tornado, hurricane, tropical storm and even wind storm damage associated with thunderstorms. A notable exception occurred in the post-loss environment following Hurricane Andrew in 1992. In Florida, most if not all carriers sought to limit their exposure to windstorm peril from hurricanes by creating high percentage hurricane deductibles in their policies. If you'd like more detail on understanding the impact these percentage deductibles can have on you, please view our complimentary article below on Understanding Hurricane and Wind Damage Percentage Deductibles on Insurance Claims. Some insurance companies would not even write coverage and others withdrew from the State in total or set up what was called "PUP" companies in an attempt to limit the parent company liability. These "PUP" companies would only be on the hook for the policies they sold. If they could not pay claims, their organizational structure would limit the parent company's liability beyond the assets of the "PUPs." Properties in a high wind zone area often became uninsurable which forced many homeowners in Florida to seek windstorm coverage with the quasi-governmental carrier, Citizens Property Insurance Corporation.
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Understanding Hurricane and Wind Damage 
Percentage Deductibles On Insurance Claims

The Atlantic hurricane season that officially starts June 1st through November 30th brings with it the very real threat of insured property owners having to pay a significant amount of money to repair their hurricane damaged property, even though they purchased first-party property wind hurricane insurance. The reason is the hurricane percentage deductibles found in most, if not all, property insurance policies. These deductibles are a relatively recent change to Florida property insurance policies that came about as a result of Hurricane Andrew in 1992.

Hurricanes and the damage they cause are certainly not new, but due to Hurricane Andrew’s widespread destruction, Florida’s population growth and the building boom that followed, insurance companies were given a wake-up call that business as usual was not going to apply to property insurance in Florida. One step they quickly implemented in the Florida insurance underwriting market was the creation of the so called “hurricane deductible” also known as percentage wind deductibles.

What then are hurricane deductibles and how do they apply?

In Florida the application of these deductibles are controlled by Florida Statute 627.701(5) (a) that states:

The hurricane deductible of any personal lines residential property insurance policy issued or renewed on or after May 1, 2005 shall be applied as follows:

1. The hurricane deductible shall apply on an annual basis to all covered hurricane losses that occur during the calendar year from losses that are covered under one or more policies by the same insurer.

2. If there was a hurricane loss for a prior hurricane or hurricanes during the calendar year, the insurer may apply a deductible to a subsequent hurricane which is the greater of the remaining amount of the hurricane deductible or the amount of the deductible that applies to perils other than hurricanes. Insurers may require policyholders to report hurricane losses that are below the hurricane deductible or to maintain receipts or other records of such hurricane losses in order to apply such losses to subsequent hurricane claims.

While this statute can be read by the lay person, I think it is good to go over some of the details as to how it works. The public adjusters at Master Adjusters & Consultants feel the next big storm will be a major wake up call for property owners in regards to how these deductibles work just as Andrew was to the insurance underwriters.

So with this back drop, when does a hurricane percentage deductible apply verses the standard deductible that may be in a property policy for perils covered by insurance for damages such as wind, fire, water, etc? The Florida statute makes it clear that the trigger for applying these deductibles is the National Hurricane Center. Any claim for wind damage that results from the time a hurricane watch or warning is issued for any part of Florida, up to 72 hours after a watch or warning ends and anytime hurricane conditions exist throughout the State will be subject to these deductibles.

The actual application of these deductibles is based on a percentage amount of the insured value in the property policy. For example: If the homeowner (this also applies to commercial policies if they have hurricane coverage with percentage deductibles) insures their home for $250,1-844-444-6278 and elects a 5% hurricane deductible, the deductible that will apply to the loss will be $12,500.00. This is the amount the homeowner will have to pay assuming there are no other exclusions or limitations such as exterior paint damage or other non-covered items or events in a loss that the insured will have to pay out-of-pocket before their insurance begins to pay for the loss. It should be clear that a wind loss from a wind storm not declared a hurricane by the National Hurricane Center may result in a standard deductible which in most cases would be a great deal less.

The published insurance literature states that all insurers (for personal lines-homeowners) must offer hurricane deductibles of $500.00, 2%, 5% and 10%. Obviously, the higher the percentage, the lower the premium cost for hurricane wind insurance. Of course the trade-off for paying lower premiums is that you expose yourself to a very high cash payout if a hurricane damages your property. Please make sure you can absorb that kind of payment. You should also check your policy to see what hurricane deductible percentage is stated in the policy. The rules that apply require your policy to have boldface type, no smaller than 18 points which state the following: “This Policy Contains a Separate Deductible for Hurricane Losses, Which May Result in High Out–Of–Pocket Expenses to You.” For personal lines residential property insurance policies the insurer must prominently display the actual dollar value of the hurricane deductible on the declaration page of the policy or on the renewal notice.

If you are insured by a non- standard “surplus lines” carrier, these rules may not apply as recent legislation exempted these companies from most of the standard insurance regulations. As this is a very important issue, it should be discussed with your agent/broker or legal counsel before a hurricane warning or watch is issued as you cannot take out a new policy during that time.
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