jryoung
Well-known member
We had a fire in 2013 and it was a total loss due to small amounts of asbestos in various materials. The fire however was on an outside wall and into the attic. Very little belongings were actually destroyed so there was physical evidence of everything....quantity, brand names, condition etc etc.
People talk about lawyers being ambulance chasers but after a house fire I think the adjusters/clean up crews are probably worse. One guy was at our door at 7:30am when the fire was at 1am. Total slime ball, but he at least gave us the idea of the need for an adjuster to represent us. In total, we had four different people down our driveway by 10am all looking to earn a bid.
We took our time and used a company called Greenspan and it was well worth every bit of the 10% we paid them. The hours of time and stress was worth it, but they clearly got us more out of our claim and paid for themselves. State Farm was slow to move on everything and it's pretty clear they just try and drag everything out to slow payment (manage cash flow) and there's an added benefit of fatigue on the policy holder. The adjuster has an incentive to max out the claim.
Ultimately it took almost two years to finalize the claim all the way through construction. We filled nearly every bucket and sub bucket possible from code upgrades, to accessory building to landscaping funds. It's amazing on what they will try and fight you on. They didn't bat an eye at some faux birch sticks for a couple hundred bucks they they could have got way cheaper, but when you present them 10 sets of 12 name brand cloth napkins they want to take you to the matt on it....some of it is seriously baffling, but our adjuster dealt with most of it and we move into more or less of a review role which was a blessing when I was working 60+ hour weeks and my wife was growing her practice.
If you have any questions feel free to ask, happy to help.
People talk about lawyers being ambulance chasers but after a house fire I think the adjusters/clean up crews are probably worse. One guy was at our door at 7:30am when the fire was at 1am. Total slime ball, but he at least gave us the idea of the need for an adjuster to represent us. In total, we had four different people down our driveway by 10am all looking to earn a bid.
We took our time and used a company called Greenspan and it was well worth every bit of the 10% we paid them. The hours of time and stress was worth it, but they clearly got us more out of our claim and paid for themselves. State Farm was slow to move on everything and it's pretty clear they just try and drag everything out to slow payment (manage cash flow) and there's an added benefit of fatigue on the policy holder. The adjuster has an incentive to max out the claim.
Ultimately it took almost two years to finalize the claim all the way through construction. We filled nearly every bucket and sub bucket possible from code upgrades, to accessory building to landscaping funds. It's amazing on what they will try and fight you on. They didn't bat an eye at some faux birch sticks for a couple hundred bucks they they could have got way cheaper, but when you present them 10 sets of 12 name brand cloth napkins they want to take you to the matt on it....some of it is seriously baffling, but our adjuster dealt with most of it and we move into more or less of a review role which was a blessing when I was working 60+ hour weeks and my wife was growing her practice.
If you have any questions feel free to ask, happy to help.
