You faithfully pay your insurance premiums just in case you need to make a claim one day. Unfortunately, insurance claims do not always go as smoothly as they should. When you buy insurance, you expect your insurance company to hold up their end of the deal when you suffer damages to covered property, but sometimes insurance companies fail to pay, delay payment, or offer too little money.

When an insurance company denies your insurance claim and you believe they have done so in bad faith, an experienced personal injury attorney and property damage lawyer can help. We will review your fire insurance policy, investigate the claim, and work on your behalf to force your insurance company to reimburse you for your true costs.

Know Your Legal Rights
While California offers more protections for policyholders than any other state, many people in California are unaware of their legal rights. In fact, even insurance adjusters are often uninformed of the laws to which they must abide. When you are facing fire damage to your home, you have many forms of legal protection that dictate how your insurance company may behave. These protections include:

• Deadlines for the insurer to deny or pay your claim
• Deadlines to submit paperwork to prove a covered loss
• Deadlines to respond to letters, emails, and phone calls
• Specific information that must be provided to the policyholder
• The insurer must be transparent, truthful, and honest in communications with the insured
• Lowball offers by the insurer are prohibited
• An independent and reasonable investigation must be conducted
• All evidence must be taken into account when making an offer on a claim
• Copies of claim-related documents must be provided to the policyholder upon request. This includes documents used to calculate losses.
• A policyholder cannot be required to use a specific contractor for repairs
• A policyholder cannot be required to provide unreasonable proof of the losses

If you feel that any of these rights have been violated, your insurance company can be held responsible. A fire damage attorney will work on your behalf to seek full reimbursement for your claim.

Denied Fire Insurance Claims
Many fire damage claims are denied the first time they are submitted to the insurance company. This may be caused by mistakes you made on your paperwork or it may be a bigger problem like your insurer attempting to dodge responsibility.

A skilled fire damage lawyer can help you streamline the process and avoid mistakes that get in the way of rebuilding or restoring your home. After determining why your claim was denied, we will file an appeal on your behalf. This avoids the need to submit a new claim. For a successful appeal, we will build evidence to prove your claim and why the insurance company is responsible for the damages.

This evidence can come in many forms including photos of the damage, witness statements, expert testimony, and findings from your local fire investigators. Because you may also have physical injuries from the fire, a personal injury attorney may also gather medical documentation and medical experts to verify the extent of your injuries.

If you have suffered fire damage to your home or business, a property damage lawyer can help you every step of the way to seek full payment for your claim. Contact us today to schedule a free consultation with a personal injury and property damage attorney to review your claim.