Quote from @Radhika Kapur:
Our home in Seattle was being managed by this property management firm since we are currently out of the country for work. In Oct , when a lease finished, nightmare began. Keeping aside all the management issues during the time they were getting the house ready for rental again - simple things like paint and cleaning took 2 months before they put the house back on the market. They even did showings in Nov and Dec of a dirty house with no power or gas on - simply because they didn’t switch on the mains. Anyways in Dec or Jan , bathroom pipe burst because they never switched on the heating or power, or shut down water - during the coldest winter Seattle has ever seen. They discovered that the house was flooded in Jan , asked us to initiate an insurance claim - which we did.
The insurance company denied the claim citing negligence - ie. temp of the house inside and outside was the same, no form of general maintenance was done to secure the home for winter.
Now we have a bill of close to $100k and they are refusing to foot the bill. Not only are we out of rental revenue - which was paying our mortgage but hit with $100k simply cause we choose an incompetent company . I could attach the 19 page contract here but wasn’t sure if that would be okay since it has the name of the company.
Would appreciate any advice on how I can fight this. Any recommendations of good lawyers or agencies where I can register a complaint against them would also be welcome. Please help!
I'd let the property management company know that your insurance company denied the claim you filed and have them contact their property management insurance (E &O) in addition to sending you the contact information to their insurance agent's name, contact information, and policy number.
With a $100K already spent, a public adjuster (that is a member of the regional association in your state and a member of the National Association of Public Adjusters) might make sense.
Public adjusters work for the policy holder, not the insurance company, and generally have years of experience working as a claims adjuster for insurance companies, and are also familiar with laws insurance companies don't share with you. Contact them ASAP: The sooner the better.
Contact the PM and let them know you have contacted your insurance as they suggested and provide them with the reason they denied the claim. Then ask them to file a claim with their property management insurance. You can give this information to your public adjuster if you decide to hire one. They will generally talk to you without compensation to see if they want to help with the claim. They can also give you feedback (even if the claim is not large enough for them).
Google public adjuster to learn more about them, how to find a legitimate one, and see if it makes sense to you.
Good luck.
Sorry you are going through this.
