File Water Damage Claims Without Fear
Responsible homeowners have the most to gain from the experience of a water damage emergency in their home or office due to homeowners’ insurance. This coverage is key; however, most homeowners are unclear about the inclusions and exclusions of their policy. Additionally, most policy holders don’t know how to use their insurance nor do they know what to expect from filing a claim. Everyone knows that coverage is a necessity, but no one ever wants to imagine having to actually use their policy. Its understandable how nobody wants to imagine their house flooding or a pipe busting to cause major water damage. Most homeowners purchase insurance simply because it’s a requirement from the bank and so that we have the financial backing we need to get us back on our feet in case of a flood or water damage emergency.
You would think that having coverage would be enough to keep people at ease, but from my experience, it’s really not. According to Metrix research, we discovered that although a person may have homeowners’ insurance, most are people are scared of using their insurance for fear that their premiums might increase, that they may get dropped, or that insurance may not cover the damages. This fear holds many people back from actually claiming the benefit they pay into month after month.
Two Sides To Water Damage
There are two sides to every coin, heads and a tails. In this example, let’s say they say that tales represents the unknown and inherent stress of a water damage and that heads represents the satisfaction of responsibly mitigating a water damage claim and all that is inherent to that. One coin but it’s got two sides. Most people will discover a basement flood or water damage and will enter the dark side of this this coin, the tail side. This is the phase of panic, stress, fear and uncertainty. Most people don’t know who to call in cases of a flood or an emergency water damage and because they don’t have a relationship with a contractor that specializes in this unique type of endeavor, they scramble in a panic to find help. Most people will contact their insurance company to report damage and expect the insurance company to take care of everything. Unfortunately, this not the way that it works, and the homeowner soon discovers the weight of their responsibility to take care of their own property.
Once you file a claim with your insurance company, you’ve given them notice of damage and they can often refer you to one of their program vendors. Insurance companies love to use their own “program vendors” because these contractors agree to provide the insurance network/TPA at least a 25% discount, but this discount can be up to and in excess of 50%. An insurance company is a business and they want to save money however possible and practical.
Choose Flood Metrix Over The Matter
Because
The Power To Change The Matter
Is In The Metrix
Water Damage Pricing Is Standardized By Xactimate
Xactimate is a program we use in the water damage and damage restoration industry to standardize pricing based on zip code. The IICRC and Insurance Industry use Xactimate as a “fair pricing standard” for all flood, water and damage restoration projects. Most water damage project are paid by insurance and contractors who provide water damage restoration services are getting through insurance whether they or program vendors or not. Your insurance company will even tell you that you can hire any qualified contractor you see fit. As long as a project is properly documented and the insurance company is obligated to pay the Xactimate value of a line item, but not more.
Homeowners must understand how to use their insurance coverage so that they can receive the full benefits thereof. Often homeowners fear that if they use their insurance policy it will cause their insurance premiums to raise or cause their insurance company to drop them. This thinking is rooted in fear and uncertainty and couldn’t be further from the truth. The moment you file a flood or water damage claim with your insurance company, they are required by law to set aside funds to satisfy your claim. They are also required by law to pay out at least the Xactimate value of a line item.
IICRC And Water Damage Claims
Stop here and let the above paragraph sink in. It is important for a water damage contractor to understand insurance billing because Xactimate is the “pricing standard” that the IICRC and Insurance Industry uses to standardize pricing for emergency restoration services such as water damage, flood, fire, storm damage, mold remediation and the like. Pricing for these services standardized by the Xactimate software to keep pricing fair and to prevent price gauging.
Insurance companies want water damage mitigation contractors to use Xactimate but does not always want to pay the Xactimate value of a flood or water damage project. However, this is simply the process of submitting a bill and working with the insurance company. They are obligated to satisfy any legitimate invoice submitted related to your claim as long as every line item billed has been documented. Adjustors are accustomed to working with program vendors to and good independent contractors to negotiate better pricing. Its not that they won’t pay, its simply that they want to get a deal also.
Non-Program Water Damage Contractors
It is unreasonable to expect a vendor who does not constantly receive program work from an insurance company to offer the same price discount as if they were. It’s a lot easier for a water damage contractor to give an insurance company a discount on services, when the insurance company is sending them 1 or 2 jobs a month. Discounts on services are for the people who own homes not for businesses such as insurance companies.
A major part of our duty in the water damage restoration industry is to simply educate the general public on the subject. We find that by providing educational resources to our customers it helps to eliminate and alleviate a lot of the stress inherent to water damage restoration. Again, most people start on the “dark side” of the coin when they discover a flooded basement, that their water heater or water pipe has busted. However, after a person chooses Flood Metrix over the matter, we take immediate action to carry that customer away from their current state of confusion and panic. We begin moving them from stress to satisfaction which is ultimately what our mission is all about.
