Introduction

There are unfortunately a handful of risks for homeowners when a foundation leak earthquake hits. A slab leak is one of the most common but most hidden risks that can happen after a crisis such as an earthquake. Detecting the slab leak quickly and contacting an expert claims assistance is vital to your home, resulting in less risk of slab leak damage. 

What Is a Slab Leak?

To define, a slab leak is a water leak that lays beneath a concrete foundation which can be caused by corrosion, shifting soil, excessive water pressure and poor initial installation. Slab leaks hide in places that physically cannot be seen but there are many signs that can poorly affect homeowners such as mold growth, structural issues and heightened water bills.

How Earthquakes Cause Slab Leaks 

When earthquakes hit, depending on the magnitude, they can impact a home’s foundation and plumbing. The shifts of foundation that earthquakes cause can crack or even disconnect pipes. Homes that are older and have outdated plumbing are at much greater risk to slab leaks, especially when there is an earthquake. 

Warning Signs of a Slab Leak After an Earthquake

Some signs to look out for that reveal there may be a slab leak in your home vary from spikes in water bills to decrease water pressure. If there is presence of warm or wet spots on the floor, cracked tiles or buckled flooring, you may have a slab leak. Lastly a sign that you can literally hear is the sound of running water in your home when there are no taps running.

The Hidden Dangers of Untreated Slab Leaks

There are many dangers to untreated slab leaks that can hurt homeowners in the long run. Due to the potential growth of mold, foundation damage and structural weakening of your home, there is large potential for long-term property devaluation. 

Insurance Coverage – Are Slab Leaks from Earthquakes Covered?

Standard homeowners insurance does not typically cover the damage caused by slab leaks but they may be covered by a separate earthquake insurance policy. When there is a sudden leak, homeowners insurance may be able to cover if the damage is minimal and caught quickly. It is highly recommended to document any and all damage, collect receipts for hotels if you had to evacuate, get professional estimates of the damage and list the damaged property. It is important to act quickly to preserve your property.

How Property Claims Consultants Can Help

Through expert inspections and evaluations, Property Claim Consultants can assist you through the claim process and advocate for you to maximize insurance settlements. Contact Property Claims Consultants to give you peace of mind during this time of stress.

If you suspect a slab leak related to an earthquake, act fast and contact Property Claims Consultants. Don’t wait for the eventual damage to occur, instead save your property and your money with property Claims Consultants.

So your home was broken into, your flat screen TV, electronics, cash and all of your heirloom jewelry was stolen. Thanks to receipts and recent valuations of your jewelry, you know exactly what everything was worth. You submitted this in your insurance claim. Your insurance company seems to think that the value of your items is quite a bit lower. But you know, they’re your items, why should the insurance agent decide how much you receive for a loss of precious items?

You may leave this scenario feeling scammed, disappointed, and distrustful. 

Unfortunately, this scenario is all to common when it comes to filing insurance claims. Even being an excellent patron, paying premiums and staying safe, when disaster does strike, it may feel like your insurance turns its back on you with underpaid or denied claims. 

Let’s explore how to spot red flags, know your rights, and how and when to get help from a public adjuster.

 What “Being Scammed” by Your Insurer Actually Looks Like

Being aware of what is fair and what is not under your contract can help you quickly identify insurance scams that will leave you with insufficient funds to repair or replace your damaged or lost belongings. 

Claim delays with no clear explanation:

many insurance companies will advertise fast claim payouts to entice customers. While small claims may take just a few days to a few weeks, complex claims can take months, leaving the homeowner with damages and lacking proper payout to repair them. This delay, if unexplained, is often used to get homeowners to either give up on the claim or settle for less. They are hoping that you wont know that you have insurance rights with state protections and resources like public adjusters who can fight this injustice. 

Lowball settlements that don’t cover real costs:

As mentioned in the scenario above, lowball settlements can feel insulting to homeowners who lost valuable items or faced real damages. Insurance adjusters use serious lowballs to avoid high settlements, which ultimately cost the company money.

Denial for vague reasons or small technicalities:

Insurance companies will sometimes intenionally delay a claim so that somewhere along the way, you, the policyholder, will mess up and they can use the mistake as grounds for denying or reducing your payout. Creating stressful deadlines, complex requests and long processes, the insurance company hopes that the policyholder will get stress or frustrated causing a slip-up. 

Why Do Insurance Companies Do This?

Unfortunately, insurance companies make money by charging high premiums and offering low settlements. In fact, their algorithms and internal insurance adjusters are trained to minimize payouts to give policyholders as little as necessary, and sometimes even less!

How do you get around this? While an insurance adjuster may not be on your team, a public adjuster is. Licensed public adjusters like those at Property Claim Consultants work with policyholders to maximize claims and ensure fair payouts. 

How a Public Adjuster Protects You From Getting Burned

Public adjusters offer independent damage inspection along with full documentation. This allows us to hand the insurance and professional and expert report of what we are owed. Public adjusters like those at Property Claim Consultants also know the ins and outs of the insurance industry, the policy language, and common scams. 

