Answers to Your Questions about Hurricane Insurance Claims Part 2

0:11 - It's kind of both, and let me explain that. 0:15 That happens a lot. 0:16 After a storm like this, in the insurance industry, 0:20 it's called a catastrophe, 0:24 CAT for short. 0:25 And so they bring in 0:27 from all over the country CAT adjusters. 0:31 So right now, one of the problems that we're having here 0:34 in Florida is we got Harvey and we got Maria. 0:40 And we got Irma. 0:42 And the CAT adjusters who usually would be, 0:44 they'd come in from Washington state 0:46 and Texas and Oklahoma, Mississippi. 0:49 They'd come to Florida, and they'd handle this. 0:51 But now a bunch of 'em are in Texas, 0:54 and a bunch of 'em are in Puerto Rico. 0:56 So the CAT adjusters are spread thin. 0:59 That is a reason why a lot of, 1:02 there's a lot more delay than we usually see. 1:05 There's always delay, but there's a lot more now. 1:09 But these adjusters, the CAT adjusters come in, 1:12 and I can't tell you how many times my client will say 1:15 well, the adjuster who came out said 1:18 yeah, you're getting a new roof. 1:19 No question about that. 1:20 And then the damage to the siding 1:23 that got ripped off, that's good. 1:25 And even the rotten wood under it, 1:26 I didn't know there was any rotten wood, 1:28 but that's covered too. 1:29 And then two weeks later you get a letter 1:31 and you go, sorry denied, or it doesn't include any, 1:34 that's typical, typical. 1:36 That's the stuff that keeps people up at night 1:39 and drives them crazy. 1:43 Don't stay up tonight thinking about it 1:45 and don't try to figure it out. 1:49 That's a no. 1:50 They're saying no to some of your stuff 1:52 even if they don't say it out loud. 1:54 If their estimate, 1:56 if the adjuster comes out and you got a roof off, 1:59 and they say you get new cabinets and that's it, 2:01 that's a no to the roof. 2:04 And it sounds like it's low on some stuff too, 2:07 so it's a no and it's low. 2:09 So, here's what you do. 2:10 Do you have a contractor's estimate? 2:13 - [Man] Ah, not yet. 2:15 - It's hard to get. 2:16 Same thing going on with the contractors. 2:17 Those guys are buried. 2:18 And so get a contractor's estimate. 2:23 Once you get that contractor's estimate, just email me. 2:27 Who's your insurance company? 2:28 - Citizens. - Citizens? 2:30 Just email me Citizens, what they've concluded 2:34 and your contractor's estimate. 2:35 All I need is those two things. 2:39 Get a contractor out. 2:41 Estimate everything, interior damages. 2:43 Say sir, I need an estimate 2:45 to get this house back the way it was. 2:46 - [Man] Okay, great. 2:48 - That's all I need. 2:49 And just so y'all know, y'all do have additional coverage 2:53 for things like debris removal. 2:56 So, I want you to picture, 2:58 everyone, picture buckets of coverage. 3:01 Here's your big bucket, that's you house. 3:03 And you got a certain policy limit for your house. 3:06 That's actually called coverage A for your house. 3:09 All right, so you go that bucket. 3:11 Coverage B is other structures. 3:13 You got a shed out back, a boathouse. 3:16 That's coverage B. 3:17 It's a little bit smaller coverage. 3:18 Coverage C is the contents of your house, 3:20 the stuff inside the house. 3:22 And then you've got, in addition to that, 3:24 living expenses for when you're out of the house, 3:27 either because you can't live in it. 3:29 It's been destroyed 3:29 or damaged so much you can't be in there. 3:31 Or during the reconstruction phase. 3:35 In addition to that, 3:36 you've got additional coverage for debris removal. 3:40 And you've got additional coverage 3:41 for what's called law and ordinance. 3:43 So let's say your house was built in 1950, 1960, whatever. 3:47 It's got windows. 3:48 You now got an opening. 3:50 You gotta replace a window. 3:52 And they say you gotta put hurricane windows in. 3:55 They're gonna tell you well, all the other, 3:57 the other 32 openings are on you. 4:00 We just gotta do the one that was damaged. 4:02 That's not true for two reasons. 4:04 One, remember, matching. 4:08 You paid for matching. 4:10 The other is we may go under the law 4:13 and ordinance coverage to say look, 4:15 you gotta bring all of 'em up to code at this point. 4:17 I try to get it under matching 4:19 because you've got more policy limits there, 4:21 but you let me worry about that. 4:23 So your job, your homework, get a contractor. 4:26 Make sure it's somebody you trust. 