Texas is home to many kinds of severe weather. Hail is one that many residents do not think about often, yet these storms can cause damage that is not always obvious right away. Getting full compensation from your provider can be challenging unless you have help from our hail damage insurance claim lawyers.
At Burnett Law Firm, we have experience and training in how to get the fairest settlement from homeowners’ insurance carriers for hail damage claims. Our attorneys offer property owners a wide range of legal services to help them in the event of damage to a home or commercial property. Contact us for a free consultation to learn more about your options.
Hailstorm Damage and Recovering Your Losses
A hailstorm may pepper your property with stones as small as corn kernels or as large as softballs. They can cause extensive damage to your vehicles that is easily documented. For your home or other building, however, the effects of thousands of hailstones pounding on your roof, walls, and windows may be harder to see.
Hailstones often fall during strong thunderstorms and may only last a few minutes. However, they can cause extensive damage, leaving your gutters and shingles with dents and holes. Other kinds of damage a hailstorm can cause include:
- Roof damage
- Wind damage
- Water damage
- Structural damage
The strong winds in thunderstorms and natural disasters like hurricanes or tornadoes can blow off shingles or force rain and hail under the roof edging. Freestanding buildings, such as barns and garages, can suffer hailstorm damage that may leave policyholders with additional losses.
How You Can Recover Your Losses From Hailstorm Damage
Once the storm is over and the area is safe, you can start getting an idea of what needs repair. It is vital that you take some steps before you contact your insurance company so you are fully prepared to answer questions. These actions can also help you strengthen your claim so you are more likely to have it processed quickly:
- Check your insurance policy: Verify what your policy covers. If you are unable to find your policy, call the Texas Department of Insurance to locate contact information for your insurance company.
- Take pictures: Get photos and video of the damage. Take them from every angle, including using a drone camera, if possible.
- Make a list: Write down a list of everything that has been damaged or destroyed. It can be helpful to have someone taking notes while you walk around taking pictures.
- Keep everything that was damaged: Do not throw away anything until you speak to your insurance company and they say you can discard it.
- Make temporary repairs: Putting a tarp over roof holes or installing temporary fencing to avoid injury can be critical in ensuring your full claim is paid.
- Make time to accommodate the adjuster’s inspection: The faster the adjuster can assess the damage, the faster your claim will be processed. Arrange to be home so you can show them all the damaged areas.
- Save all receipts and quotes: Get quotes for more permanent repairs and keep all receipts for your temporary repair purchases, including supplies and labor.
- Keep a record of conversations: Write down every call with the insurance company and repair companies. Note the date, time, topic, costs, and anything else you can use to supplement your claim form.
- Ask about temporary living expenses: If you are forced to leave your home due to the damage from a hailstorm, ask your insurance company about covering your living expenses at a hotel or rental property. Hold on to all your receipts.
During this time, it is essential that you keep an accurate record of what happened and what was affected. Insurance companies are always on the lookout for fraudulent claims, and they are quick to question anything that seems unusual. They will deny your claim quickly if they think you are being dishonest.
To avoid this, get multiple repair quotes from different companies. Check the contractors out on the Better Business Bureau’s website to see if they have complaints against them. Do not pay for repairs until they are completed, and do not sign a contract with them that has blank spaces.
Understanding The Hail Insurance Claims Process
While you may have as long as one year to file a claim with your insurance carrier, you should begin working on it as soon as the weather clears. If the storm affected a large area, everyone will be filing hail damage insurance claims, and it will be difficult to get an insurance adjuster to your property. Likewise, repair companies will be overloaded by responding to multiple requests for work.
The process for hail insurance claims generally follows this pattern:
- You collect evidence of the damage.
- You get repair quotes from multiple contractors.
- The adjuster will visit and evaluate the damage, ideally with your selected contractor present.
- You will work with the adjuster and the contractor you choose to ensure they are verifying the building codes and other information before work begins.
- Your insurance company will send you a payment, which may not be the only one you receive.
- Your contractor will perform the repair work.
- You will receive any further payments from your insurer.
This process rarely goes as smoothly as you might want. Property damage claims often trigger an examination of your homeowners’ insurance policies. You may be at risk of a claim denial, higher premiums, or even cancellation of your coverage. Fighting back against unfair practices so you can get the payment you need to repair your home or office requires help from seasoned hail damage insurance attorneys.
How our Hail Damage Lawyers Can Help if An Insurance Provider Undervalued Your Claim
Insurance companies are focused on making a profit and pleasing their shareholders. They will use many excuses to push back against paying the full value of your claim. They also use the fact that you actually needed your insurance as a reason to punish you by increasing your premiums in the future. They are not interested in respecting and paying valid claims.
To fight back against these underhanded tactics, our hail damage attorneys can examine your case and represent you in an insurance dispute. The adjusters will delay responding to you, disagree on how much damage occurred, and insist on subpar materials to reduce your compensation. They might also say your damage is less than your deductible amount.
Actions like these can stray into bad faith territory. Insurance representatives rely on you being unfamiliar with your policy and insurance law to take advantage of you during a difficult time. Our attorneys will examine your policy details and build a robust case with substantial evidence to negotiate a fair settlement. We help you file a complaint about bad faith insurance actions.
When Should You File a Lawsuit Against Your Insurance Company?
When an insurance carrier fails to respond in time after you report your damage, you will benefit from getting an attorney involved. Insurance companies in Texas have 15 days to respond to you, providing the claim form and instructions for completing it. Without this, you cannot proceed in accordance with your policy requirements or the law.
Again, insurance companies are hoping you will not know any better than to take whatever payment they decide to offer. They want you to close the claim fast, so you cannot ask for more money later. When they have given you the runaround and still refuse to pay, your hail insurance attorneys can prepare the evidence and take it to court.
Bad faith actions are a primary reason to sue your insurance provider. In many cases, our lawyers can reach an out-of-court settlement after we take legal action because the insurance company does not want to waste time or money on a court case they might lose. They will often offer a better settlement when you bring a lawyer into the conversation because they know you mean business.
Contact the Hail Damage Insurance Lawyers at Burnett Law Firm
At Burnett Law Firm, our hail damage claim attorneys are focused on three things: experience, competence, and compassion. The attorney-client relationship is built on trust and skill, and we work to prove to you that we put your interests first. We have managed claims for hailstorms, hurricanes, tornadoes, and many other kinds of property damage.
We are ready to guide you through the claim process and reduce your worry about getting the compensation you need to rebuild. We are based in Houston and are ready to help clients across Texas. Contact us to schedule a free case review using our online form today.