Need help with a home insurance claim? Let Property Claims Consultant guide you through the process and ensure you receive the full payout you deserve. Contact us today for a free consultation!

Research has found that about 1 in 5 California residents live in areas prone to flooding, 66% in areas at high risk for earthquakes, and 10% in areas at high risk for wildfires. Despite this, LendingTree found that 10.5% of California homeowners lack homeowners insurance. What happens if disaster strikes and your home isn’t insured? More likely than not, if you aren’t prepared to pay for extensive damages out of pocket, you will lose your home. The simple solution? Homeowners insurance. Let’s dive into the details of homeowners’ insurance and how you can ensure that you are protected no matter what.  

What Is Home Insurance & Why Is It Important?

Home insurance falls under the umbrella of property insurance and it covers losses and damage to your home. It also protects belongings inside your home from theft or destruction. Home insurance policies generally cover interior and exterior damage, loss or damage to personal assets, and injury that arises while on the property. 

Home insurance helps homeowners protect themselves and their belongings from unexpected circumstances. This protection can save the homeowner thousands of dollars in home repairs and the cost of replacing lost belongings. Some of the most common types of disaster, the remediation of which relies on homeowners’ insurance, are water, fire, and smoke damage, often caused by natural disasters or home plumbing issues. 

While homeowners’ insurance is not legally required in the United States, many mortgage lenders require homeowners to have insurance coverage as a part of the loan terms. However, if you own your home outright, you are not required to have coverage. In this case, the money saved simply doesn’t outweigh the risk. 

What Home Insurance Covers & What It Doesn’t

It is essential to keep in mind that typical homeowners’ insurance policies offer coverage for some disasters, but not for others. Working with a trusted public adjuster can help you better understand your coverage and how to receive a fair and proper payout in the case of a disaster.

Covered Perils: Fire, theft, storm damage, vandalism, etc. 

Exclusions: Floods, earthquakes, neglect, and intentional damage

When to Hire a Public Adjuster for Home Insurance Claims

Unfortunately, even though homeowners’ insurance serves to protect homeowners from losing their homes or paying exuberant amounts out of pocket, insurance companies will oftentimes try to skirt these responsibilities to the detriment of the homeowner. Homeowners will end up being severely lowballed and have to pay tens of thousands out of pocket to repair their homes. This is where a public adjuster comes in. A public adjuster works with homeowners to fight insurance companies in order to receive proper settlements. Qualified public adjusters will asses the home’s damage, and submit an appeal with insurance, negotiating until they have reached a reasonable setllement payout. Property Claims Consultants is a trusted name on the West Coast for evaluating damage and adjusting public. 

Need help with a home insurance claim? Let Property Claims Consultant guide you through the process and ensure you receive the full payout you deserve. Contact us today for a free consultation!

Fire can utterly destroy your property, leaving nothing but carnage and ash behind. If your home does survive a wildfire or housefire, it is unlikely you have made it completely out of the woods. The heat produced by the flames radiated and caused items around the fire to burn, crack or shatter, not to mention the smoke and ash generated by burning vegetation and surrounding homes creating large volumes of smoke and ash.
Homes and businesses have been ruined not just by the fire itself but also by the smoke that permeated everything in its vicinity.
After experiencing smoke in your home, is it important to contact your insurance to file a claim and to contact a smoke damage restoration specialist. Let’s take a closer look at what smoke damage is, how it enters the home, what it affects, and what to do when you experience smoke damage.

Understanding Smoke Damage

Smoke enters your home through open windows, doors, cracks and gaps around windows, HVAC units, bathroom fans, and small openings in the building structure. Even if all of your windows are closed, smoke particles can still seep through and infiltrate your home.

Smoke damage refers to physical damage to a building caused not by fire, but by smoke. Smoke contains several different types of acids, the makeup of which is determined by the fire. For the most part, this smoke will contain carbon and sulfur. Depending on both the kind of smoke and the kind of metals you have around your house, the smoke can tarnish or even erode metals in and around your home, including destroying door handles, hinges, pipes, appliances and more. With the erosion of necessary elements like pipes, your home may, in turn face water damage.

Aside from destroying metals, smoke also embeds itself in any porous material in your home, effectively discoloring and ruining it. This includes hardwood floors, countertops, tiles, and walls. The acidic properties we talked about earlier are also known to shred paint and wallpaper.

The effects of fire smoke are widespread and virtually permanent. Smoke damage in your home isn’t prevented just by removing smoke from your home; it takes professional services to do a full home cleaning and smoke removal to ensure your home is safe.

What Items in Your Home Are Most Affected by Smoke Damage?

Unfortunately, smoke ruins nearly everything in its path, including your furniture, electronics, appliances, clothing, upholstery, documents, and artwork.

Carpets: Carpets and rugs made of synthetic fabric may be permanently stained in just a few days. Cleaning must be done before the damage is permanent.
Furniture & Upholstery: Smoke particles embed into fabric, causing discoloration and odor. It is important to use specific cleaning agents that will remove smoke debris and residue without damaging the fabric.