4:27 It's somebody licensed here in Florida. 4:29 It's a general contractor or a building contractor. 4:31 It's one of those two. 4:32 Get an estimate for the whole thing. 4:34 If they wanna have a roofer come out 4:36 and do the estimate for the roof, that's fine. 4:39 Get me that, get me Citizens, and I'll look at that. 4:42 Until then, don't worry about it. 4:46 You're gonna hear me say that a lot 4:47 because I'm passionate about this. 4:53 It breaks my heart that people have gone through this 4:57 to then sit up at night, and they're wondering, 5:01 what do I do about, and they don't even know what to do. 5:03 And it keeps people up at night, 5:05 and I'm here to give you peace of mind. 5:07 Stop worrying about the insurance stuff. 5:11 Let me do it. 5:13 And I'll tell you what the next right step is. 5:17 There are really two parts 5:19 of this that I'm passionate about. 5:20 The first part is to make sure 5:21 the insurance company pays what you bought. 5:26 And y'all don't know what you bought, mostly, 5:28 and if you do, you don't know how to make 'em pay. 5:30 I do, and so I wanna make sure 5:32 the insurance company doesn't pay more than what they owe, 5:35 just pays what they owe, 5:37 for your most important investment, your home. 5:40 The other thing, the other side of it is, 5:42 and I'm passionate about is some lawyers, 5:45 when a storm happens, something like this happens, 5:47 they start dabbling, 5:48 and they start dealing with these cases. 5:50 They get these cases. 5:53 I deal with this all day every day. 5:55 It is my passion to help policyholders. 5:58 Other people dabble, and then they end up, 6:01 the insurance company low-balls it. 6:03 You got a lawyer who's dabbling, 6:04 and you end up with a homeowner 6:05 who gets pennies on the dollar. 6:09 I'm here, and the reason I'm here, 6:10 is to prevent those two things from happening. 6:14 Do I wanna represent you? 6:15 You better believe it. 6:17 Because I don't think there's anybody 6:18 in this state that does it better or more than what I do. 6:22 And that's why I'm here. 6:28 But here's what you do. 6:31 The guy comes out or the gal comes out, 6:33 is the adjuster, and they got a bad attitude. 6:36 And you go oh, my gosh. 6:37 I got a bad one. 6:39 Just let 'em do what they're gonna do. 6:41 Don't try to convince 'em of anything. 6:44 Don't tell 'em, well, I think that's due to this. 6:47 Just say have at it. 6:49 Come inside. 6:50 You can point to the damage. 6:52 Let 'em do whatever they're going to do, 6:56 and don't worry about it. 6:58 Don't call 'em and say I want a different adjuster. 7:01 Just let 'em do 'cause I'll tell you what. 7:03 Those bad adjusters who have bad attitudes, 7:08 they make bad witnesses. 7:10 I assure you. (woman laughing) 7:12 And so now you're all fired up, 7:13 and you get somebody in there, 7:14 and they bring Mr. Nice Guy out there 7:16 and go well, I'm so sorry that happened. 7:19 Now, they're gonna call him as the witness, 7:21 and I've still got tools in my toolbox, 7:24 but I like it when the guy up there is ready to explode. 7:29 And believe me, I can bring it out. 7:31 I can bring out the worst in him. 7:33 So, don't do that. 7:35 I understand why, and I'm telling everybody, 7:37 just let 'em do what they're gonna do. 7:39 And I don't care if they come 7:40 and say you get 10 cents or you get $100,000. 7:43 Just let them do whatever it is they want to do. 7:47 They're the professionals. 7:49 Don't try to drive the conversation. 7:51 Don't try to convince them of anything because often, 7:57 my book is in here in a lot of these packets. 7:59 I have a little section 8:01 that's called winning without your help. 8:06 And I tell my clients stop helping me. 8:09 Let me do what I gotta do. 8:11 And just let them do what they're gonna do. 8:14 Because everything you say, they're gonna say, 8:16 well, then she said this, and then he said that, 8:18 and then I gotta deal with it. 8:23 If your contractor says it's 10,000 bucks, 8:28 and their contractor says, 8:30 or the insurance company says, let's say, it's 8,000 buck, 8:36 that difference of 2,000, that's a good case for me. 8:39 That's a lot of money for people. 8:41 That's a lot of money. 8:43 And again, if I win, they gotta pay me. 8:45 If I lose, I work for free. 8:47 That's even if it's a low-ball of 2,000 bucks. 8:49 So, I know that's a lot of money for people. 