Melbourne Condominium and HOA Claims Adjuster

Beautiful Melbourne, Florida, is a popular destination for beach lovers, families, retirees, and those seeking employment in the tech sector. Thanks to its location right near the Kennedy Space Center, the city is home to more high-tech businesses than anywhere else in the state!

Condos are a great way to live or vacation in the city; they often provide enviable locations, stunning views, and reduced costs of ownership. At the same time, both condo unit owners and condo associations face risks from ever-present threats like severe storms, fires, wind, and more.

Filing a claim for damages after an unfortunate event can be more difficult than it seems. Insurers are becoming increasingly stringent — and stingy — on the types of coverage available to condominium buildings and their overall willingness to honor claims.

The adjusters they hire can be quick to discount the costs of damages or to rule it as the result of an uncovered event. That’s where Pinnacle Claims Services can come in; we represent both individual unit owners as well as condo owners’ associations and HOAs during the claims and recovery process.

You receive your own independent opinion and also gain an advocate who can help you accurately document damages and submit a claim seeking the highest amount possible. 
Schedule an appointment to discuss your possible claim and receive a damages inspection, policy review, and claims review from a seasoned professional. Reach out to a Melbourne condominium, and HOA claims adjuster near you today when you call 954-466-2954 or contact us online.

Why You Can Benefit From Our Melbourne Condo and HOA Claims Adjuster Services

Living in a condominium building or other joined complex governed by a single owners’ corporation has its range of perks — but it also introduces complications. HOAs will often have difficulty parsing through the types of coverage they have available, and they may end up needing to file separate claims depending on the parts of the building that were affected and how they were damaged.

Add individual unit policies to the mix, and things can get confusing fast. Many HOA representatives will get quickly overwhelmed when facing a large claim.

Worse, they have their own homes — and property values — to think of in the aftermath of a storm or other tragic event.

Insurance companies hire their own adjusters to assess the damages and apply their findings to the letter of the policy, determining the ultimate amount of benefits for which your claim qualifies. A public adjuster does the same thing, but with one key catch: they represent you, not the insurance company.

While insurers are apt to limit their exposure to risk and deny benefits as much as they can, public adjusters are licensed by the state of Florida to perform an independent assessment. By calling Pinnacle Claims Services, we can provide you with a condominium and HOA insurance claims adjuster to stand by your side and fight for the true value of repairs needed to bring your building back to its original state.

Our condo and HOA claims adjuster services can include the following:

• A damages inspection, along with a full assessment of cause and an accurate estimate for repairs
• An in-depth policy review, helping you understand what coverage is available, what exemptions exist, and what areas you should be prioritizing in order to maximize the value of your claim
• A full claims review, going through any documentation you may have completed and helping you fill in the rest, using the documentation and level of detail needed to help insurers understand the true extent of losses
• Assistance with claims preparation, submission, processing, and negotiation, including serving as your expert witness should you end up appealing your claim or resorting to litigation
• Help with choosing the right coverage for future needs, reducing your exposure to risk while fitting the financial goals of the owners’ association as a whole

HO-6 vs Master Policy: What’s the Difference?

One majorly confusing aspect of condominium claims is that every condo owner, in effect, has two main policies protecting them.

An HO-6 policy acts nearly identically to a homeowner’s insurance policy, protecting individual unit owners from damages. These damages can include those that affect the entire building, such as a bad hail storm, as well as those that affect just one unit, such as an appliance leak.

A master policy covers the building itself, including common areas and vital components of the building’s infrastructure. Every condo owner pools their money together to pay for the premiums of this policy, as it is designed to protect them from the costs of damages that affect common-use areas and the very structure of the building itself.

Types of Masters Policies for Condominium and HOA Insurance

There are several main types of master policy available. HOAs will need to review their options, what is covered, the history of the building’s repairs, and their overall appetite for risk vs premium costs when weighing which ones to choose.

When filing a claim, the type of policy you have will greatly affect what parts of the building are covered — and by how much.

