Property Damage Insurance Claims

Texas Insurance Bad Faith

Texas won’t put up with insurance companies’ bad faith towards their own customers. The Texas Insurance Code establishes defines “unfair settlement practices,” or insurance bad faith, as:

• ​Misrepresenting to an insured customer a material fact or coverage policy provision;
• Conditioning payment of one chunk of a claim until the entire claim is resolved;
• Failing within 15 days of receipt of claim to:
  • Acknowledge receipt of the claim;
  • Commence any investigation of the claim; and
  • Request from the policy holder everything the insurance company then believes will be required of the claimant.
• Conditioning payment of one chunk of a claim until the policy holder’s agreement to drop other portions of the claim;
• Trying to enforce a final release of a claim from an insured customer when the insurance company only made a partial payment;
• Failing to timely:
  • Accept or deny coverage of a claim to a policyholder; or
  • Submit a reservation of rights to a policyholder;
• Failing to give a policyholder a reasonable explanation for their denial of a claim or for the offer of a compromise settlement of a claim;
• Refusing, failing or delaying a settlement offer because other coverage may be available or that third parties are responsible for the lossess;
• Failing to attempt in good faith to bring about a prompt, and fair settlement of a claim;
• Refusing to pay a claim without conducting a reasonable investigation of the claim;
• Forcing a policyholder to file suit to recover an amount due under a policy by offering substantially less than the amount ultimately recovered in a suit brought by the policyholder;

Remember: your insurance policy is a contract. If your insurance company is not abiding by it, they are in breach of that contract. Their breach can be held to be bad faith and in violation of their duties to you — their client.

Texas law allowed for full compensation of your loss, plus attorney fees and costs, and often even a punitive damage award. Recent legislative changes have diminished these remedies to some extent on some specific property-damage claims.

The law is on your side. Your insurance company often is not. Do not trust them blindly.

Understand Your Policies and Coverage

The starting point should be learning what policies you have that may “cover” any damages to your property. Do you only have a dwelling-based policy? Do you have a separate policy for wind-damage, perhaps through the Texas Windstorm Insurance Program? Do you also have a National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) backed policy through one of the carriers to protect against flooding? Report a claim to ever carrier under each policy that may apply.

Then find out how much coverage you might have and for what. You may have coverage for “living expense” to pay for lodging while your home is repaired. If your business was damaged, you may have coverage for lost revenue. Can you get a rental car? And for the purpose of repairs, you and your contractor must know how much is allotted to rebuild and repair.

If you have an agent, call them up. Or call the carrier itself to speak with a representative. Either way, read the policy! There is no substitute for educating yourself.

With this information, you can then do your best to maximize the total in your own pocket.

Report the Claim and Meet All Deadlines

Waste no time. Report the Claim ASAP to any carrier whose policy may cover the damage your property sustained. Many policies have strict timelines to report and for good reason. The carrier might wish to dispatch its adjuster to assess the damage while it is still fresh, or before secondary damage occurs (e.g. You do not need to wait to report a claim until you have all of the information. The claim can always be supplemented later with photos, reports, and an estimate for repair from your preferred contractors.

Then figure out all other deadlines that your policy might impose. Calendar them and never miss one. You do not want to give your carrier an excuse to reject your claim and blame you for it.

 Inventory Damaged/Destroyed Contents

​Your immediate impulse might be to throw out all of your ruined furniture onto the curb. But first, please inventory EVERY item that is destroyed. This is critical to later making your claim for reimbursement for each of these items. Pictures are good. A list with pictures is better.

You may then throw it all out. With adequate documentation of what was lost, a carrier or a future adjuster cannot demand or expect for a property-owner to save the damaged content. Similarly, a property owner need not have evidence of the original purchase.

Keep a Record of All Communications and Actions

Make sure that all your communications with the insurance company & contractors is IN WRITING. If you speak over the phone or  meet with either, send a polite email after restating the important decisions, topics covered, or plans made.

Just as importantly, keep a journal/diary of all events, dates, actions, costs, decisions, etc. that occur. Write down notes alongside each of these events that will serve as a log of what occurred. This will be critical for multiple reasons, not least of which to help you stay organized. Should there ever be litigation later on in the process, this will make your lawyer’s job that much easier.

Find Yourself a Contractor and Perhaps Your Own Adjuster

It is critical that you find and work well with a contractor(s) that you trust. Ask for a referral. Check out Angie’s List or the Better Business Bureau. Ask for previous-customer references or even to see prior work. Your contractor will rebuild your home. You must be able to work with them as best as possible.

Similarly, there are private adjusters that will work for the property-owner rather than for the insurance companies. These are professionals that often have extensive experience working for the big carriers. They know the lingo and the factors necessary to help you maximize your claim. And they often can help process the claim far more efficiently than the actual policy owner. You must weigh out their cost (often a contingency fee of any money recovered) and what you hope to achieve from their involvement before committing.

Meeting the Adjuster

The adjuster can be your best friend, or biggest impediment to maximizing your claim. Some adjusters have all the experience in the industry, and will do you justice. Others have never held a hammer, but instead attended three days’ worth of a crash-course education. Yet, despite their zero experience in construction or even simple home maintenance, they are tasked with assessing the wide array of damage done to your property.

​It is best to have your contractor there for the adjuster’s inspection. The hope is to assure that the adjuster sees the same damage as your contractor and concludes that your contractor’s list of recommended repairs (and price tag to do so) is accurate. If the adjuster reports to your carrier the same repairs recommended by your contractor, you’re doing great.

There may be more than one adjuster from the different carriers. And there may be a different one to assess your loss of contents.

After the Meeting

 Follow Up! Follow Up! Follow Up!

Do Not Jump to Hire an Attorney