8:52 It impacts families, and so, don't go 8:56 well, it's just not enough money to trouble with. 8:58 Let me look at it. 9:04 This period between now and six months after the storm 9:07 is gonna be the most frustrating time. 9:10 Nothing's gonna move fast. 9:12 Everything's gonna be delayed. 9:15 And really, there's not a lot we can do 9:17 about that from a legal standpoint as long as, you know, 9:21 If we sued 'em and said look, it's been three months, 9:23 and we don't have a claims decision, 9:27 we're not really gonna be able to do that. 9:28 There's a statute in Florida 9:30 that says the insurance company has 90 days to pay or deny. 9:33 - [Woman] From when? 9:34 - From the time the claim is submitted, 9:36 and the claim is submitted 9:38 when you get 'em all the stuff, all right. 9:41 But it doesn't matter because the last sentence 9:43 of that statute says, however, 9:45 the failure to pay or deny within 90 days 9:48 shall not form the basis of a lawsuit. 9:52 So we can't really base it on that. 9:54 There are a lot of outs for the insurance company 9:57 on the timing thing. 9:59 I would say, and I've told everybody after every storm, 10:03 the first six months are kind of the honeymoon phase 10:06 where they're thinking all right, I think it's working out. 10:10 I think I married the right person, but I don't know. 10:13 This is not going the way I thought it would go. 10:15 But I'm gonna stick it in there. 10:17 Six months in, they go, ah crap, I made a mistake. 10:23 And it's about six months in when the honeymoon's over, 10:28 and y'all are gonna start 10:30 and your neighbors are gonna start calling me 10:31 'cause that's when the denials 10:33 and the low-balls really start coming in. 10:36 'Cause right now they're kind of doing their thing. 10:39 It's gonna be a long time, 10:40 and maybe once you get that, 10:42 we're gonna have to get an estimate from your contractor. 10:46 And that person is gonna be backed up. 10:50 And so then we gotta your contractor's estimate 10:53 and review both those. 10:55 There's no good answer for that question. 10:58 It's gonna take a while, six months. 11:01 And I hate saying that, but it really is, 11:03 before this starts getting sorted out, 11:05 and then we know exactly what direction people are going in. 11:08 And they're gonna miss it. 11:09 They're going through, a lot of 'em, 11:12 a lot of 'em are going through, 11:13 and it's just easier for the field adjuster to go, 11:16 um, yeah, I'm gonna kick that up to major claims, 11:20 and get it off his desk. 11:22 They get paid per job, 11:24 and the longer that job stays on their desk, 11:26 the less really they make on it. 11:33 Well, they're kind of different jobs. 11:35 Here's what I would tell both of you. 11:37 Have you hired the public adjuster yet? 11:39 The insurance company's made their decision. 11:41 You got that. 11:42 Yeah, get your contractor's estimate. 11:44 Let me look at those two things. 11:47 And the only way you make 'em pay is file a lawsuit, 11:50 and that's what a lawyer does, is file a lawsuit. 11:53 And then my goal, and it's almost every time, 11:57 but my goal is if I get 'em to pay the right amount, 12:01 or more, get 'em to pay more, 12:03 they gotta pay my fees and costs. 12:05 You get your house fixed. 12:07 I don't take a piece of that. 12:08 And if I lose, I work for free. 12:10 That's kind of the difference, 12:11 and I would just say let 'em do what they're gonna do. 12:13 And if they just keep ignoring you, 12:19 after you've said hey, I need you to respond to me, 12:23 there's a statute that says they have 14 days 12:25 to at least respond to your request. 12:29 Let's let it linger a little bit longer. 12:31 All right now, just let 'em do what they're gonna do. 12:33 90 days, here's the statute. 12:35 It says they have 90 days to pay 12:37 or deny once you submit all the documents, 12:39 and they've inspected, 90 days. 12:41 Huh? (man mumbling) 12:42 No, 90 days, and then the last sentence in the statute says 12:46 however, the failure to pay or deny in that 90-day period 12:49 shall not form the basis of a lawsuit. 12:52 So, I can't sue under that statute, 12:53 but what I can do is if they have been out and inspected, 12:57 and they just ignore you, I call that a constructive denial. 13:03 'Cause whether I send you a letter that says 13:05 I ain't paying you or if I just ignore you, 13:11 your bank account's the same, right? 13:13 There ain't no check, and so that's a denial. 