A major key to accomplishing our mission educating the customer about the water damage restoration process, what they should expect and demand from their insurance provider. When a person starts to understand their insurance coverage, they can also they start to see the light. They realize that although their basement flooded or there was water damage in some part of the home, they also have insurance. Having the proper coverage means that all damages will be addressed, resulting in equal or greater final results, and that is worthy of celebration.
Choose Flood Metrix For Water Damage Restoration
When a person chooses Metrics over the Matter for water damage restoration, it turns out becoming one of the best experiences they will ever have with a contractor. The satisfactions of their mitigation experience is greater than their initial jolt of stress and shock. We get onsite there and begin the water damage restoration process. We do the water removal, mold remediation and dry out everything that’s wet. Then we set our customers up for reconstruction and get them connected with the right remodelers. The happiness and contentment which is a result of working with true professionals in the industry floods out and overshadows any stress or discontentment that the customer may have initially experienced. This is the Metrix Mission, to move our customers from stress to satisfaction, and to help them both know and understand their rights and responsibilities as a policy holder.
Sometimes customer feel anxiety dealing with a “direct to consumer” water damage restoration provider because they believe they will get stuck with a bill if insurance doesn’t pay. Again, this is why a customer needs to understand how pricing and billing works in the water damage restoration industry. No contractor wants to get a reputation of being unable to settle invoices with an insurance company, because many field adjustors work the same geographical area. All we want is to get paid for our work after we have mitigated the water damage problem with complications and doing a bad job/not doing it properly is causes complications.
Best Customer Service In Water Damage Restoration
Some customers are just used to dealing with businesses and contractors who only care about money, they really don’t have the customer’s best interest at heart and who really don’t care to understand what it is that this person is going through. It’s all about their bottom line and from the Metrix perspective, this is short sighted, and is not a good way to do business. At Metrix next restoration we seek to empower our customers. We seek to provide them with the details of their situation and to give them as much insight about their project as possible. We do not want our customers to be blindsided with details that should have been brought to their attention from day one.
When a customer really begins to understand their responsibility as a policy holder, the fear of dealing with their insurance company also begins to dissipate. Having a water damage with insurance and not filling a claim is like winning the lottery and not claiming your prize. Sometimes there are mitigating circumstances around water damage restoration projects that insurance companies don’t always like to pay for, but they will pay for them if the policy holder is aware of their rights and how to negotiation their benefit.
Commonly customers are just too tired and overwhelmed to make their insurance company do what they are supposed to do. Or they don’t want to get into it with their insurance company because they don’t know what they are required to do by law. Many times, homeowners might see an invoice $15,000 or $20,000 or $40,000 or more for water damage mitigation and to the homeowner that seems like a lot of money.
However, they are thinking in terms of their own income, not in terms of the assets which are held by the insurance company. Insurance carriers have millions and of dollars set aside to handle water damage claims. When you’re working with that kind of a budget, a $20,000 or $50,000 invoice truly only a drop in the bucket in comparison to what these insurance networks actually have on hand and are actually generating.
Water Damage Industry Standards
Sometimes people fear that their one claim is going to bankrupt the insurance company or that their $30,000 claim is going to make the insurance company all of a sudden not want to do business with them anymore. However, homeowners should realize that paying claims is the nature of the insurance industry. This is why policies are written in different ways to include and exclude certain aspects of damages. Where the confusion comes in with homeowner is that they really don’t know what is included in their policy and they really don’t know what is excluded in their policy.
For the record, there are generals standard which are included in most policies. These general coverage standards are based on the IICRC S500 water damage and S520 mold remediation standards. Such general coverage includes specifics line such as water removal and extraction, structural drying, pack outs and content manipulation, demo and reconstruction. Likewise, the general exclusions are based on sudden and accidental damage. If damage is due to lack of maintenance of behalf of the homeowner, insurance companies are not likely to get involved.
Overcoming The Panic Of Water Damage
This is what this is what scares a lot of homeowners, they don’t know if the water damage will be considered sudden or accidental and so it paralyzes them. This fear rapids turns a $1000 water damage deductible into a $12,000 personal bill. This article was written to educate and encourage insurance policy holders to use your insurance. The reason we buy insurance is to use it when its needed. If an insurance company gives you a difficult time after when you have only done what a responsible homeowner should do, you should drop them and find a new carrier. You would need to file multiple claims in a short period of time in order for your insurance company to be able to justify dropping you. Again, there are laws preventing the insurance carriers from dropping the homeowners just because they use their coverage.
Homeowners must get over this fear because every month you are paying into this insurance and it’s generating money for the insurance company. The insurance company is making money off of those monthly payments and trust me, they’re making a lot more money than what they pay out of any claim, that’s just the way the system works. We have to remind ourselves of this so that we can act in surety and confidence when we approach the insurance company.
