Melbourne Fire Damage Claims Adjuster

Fires represent a truly devastating occurrence for your home or office. Not only do they have the potential to engulf your entire structure in flames, but they also unleash a wave of smoke, scorching heat, and grimy soot that can result in serious damage to the building.

Even a fire contained in one room or area can affect other areas through secondary causes like smoke damage or water damage from the sprinkler system. Finally, your HVAC, electrical systems, and appliances are highly susceptible to damage and may necessitate repairs or replacement.

As a property owner, you invest in homeowner’s or business insurance, so you won’t have to bear the burden of paying for fire damage yourself. However, you might find the claims process more challenging than expected, and in some cases, your claim could be denied or undervalued.

These situations can be confusing, frustrating, and the last thing you need when trying to pick up the pieces after a fire. Fortunately, you do have options.

Seek Help From a Melbourne Smoke Damage Claims Adjuster

You are not limited to pursuing an inspection and insurance policy review from your insurance company’s claims adjuster. In fact, you can engage the help of a public claims adjuster to inspect the damage, create an estimate, and review your insurance policy.

Our highly trained public adjusters will also take pictures of the damage and review your claim to ensure it’s correctly documented.

Why Should You Hire Your Own Claims Adjuster?

When you hire a public claims adjuster, they will focus on helping you address your damage with high-quality repairs or a complete replacement if necessary. Instead of trying to save the insurance company money, they will seriously consider what the best options are for fixing your property.

If you would be better off replacing a washing machine than making minor repairs to the electrical system, your public adjuster will recognize that and recommend the best solution. An insurance company adjuster may only offer to pay for the least expensive repair, even if it means you may have future problems with the appliance.

A fire damage claims adjuster will also help you photograph and otherwise document your damage and how it occurred. Insurance company adjusters often reject claims because it isn’t clear that the damage was caused by a covered incident (in this case, a fire) but without telling you what kind of documentation they would need.

Your public adjuster knows how to provide evidence showing the way in which the fire caused your damage, reducing the chances that the insurance company will reject your claim. We can also help resubmit your claim with additional evidence if the insurance company already rejected it.

What Should You Do to Prepare Your Fire Damage Insurance Claim?

We know that dealing with a fire can be stressful, and it may be hard to think clearly at first, but the steps you take after dealing with the immediate issues can make it easier or harder to successfully file an insurance claim. Here are some tips to remember after a fire:

• Follow the fire department’s instructions—if they tell you to stay out of the structure because it’s unsafe, stay out of the structure.
• Once the fire department has cleared the scene and you’re allowed to go in, you should still wait before touching or moving anything. Take photos and video of the damage from all angles. If you need to move something, set it aside but don’t dispose of it yet—it may be evidence for your claim.
• Make an itemized list of all damaged pieces for your insurance claim, then double-check to be sure you have pictures of everything on the list.
• Secure the property. You don’t want vandals or neighborhood kids taking items or moving things around. The best solution is a professional security service, but if that’s not in the budget, you can board up the windows and doors yourself with supplies from a local hardware store.
• While you shouldn’t stay in an unsafe home, driving by the property to check on it regularly is a good idea. If that isn’t feasible, you can set up cameras to keep an eye on things.
• Look over your homeowner’s insurance policy to see if it will cover your hotel or storage bills—some policies do, but they may have restrictions on what they will cover or how much they will pay.
• Be sure to get receipts for all your expenses and save them somewhere safe—you’ll need them to seek reimbursement from the insurance company.

My Homeowner’s Insurance Should Cover Fire Damage, Right?

In most cases, yes, homeowner’s insurance covers fire damage. There are, however, a number of qualifications in any policy.

Your fire damage claims adjuster will review the details of your policy and answer any questions you have, but in general, here are some things to keep in mind:

• You may not be covered if the insurance company believes the fire was caused by your negligence. For example, leaving candles burning unattended or putting a space heater right next to your curtains could be considered negligent. However, sometimes we meet people who follow fire safety precautions, but the insurance adjuster believes they were negligent anyway. In these situations, we will help you supply the insurance company with evidence of how the fire started and why it wasn’t due to negligence.
• Homeowner’s insurance typically doesn’t cover arson, even if the fire was intentionally set by someone other than the homeowner. But if the police identify the arsonist, you might be able to file a civil claim against them for damages.
• Sometimes, the insurance company adjuster will agree to pay for your damage—but only some of it. They may question whether secondary damage to an appliance or HVAC system was really caused by the fire, for example, so they might offer to pay for structural damage but not your wrecked refrigerator. Or, the adjuster could fail to see the connection between your sprinkler system putting out the fire and the mold that bloomed on the carpet a week later. In these situations, your fire damage claims adjuster will assist you in documenting what caused each type of damage to strengthen your claim.
• Your coverage is subject to your policy limit. If you were on a budget when buying insurance, it’s possible your policy limit is less than your actual damages.

Does Renter’s Insurance Cover Fire Damage?

Unlike a homeowner’s insurance policy, renter’s insurance is not meant to protect the property owner but the tenant. Presumably, the landlord has their own commercial insurance that covers fires and a variety of other damages.

For this reason, renter’s insurance won’t cover damage to the structure itself or features like counters, floors, carpets, etc.

However, renter’s insurance should cover damage to the items that you brought into the property, such as furniture, appliances, electronics, and more. Again, you will need to show that the fire directly caused the damage.

Another thing to know about renter’s insurance is that it often includes liability coverage. If the fire started due to your negligence, it’s possible your landlord might pursue a claim against you for damage to the structure (which is not covered by your renter’s insurance and may not be covered by the landlord’s insurance).

But your liability policy would cover your liability for damages you unintentionally but negligently caused to the property—or to other people who were injured in the fire. If you’re being sued for negligence following a fire, it’s a good idea to speak with a lawyer before you make any decisions.

What Kind of Insurance Will Cover a Fire At Your Business?

Insurance is one of many necessary expenditures involved in running a business. There are three types of insurance you might consider:

• Commercial property insurance covers several kinds of physical damage to the property, including fires, vandalism, some types of weather events, and more. Each policy may differ in the exact events that are covered, and your public adjuster will review the details. 
• General liability insurance covers personal injuries or property damage that other people sustain on your property. For instance, if your restaurant catches on fire and some of your customers are burned or suffer smoke inhalation, your liability policy should cover their damages.
• A business owner’s policy or BOP combines the previous two types of insurance in one policy, but this option is not available for all businesses, so you may need to buy two separate policies.

How Can You Get Help From a Fire or Smoke Damage Claims Adjuster?

Please contact Pinnacle Claim Services for a free damage inspection and insurance policy review. Call us today at (321) 384-9379.

Our adjusters are local and ready to respond promptly. They are also highly trained and constantly continue their education in insurance and fire and smoke damage detection.

We can help you with reviewing your claim, accurately assessing your damage, and negotiating the largest payment possible. If the fire has impacted your finances and you’re concerned about upfront costs, please remember that you won’t owe us anything until we successfully settle your claim.