Hail

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Insurance companies owe their insureds a duty to fully and fairly investigate a property loss, which includes a comprehensive inspection to identify all damages associated to the claim. Unfortunately, insurance adjusters will sometimes utilize an “any port in the storm” style reason to deny a claim; the adjuster cannot point to a specific tangible basis for denial, instead relying on a hypothetical justification. In that situation, the adjuster’s denial stands in paradox to the insurer’s duty to investigate a claim.…
Continue Reading Claim Denial Reason: Did the Insurance Company Show Their Work?

Drew Houghton will join me tomorrow afternoon for Tuesday at 2 With Chip Merlin regarding the Practical Considerations When Evaluating Hail Loss Claims. Drew Houghton heads up our Oklahoma City Office and was a big part of our move to new offices in Oklahoma City last year, as I noted in Grand Opening of Merlin Law Group’s Oklahoma City Office.…
Continue Reading Practical Considerations When Investigating Hail Loss Claims to Be Discussed at Tuesday At 2 With Chip Merlin

Nearly two years ago, Albuquerque was struck by one of the largest hailstorms in its recent history. With the two-year anniversary of the July 2018 hailstorm quickly approaching, policyholders in New Mexico should be mindful to review their insurance policies for time limit considerations that could prevent them from pursuing delayed or denied insurance benefits for damages from the hailstorm.…
Continue Reading New Mexico Allows an Insurance Policy to Reduce the Statutory Period to File a Lawsuit

Hail prone areas may result in multiple storms which damage a roof. Not too many policyholders are climbing up on their roofs to measure exactly how much hail damage is done after a hail storm occurs. But their insurance companies must be expecting them to do so based on a recent case involving Berkshire Hathaway Insurance Company.1…
Continue Reading Which Hailstorm Damaged Your Roof? The Time of Hail Damage Is Often Disputed

In my last blog post, I wrote about the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeal’s recent decision in Windridge of Naperville Condominium Association v. Philadelphia Indemnity Insurance Company.1…
Continue Reading Does An Insurer Act In “Bad Faith” If It Denies Coverage For A Hail Loss Based On Its Retained Engineer Defining Hail Damage As Functional Damage?

Joey Childress and Chip Merlin at the 2019 First Party Claims Conference West

Joey Childress of Childress Engineering Services from Richardson, Texas, was attending the First Party Claims Conference in Marina Del Rey, California. He came up to me and showed a video and photographs of an extreme hailstorm hitting the greater Dallas Fort Worth area.

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Continue Reading Hail Storms and Hail Damage Assessment—Policyholders Should Be Safe and Call Professionals to Do Roof Inspections

We’ll let the jury decide.

Policyholders must meet post-loss obligations under their property insurance policy prior to receiving coverage for a loss. A common condition precedent requires policyholders to provide prompt notice of the loss to their carrier. The carrier must be able to conduct a reasonable investigation of the property conditions as close to the loss date as possible to determine whether the stated event caused the loss claimed.…
Continue Reading We Had a Hailstorm Months Ago, But I Just Realized the Severity of the Damage: Is It Too Late to Make an Insurance Claim?

With less than sixty days until the one-year anniversary of the most expensive hailstorm in Colorado history which hammered west metro Denver on May 8, 2017, many individuals, business owners, and community associations members continue the difficult task of negotiating with insurance companies in an effort to return property to pre-storm conditions.…
Continue Reading Time Limit Considerations as Colorado Approaches the One Year Anniversary of the May 8, 2017 Hailstorm

Note: This guest blog is by Lewis O’Leary, who has served as both a forensic investigator and restoration contractor since Hurricane Camille (1969). He has a degree in the fields of Mechanical Engineering and Architecture, is the Chairman of the Education Committee for the Building Envelope Science Institute, and is a design/build, General Contractor licensed in North Carolina. Mr. O’Leary also serves as a staff consultant for engineering firms involved with wind damage from hurricanes and tornadoes. He can be contacted at 919-577-0907 or via e-mail at probuil@aol.com.

In researching the weather data for the June 14, 2017, hailstorm in the Midland/Odessa area, I shocked a veteran contractor who that works storm clean up by telling him that my research shows that wind typically causes more damage than hail.…
Continue Reading Why Major Hail Storms Commonly Turn Out to be More Wind Than Hail