Property Insurance Claims

Damage to your home or business does not have to be financially devastating. Let Hope Law Firm, P.L.C. help. Attorney Andrew L. Hope, a former property adjuster, has just the right experience and in-depth knowledge to know how to aggressively fight for your rights. 

Our firm handles:

• Personal property claims
• Post-claim settlements
• Contractor issues, because they inevitably happen

Avoid the pitfalls

Our experience handling hundreds of property insurance claims has shown that no two claims are the same. Estimating structure damage is a highly subjective task. Often, two adjusters adjust the same fire loss claim and their estimates of the damage vary by tens of thousands of dollars. We have handled larger commercial property claims where the difference has been hundreds of thousands of dollars! The margin for error when estimating personal property losses (Coverage B/contents) is even greater. Homeowners routinely fail to claim all of their damaged property and fail to accurately price and depreciate the items they do claim.

Perhaps the most devastating mistake homeowners make is to allow fire restoration companies and general contractors handle their claims. Fire restoration companies want to clean and provide storage for your smoke damaged items. They bill the insurance company thousands of dollars for this service and this amount is subtracted from your policy limit, thereby lowering the amount of money you can recover to replace the damaged items. There is a difference of opinion by the experts and in the law, whether smoke-damaged items can be adequately cleaned or should be discarded and replaced. We believe that smoke-damaged items should be replaced, and therefore, homeowners mistakenly waste valuable policy coverage money when they clean and store their personal property.

Beware of the general contractor

After a tragedy, the homeowner is often approached by many general contractors. It is not uncommon for the insurance company adjuster or the insurance agent to also recommend a “preferred provider” or similar company to repair or rebuild your home. Too often, homeowners hastily choose a contractor who does not have the homeowner’s best interest in mind. The problem is simple: the contractor wants to bid the job low enough to gain approval from the insurance company adjuster, even if this may mean cutting corners on the quality of the job. To avoid this conflict of interest, homeowners must obtain an independent estimate of the damage from an expert who does not want or expect to contract for the repair work.

Handling Tornado Claims in Joplin, Missouri

Welcome victims of the Joplin tornado disaster. We are now accepting clients with property insurance disputes in Joplin. Our local attorney, Bonnie Leiby, is assisting with the accomodation of new client consultations at our Joplin office located at 712 E. 32nd St, Ste 2, Joplin, MO 64804. Our local phone number is (417) 812-5216.

Our team of eperienced insurance law attorneys, expert structural damage appraisers, engineers and contents inventory specialists are ready to work for you. If the insurance company adjuster is only offering to pay for part of your roof, pieces of your siding, denying responsibilty for damage to your home's foundation, rejecting your additional living expenses, or simply refusing to pay you a fair settlement, then call us today. The insurance adjuster works for the insurance company, we will work for you.

Join us at the free informational event at 7:00pm on Monday, August 29, at the Holiday Inn Joplin, 3615 S. Rangeline Rd. Attorneys and public adjusters will be on hand to answer your tornado insurance claim questions. Topics will include:

• Replacement Cost Coverage
• Depreciation
• Matching Siding and Roofing
• Contents Valuation
• Foundation Damage Denials
• Scope of Damage
• Additional Living Expenses

For more information, Call (417) 812-5246 today!

Please do not hesitate to call us today at 515.255.3559 for a free consultation regarding your loss. We are happy to answer any questions you may have about the property claims process.

Hope Law Firm, P.L.C.—your aggressive and affordable legal remedy for property damage

The attorneys of Hope Law Firm, P.L.C. give you hope when fire or another disaster strikes causing damage to your home or business. Contact us to handle your property insurance claim.

We have successfully managed to obtain for our fire claims clients three or four times the amount of compensation they thought they could get. Call us at 515.255.3559 if your home or other property has been damaged by fire or if you have another property insurance claim. We offer a free 30-minute consultation with no obligation.