Electronics & Appliances: Smoke residue corrodes internal components and affects performance. Since the smoke can easily infiltrate the inner workings of your electronics, the electrical components can be damaged quite easily.

Clothing & Fabrics: Absorbs smoke odor and may require specialized cleaning. Throwing you clothing into the washer may just spread or set the soot rather than remove it.

Can You Clean Smoke-Damaged Items, or Should You Replace Them?

The process of cleaning up smoke damage should start immediately after your home is effect. In just a few minutes, the health of your belongings and home is already affected, and in days, irreparable damage will be caused. The best thing to do is to call in the experts. Unfortunately, things will be irreparably damaged by the smoke. It is important to have experienced public adjusters on your side who can adequately assess and document the damage, file your claim and dispute unfair payouts.  

Does Homeowners Insurance Cover Smoke Damage?

Typically, homeowners insurance covers costs to repair or rebuild your home, the cost to replace your belongings and extra expenses while you are unable to live in your home. However, insurance companies usually do not like to pay for thorough inspections and are stingy with their coverage. Not to mention, there are often damages unbeknownst to the homeowner and insurance company that are not visible to the naked eye. Because of this, homeowners should always hire a professional restoration company and a trusted public adjuster. Property Claims Consultants help residents of Southern California file claims, assess damages, rebuild homes and get fair settlements. Working directly with the homeowner, we are on your side throughout the entire process. Contact us to start rebuilding your home and your life following fire or smoke damage. 

California wildfires are known for being some of the most expansive, dangerous, and decimating natural disasters in the country. Over the last five years, the United States has experienced 344 significant fires that have caused billions of dollars in damage. California has the most wildfire damage in the country.
As the smoke clears in Los Angeles and residents are taking note of what has been lost to the fire, many are returning home to charred belongings and flattened homes. The swift and sudden nature of these disasters mean that many homeowners don’t have much time to gather their belongings, take note of their possessions and leave their homes.
Homeowners are facing huge emotional and financial tolls as they attempt to pick of the pieces of a life burnt to the ground. In the midst of the recovery and grieving, homeowners are simultaneously having to navigate complex insurance claims.
Property Claims Consultant helps residents of Southern California, namely San Diego County and Los Angeles County, receive high settlement claims after they face home damage like fire, flood and earthquakes.

Immediate Steps After a House Fire

Before thinking about insurance claims, first ensure yourself, your family and your pets are safe and out of the way of the fire.

1.Ensure Safety

• • Your city will alert you if your are in an area at risk of succumbing to the fire and will order an evacuation. It is important to obey the order promptly, gathering things of high importance that can be moved easily. Evacuate your home to safe location away from the fire. Many relief organizations provide lists of places that offer sanctuary to those affected.

2. Document the Damage

• • After you are permitted to return to your area, document the damage thoroughly with pictures and videos. Compile a list of what was lost to the fire.

3. Reach out to Insurance and a Claims Consultant

1. • Reach out to your home insurance to file a claim. If you are at all skeptical about the claims process, hiring a claims consultant can help streamline your process and win you the highest available settlement so that you can fully restore your home and replace your belongings.

 Common Challenges in Fire Restoration Claims

Unfortunately, the struggle doesn’t stop after the fire has subsided. The next battle is with your insurance company. Often times and unfortunately, large insurance providers will lowball your settlement estimates so that they won’t have to pay as much for repairs and rebuilds. This is particularly harmful after a homeowner or renter is in a time of grief following a property disaster. Public Adjusters fight for the rights of the homeowners against insurance providers to help homeowners get fair compensation for damages. 

Undervaluation of Property Loss

Insurance companies can undervalue home damage claims by using tactics like: delaying the claims process, disputing the severity of the damage, attributing damage to pre-existing issues, using low-ball settlement offers, misinterpreting policy language, and relying heavily on their own inspections while downplaying evidence provided by the policyholder; essentially trying to minimize their payout by finding reasons to reduce the estimated repair costs.

Delays in Claim Processing

Insurance companies can delay the claims process by requesting unnecessary documentation, failing to conduct timely investigations, assigning new claims adjusters frequently, asking for information in increments, stalling investigations, and generally creating bureaucratic hurdles to make it difficult for claimants to navigate the process. This is usually done in efforts to deter the homeowner from continuing to pursue the claim further.

Disputes Over Coverage

Insurance companies dispute coverage to deny a claim by citing specific exclusions or limitations within the policy language, arguing that the situation presented by the insured falls outside the scope of covered events, often pointing to factors like pre-existing conditions, lack of proper documentation, or claiming the incident was not “accidental” as defined in the policy.

 How Property Claims Consultant Can Help With Fire Damage Insurance Claims

The Property Claims Consultant team is well-versed in insurance law, policy jargon, and disputing settlements for our clients. With millions of dollars won back from our customers, placing your damage in the hands of the Property Claims Consultant means securing the future of your home, a smooth rebuild, and a restoration of your belongings. We understand how devastating fires can be, and how difficult it can be to piece your life back together after a wildfire. We are here to offer fire insurance claim assistance for residents of Los Angeles County. Contact us today to start rebuilding your life.