Actual Cash Value

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Florida is becoming much stricter regarding actual cash value proof. I recently warned about this in Actual Cash Value Proof Is Important Under Most Replacement Cost Policy Disputes. My assumption is that insurance defense lawyers are teaching their insurance company adjusters that some less savvy policyholders, restoration contractors, lawyers, and public adjusters are missing this basic requirement. A good example where a policyholder needlessly lost a case is from a common Hurricane Sally lawsuit involving a Presbyterian church versus Church Mutual Insurance Company.1…
Continue Reading Actual Cash Value Estimates Need To Be Made In Florida—How A Church Lost To Church Mutual

The law firm that defended Scottsdale Insurance Company in the bad faith verdict I wrote about in Hurricane Laura Bad Faith Verdict Against Scottsdale Insurance, has a blog that noted the rules for payment of replacement cost value and actual cash value. This seemed to be a major theme throughout the lawsuit since Scottsdale claimed it was properly paying actual cash value payments in a timely manner.
Continue Reading Louisiana Insurance Company Law Firm Posts About Replacement Cost Value and Actual Cash Value

Public adjuster Stephen Sarasohn wrote a comment to my recent post, Actual Cash Value Proof Is Important Under Most Replacement Cost Policy Disputes. The comment section sometimes gets lost because it is so far underneath the blog post. But his comment raises an important Florida Supreme Court case1 everyone should study and consider when dealing with partial losses where actual cash value is not defined and for policies not defining the value to be insured when considering coinsurance issues. The one caveat is that this is an older form policy.
Continue Reading An Important Florida Case Regarding Actual Cash Value of a Partial Repair and Coinsurance Sound Value That Public Adjusters Should Study

Replacement costs policies are supposed to pay replacement cost benefits, right? The truth is that only a few very high-end replacement cost policies pay replacement cost benefits immediately following a loss. I suggest that you call Chubb and Amica if that is the type of policy you want or ask your agent to provide a replacement cost endorsement that pays for immediate replacement.
Continue Reading Actual Cash Value Proof Is Important Under Most Replacement Cost Policy Disputes

Policies may include many different optional coverages, such as, but not limited to, “Agreed Value,” “Actual Cash Value,” and “Replacement Cost” coverages. These coverages can be applied depending on the type or amount of damages. To understand better these types of optional coverages, one must read and verify the policy.
Continue Reading How are Optional Coverages Applied?

“How much am I owed?”

“How did the insurance company come up with that figure?”

“Do I need help to make certain I am not getting ripped off?”

These are the questions I answer all the time. And that answer to how much is owed to the policyholder is a never-ending study. For everyone representing policyholders, you should feel the same as me and be deeply passionate about it. If not, do something else.
Continue Reading How To Evaluate What Is Owed Following Property Damage

A federal court ruling earlier this year discussed a fairly common scenario of an insurer claiming that no roof damage occurred and even if it did, the policyholder failed to introduce evidence of actual cash value because it only had a replacement cost estimate.1 The point of this post is to show that the safest way to present a property insurance claim in Florida is with a combined replacement cost estimate and an actual cash value estimate. However, fully understanding those concepts and Florida statutes on the subject is important.
Continue Reading Do You Have a Florida Property Insurance Dispute Over Valuation? Understand the Differences Between Replacement Cost Value, Actual Cash Value and How the Broad Evidence Rule Works

Whether labor can be depreciated in arriving at an actual cash value property loss settlement has been a hot topic of debate over these past six years, and the subject of many Merlin lawyer blogposts, including the one I wrote last July discussing the Appellate Court of Illinois opinion in Sproull v. State Farm Fire & Casualty Company.1…
Continue Reading The Illinois Supreme Court Concludes That Labor Cannot Be Depreciated In Arriving At An Actual Cash Value Loss Settlement

In his August 10, 2021, blog, Chip Merlin discussed the recent FC&S Bulletin addressing the relationship between replacement cost coverage and the increase in construction costs. For background on this discussion and to better understand the significance of the FC&S bulletin, I suggest reading his blog post, Can You Get Paid More on Your Insurance Claim When Prices Rise After a Loss?…
Continue Reading Replacement Cost Coverage: Why You Can Get Paid More on Your Insurance Claim When Prices Rise After a Loss