The main types of master policies include:

• Bare wall coverage covers all common areas; all shared exterior building components (including roofing), plumbing, wiring, and other building infrastructure between the walls, and the unfinished drywall of the individual units themselves. It does not cover any fixtures, belongings, or other personal property of the individual unit owners.
• Single entity coverage applies to everything listed in bare walls coverage, with the addition of coverage for permanent fixtures within the individual units. These can include counters, cabinetry, built-in shelving, flooring, and other finished but immovable aspects of the unit. However, these policies often only cover original fixtures while excluding any additions or improvements done by the unit owner.
• All-in coverage covers every single component of the condo building, including all structural components of the units and any additions, improvement, or customization work done to individual units.

More coverage means more benefits and an easier claims process, for the most part, compared to splitting claims between the master policy and multiple HO-6 policies. At the same time, it dramatically increases the costs of premiums, which may not gel with the financial interests of everyone in the association.

Interpreting the coverage you have after a disaster is critical for knowing how to structure your claim and what benefits to ask for. Pinnacle Claims Services will help you understand your policy, and we can even provide guidance to individual unit owners at the same time with their HO-6 claims.

What Is Included in Condo Owner’s Insurance?

Every owner of a condo unit should purchase a separate HO-6 policy. Even if an “all-in” master policy genuinely covers every aspect of the unit, it may not cover personal effects or liability for injuries that occur within the unit itself.

Condo owners should review their policies periodically, especially after a major storm or other disaster event. Common components of HO-6 coverage to look for include:

• Dwelling coverage — Covers the unit itself, including appliances, fixtures, built-ins, finishing materials, and aspects like counters.
• Personal property coverage — Covers most furniture, electronics, jewelry, and other valued personal effects.
• Loss of use coverage — Compensates claimants for additional expenses incurred after an event because they are unable to return to the unit, such as temporary housing or even meals.
• Liability coverage — Pays for medical care to a visitor in the event of an accident occurring within the unit.
• Loss assessment coverage — When there is particularly expensive damage covered by the master policy, it may end up exceeding the available coverage or triggering a sizable deductible. Condo associations may charge an assessment fee in this case. Loss assessment coverage may be available to help individual unit owners cover these costs through their policy instead of paying out-of-pocket.

How Do I Know What Is Covered When My Condo Is Damaged?

The coverage available after a fire, storm, pipe burst, or other event depends on the nature of the event, what was affected, and how the damage occurred.

A master policy will cover the roofing, siding materials, and most of the structural material of the building itself. It will also cover stairwells, elevators, entrances, walkways, and common rooms or porches that aren’t under the ownership of any single individual.

An HO-6 policy covers damages to the interior of the unit and its contents. While some all-in policies can help reduce the coverage needed for counters and other fixtures, the unit owner will need to file their own claim when their unit is flooded or when damage occurs to their personal property.

In some cases, damage is caused not by a natural disaster but instead by a negligent owner of another unit. Since water travels through walls and seeps into ceilings from above, water damage is a common source of disputed fault.

When the owner of an individual unit is deemed at fault, his HO-6 policy may cover damage to the other units, and a master policy claim will likely be needed since the damage is now affecting the interior infrastructure of the building itself.

As one can see, these situations can get extremely confusing fast. It helps to have an experienced Melbourne public adjuster available to review policy, determine coverage, assess damages, and help explain how these situations typically play out from both the perspective of the claimant and the insurer.

Work With a Trusted Melbourne Condominium and HOA Insurance Claims Adjuster Team

Insuring condo buildings is getting more expensive as carriers’ appetite for risk changes. Owners’ associations and individual unit owners will often have to fight tooth and nail to avoid a rejection of their claim or a dramatic reduction in their coverage.

Let Pinnacle Claims Services join you in the fight. Our professional knowledge or commercial claims in Melbourne can help you see clearly what coverage is available, and our thorough approach to documenting damages can reduce the risk of paying for unexpected costs out-of-pocket after the claim is settled.
Learn more about your rights as a policyholder and how to get more from your claim when you call 954-466-2954 or contact us online to schedule a consultation, damages inspection, and policy review today!