by treskew36 » Thu Apr 01, 2010 06:46 pm
I have property lien on house/land, as I am the owner/financer to the buyer. The buyer carried the insurance with Foremost. The buyer has had a total loss fire. Insurance is aware I am the lien holder. Ins Claims Adjustor has spent 2 months assurnig me and my atty that I would be paid for my portion of the loss. Now the Claim Adjustor says he was going to pay after he recieved my Hold Harmless Agreement but has now been told by his people not to pay until investigation is completed. Local Law Enf. says fire is undetermined. What are my legal rights? Is this bad faith? Fire was Feb 4.
Posted: Fri Apr 02, 2010 02:11 am Post Subject:
Bad Faith is _big_ legal situation... as such, really only a judge could determine this.
I'd say you don't have a very good case... right now. The insurance company has every right to investigate but they also need a valid reason for continuing to do so. Have you asked them what other information they are waiting for? If they can't tell you or won't tell you, file a complaint with your states Dept of Ins so that they can investigate. The DOI is there to make sure an carrier is not acting in bad faith.
Posted: Fri Apr 02, 2010 03:28 am Post Subject:
I agree with T. I don't know why the adjuster would make any promises until the investigation was finished. Nobody gets paid until I'm done. I don't see this as a bad faith, just poor judgement on the adjuster's part.
Local Law Enf. says fire is undetermined
It's been my experiance on occasion, that they are wrong and quick to wrap a case. Was there an engineer hired for the investigation? Have you seen his/her report? I am working a case now where both the fireman who owns the home and the county fire chief have ruled that the cause of the fire was due to an unattended candle. Funny how the candle and the dresser it was resting on survived :roll:
Posted: Fri Apr 02, 2010 04:46 am Post Subject:
The buyer carried the insurance with Foremost. The buyer has had a total loss fire.
Since the carrier was Foremost, I'm going to assume that the residence was either a mobile or pre-fab home, and the home was older- probably from the early 90s or older. Foremost specializes in this coverage, so that's the basis for my assumption. If I remember correctly from my agent days, they'll also take homes with no tie-downs, etc.
This tells me that the lien isn't for $300k, so to speak.
Since I was also an adjuster in a previous life and have seen many a mobile home fire- I can tell you one thing. Fire in some of those and the home turns into a self-contained oven on broil in about 4 minutes. Many of the problems that I saw stemmed from (1) stupidity on the part of the resident, like ignoring a candle, or (2) electrical/heating/wood stove. As well, site-built homes rarely are total losses, but mobile homes are usually total losses when fire occurs.
Finally, I have to agree with tcope and trench as well. I never wrote a check until I was sure of everything. I adjusted everything from lawnmower thefts to total commercial property fires and all the stuff in-between. Mobile homes were never easy and the cause of loss wasn't always easily determined.
Keep in mind that the coverage afforded by these types of policies differs greatly from standard homeowner policies and the carrier might (might) be delaying things to see if the actual cause of loss is covered under the contract.
InsTeacher 8)
Posted: Fri Apr 02, 2010 05:40 pm Post Subject: thanks for responses, What do I tell State Insurance Board?
1983 dblwide on 1/2 acre at lake. Claims adjustor says he is waiting on report from Sheriff's Fire Investigator. That report says fire O & C is undetermined. Adjustor said he wasn't actually concerned with fire cause, as scene was pretty much a black hole. Foremost hired Unified, but don't know what that investigator found as he didn't shovel or reconstruct scene and worked it in a snowstorm. He also wants the Sheriff's Fire Investigator's report. As the owner/financer, with all documentation notarized and done through an Atty, I am only looking to be paid for the loss of the structure. The contents/loss of use would be concern for the person buying the home/land from me. The Claims adjustor has repeatedly promised me and my atty that he was going to pay for my loss, then yesterday he advised "his people" told him not to pay until the investigation was completed. My Atty has not recieved anything in writing since the Hold Harmless Agreement, and a note from Adjustor that the check would be sent later upon his reciept of the signed Hold Harmless Agreement by me. Fire Feb 4, HHA signed/returned March 8. I am finding Foremost to be quite unreliable. Would I have my Atty report the comments and actions of the Adjustor to the state's insurance board?
Posted: Fri Apr 02, 2010 05:51 pm Post Subject:
Would I have my Atty report the comments and actions of the Adjustor to the state's insurance board?
You could, but I highly doubt that it would change anything. Since the C&O report has already been submitted and an additional report is waiting, it should not be too much longer before the investigation is finished.
Posted: Fri Apr 02, 2010 09:27 pm Post Subject:
Since the C&O report has already been submitted and an additional report is waiting, it should not be too much longer before the investigation is finished.
Agreed Trench...shouldn't be too long.
InsTeacher 8)
Posted: Sat Apr 03, 2010 03:59 am Post Subject:
For me, just about the time I have reviewed the report and my ducks are in a row, I am writing settlement recomendations to my client.
Posted: Sun Apr 04, 2010 04:13 pm Post Subject:
I can't speak for the adjuster in question but I have a feeling I know exactly where he he coming from. Larger losses are monitored by managers of time type... but the adjuster is still the person responsible for handling the loss. In order to function, the adjuster needs to handle the claim as they understand it should be handled. So the adjuster probably felt they had enough information to pay the claim. Then all of a sudden a manager comes along and wants a lot more done. Now the adjuster has to eat crow and tell everyone. The adjuster has the best "feel" for the claim as they have been speaking to everyone and conducting the ongoing investigation. You then have a manager the quickly looks over the claim and wants something else done. Happens to me all of the time.
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