Impacted by the Recent Storms in Eastern Kentucky? Here’s What To Do

If you live in Eastern Kentucky, you may have been impacted by the tornadoes that hit this weekend. The purpose of this video is to tell you a few things you need to do if you’ve got tornado or wind or storm damage to your house to make sure that your homeowner’s insurance is going to cover. First of all, you’ve got a duty to report the damage to the insurance company as soon as possible. Now, if your house was actually hit by a tornado, that damage is going to be obvious. You know it’s there. go ahead and call it in. But if you just got some wind damage or some storm damage that may have damaged, say the the shingles on your roof, but it’s not obvious from the ground, you still have a duty to report that. If you wait 3 to 6 months and then you go up and look at it, the insurance company could deny because it wasn’t timely reported. So, even if you’re not sure if you have any damage, get up on a ladder, check out the roof of your house, see what’s there, take pictures of it, and send it in.

Another thing about the reporting is there are a lot of people making claims right now, you want to make sure that you’re closer to the front of the line than the back of the line. So even if you’re in dire straits and you’re worried about your basic necessities, like food and water, this is shelter. This is one of your basic necessities, too. Take the time to make the phone call and put the claim into the insurance company so you can be closer to the front of the line than the back of the line.

Two, you’ve got a duty to cooperate with the insurance company. That means a couple of things. One is they’re going to want to interview you. We all know that 99% of the people in your community are good and honest and they’re going to make a fair claim to the insurance company, but there’s always that 1% that wants to defraud the insurance company and they’re on the lookout for that. So, they want you to prove what you’re saying to them, even if it’s obvious to you from where you’re standing. Make sure you talk to them. Give them the interview that they want. This is your insurance company, not somebody else’s, so it’s okay to do that. And two, give them all the documentation they want. You want to take pictures of the damage. You want to sit down and make a list of all the items in your house that were damaged. If you can’t get to your house right now, sit down with your family and start doing a mental map of all the rooms in the house and where the furniture is. You’d be surprised what you can forget that you own because you take it for granted when it sits off in a corner somewhere and it’s not something you use very often. When you’re making these lists, don’t embellish anything. You don’t want to say you’ve got gold bars in the basement or the Mona Lisa in your attic or something like that. That can cause your entire claim to get denied. You have to give them the honest goods through and through.

Also, you need to write down the approximate price that you bought these things for and what you think they might be worth now. Now, there be as close as you can, but it’s okay if you don’t get it exactly right. The insurance company knows you don’t have a bunch of receipts lying around where you can figure out how much your couch cost when you bought it. Your insurance policy should cover not only the exterior of the building, but also the interior contents. and make sure that you put the damage to each of them in separate lists because they’re separate parts of the insurance policy that can be covered. Third, your insurance company has a duty to pay for the cost of living while you have to relocate.

So, if you’ve been moved to say a hotel and you’re paying the cost of the hotel, make sure you keep all those receipts and send those in as part of the claim as well. If there are other costs like uh maybe it’s more difficult to travel to work, you’ve got more gas, more mileage, something like that. Document the change in the mileage from where you your home is when you live there and where you are now. Save those gas receipts. Send those in. You want all those things to be a part of your claim because your homeowner’s insurance is going to cover each little thing that has to do with the damage, the repair of the damage, and the hardship on your life while you’re repairing that damage.

Three, you’ve got to understand that the insurance company is getting delouched with claims right now and they have to investigate each one of them. And so, it is going to be considered reasonable for them to take a little time to respond to you. How much time? First, they should have a response that they that acknowledges they’ve seen the claim very quickly.

They should be able to acknowledge it in less than a week. They should be able to have an agent reach out to you in less than 30 days. Now, how long does it take to get the repairs done? So, that depends on where you are in that line of claims for people that have called in. And it’s going to depend on how significant the damage is and what kind of contractors are around. When people call our office alleging that the insurance company is acting in bad faith, a lot of the time we ask them, “Has it been less than 90 days and have they been communicating with you?” If it’s less than 90 days and they’re communicating with you, we tell you to wait it out.

When you hire a lawyer for a first party insurance claim, like against your homeowner’s insurance for storm damage, we don’t charge you out of pocket, but we do charge a percentage of the total amount that’s recovered. And we want to make sure that you take a shot at having the insurance company pay you so that you get to keep all of it and put it toward the repair of your home instead of having us come in too early and then we wind up taking a part of it and it’s that much less that you have to repair your house or replace your belongings. So I would say if they’re communicating with you and it’s been less than 90 days, give them a chance to get those repairs done before you call an attorney. Now, if none of that is working out, they’re not communicating with you, they haven’t gotten anyone out there to repair or assess the damage, uh they’re denying your claim outright, sending you letters saying they’re not going to cover certain things, that’s when you call a lawyer. If you’ve got any questions about anything, we do free consultations. You can call the number below or email us at the email address below and we’ll be happy to talk to you about your claim and see if there’s something more you should be doing. Good luck.