I am in South Florida so we have minimum damages other then debris.
But I would like to share my experiences to those who suffered some damages and are thinking about calling the insurance companies. This may or may not play out to your advantage.
I own a number of properties and after each storm like Wilma, Michael and Irma suffered damages.
One year I had a tree branch come down from 40' above and punched through the roof and you can see the branch sticking down into the ceiling. Flooded the space below. Same property had half the fence collapsed, two more trees came down on the driveway tore up the retaining wall around the tree bed. Lots of debris and landscape damages.
So I called the insurance company. I was like caller #244. LOL, estimated wait time INFINITY. Waited two more days and scheduled an adjustor to come out.
Now depends on your policy you need to make sure you call the right company. If you have company A for homeowners, company B for windstorm, and company C for flood, you need to know what is the cause of the damages to call the right company. Don't call homeowners insurance if you have a roof blown off. That's windstorm. If water rose up and came into the house, it's flood insurance.
Secondly, know your deductible. Many homes have the standard 5% deductible for primary structures. So if your home is valued at 500K, 5% of that is 25K. You are responsible for 25K! So if your damages are less than 25K calling them is a bad deal, it's a waste of time and will only get your rate jacked up next year.
Thirdly, debris cleaning, tree cutting, hauling off a bunch of 500 pound tree limbs are not covered. Collapsed retaining walls, broken and down fences, standalone sheds are most likely not covered due to them not being "primary structures".
So with a lot of damages and debris all around and a 25K deductible, the adjuster calculates your covered damages and tells you it's 17K and you have to pay for all of it and he leaves and you pay for all the expenses.
This is not the end. A month later the insurance carrier calls and wants to come to do an inspection, why? You didn't pay a dime of it! Well sir, we need to make sure you fixed it properly and need to see permit papers contractor invoices etc...Why? Because many people choose to NOT make repairs or to make improper repairs, so you have a 17K damage on your roof, if you don't fix it the next storm comes around and do a 12K damage, then the next adjuster, not knowing you have a pre-existing situation will end up with a 29K estimate, requiring us to pay $4000 since it's above the deductible. So we need to make sure the damages are repaired, or we will have to cancel you.
...and since you filed a claim, and even we didn't pay you, you are now in a higher risk class, so we have to raise your rate by 30%, on top of the 32% we are raising everyone already...have a good day Sir.
So review your policy and read the fine print before you call. In addition, if you call an insurance company and file a claim, your repairs most likely need to be documented, so think twice before hiring an unlicensed contractor or pay cash to a lower bidder.