13:16 It's either a written denial or it's a constructive denial. 13:21 You've done your thing. 13:22 Just let 'em do what they're gonna do 13:24 'cause if you egg 'em on some more, 13:25 then they might send something that's, 13:27 I'd rather have this constructive denial 13:30 than them low-balling you. 13:32 Just makes our job easier. 13:35 They have a duty under statute and under case law. 13:38 They have a duty to come out and adequately 13:42 and in good faith adjust your claim 13:44 and give you not some number they hope you'll take. 13:48 They have a duty to give you the right amount 13:51 to fix your house. 13:53 One of the things they're doing 13:54 is using a computer program called Xactimate, 13:57 and Xactimate is not taking 14:00 into account the catastrophe that's occurred. 14:03 They are not taking into account the current labor rates 14:06 or material rates given what everybody's going through 14:09 here right now. 14:10 They're giving amounts that my contractors will say 14:13 I can't even get the job started with that amount. 14:15 I can't get people to come out and work for that amount, 14:17 let alone the materials. 14:23 Usually, that's not gonna be a problem to cash it. 14:27 Is the mortgage company on it? 14:28 - [Woman] No mortgage. 14:29 - Okay, let me answer this question people often have. 14:32 Mortgage company's on the check. 14:34 What do I do, I've got a check. 14:35 The mortgage company's on it. 14:37 What do I do? 14:39 You sign a contract with your contractor, 14:41 I mean, once we're done, and it's the right amount of money. 14:44 Sign a contract with your contractor. 14:47 You give your mortgage company the money, 14:49 and they pay you and the contractor as the work progresses. 14:54 Second question that arises when that, 14:56 what if I'm behind? 14:56 Can I they take my money, 14:58 apply it to my principal instead of fixing my house? 15:01 No, they gotta fix your house. 15:02 So, don't worry about that part of it. 15:04 So, do you have checks you're concerned about? 15:07 Just hold onto it. 15:07 If it's not enough, just get me the stuff, 15:10 your contractor's estimate and theirs. 15:13 And then they'll reissue the check later. 15:20 It is the last step. 15:21 - [Man] The last step. 15:23 - A busy lawyer who's very aggressive 15:27 might try in front of a jury, might, 15:30 if they're real aggressive, 15:32 one or two cases a year in front of a jury. 15:35 I'm in front of juries five and 10 times a year, often. 15:42 So, my percent's a little bit higher 15:44 because I don't negotiate. 15:46 If my contractor says it's 25,000 bucks, 15:51 I don't move. 15:52 I only work for contractors I trust. 15:55 If you have a contractor, and I get a number from, 15:57 and I'm thinking I don't know about that, 15:59 I'll have my contractor come and do their own estimate. 16:02 And I don't move, and so, if it's 25,000, 16:07 I say it's 25,000, and pay me separate. 16:09 You pay my fees and costs separate, 16:11 but pay my client 25,000 bucks. 16:13 I had an email recently where a defense lawyer wrote me back 16:18 and said Mark, and I know this guy, 16:22 Mark, you only went down two cents in response 16:26 on our offer to settle the case. 16:30 And I thought well, that's embarrassing. 16:32 So, I said I do need to reply to that. 16:33 I said I apologize. 16:37 That was a mistake. 16:40 I did not mean to go down. (laughs) 16:46 And that's the goal. 16:47 I wanna get you the money you need to fix your house. 16:49 You've already gone through enough. 16:51 And I don't need some contractor giving me some high number 16:54 that's sort of fluffed, and then I negotiate of off that. 16:58 I don't even know what number to pick when they do that. 17:01 Just give me the right number, and I'll stick with it. 17:03 And if we gotta try the case, boy, let's go do it. 17:09 'Cause when I'm picking a jury, 17:10 I'm looking out at a group of folks like you. 17:14 And my goal, I wanna connect with them, 17:16 and I wanna put them in their seat 17:18 and make sure they understand 17:19 what my client's going through in this case. 17:21 And so, mine are a little bit higher percentage 17:25 because of that non-negotiating tactic. 17:29 I know you don't, and that's why I'm looking 17:31 for clients like that 'cause man, when I'm in a courtroom, 17:34 that's where I'm alive, and that's where I wanna be. 17:36 I just want clients to say yes, let's go do it. 17:38 And so I do try a lot more than folks, 17:42 but that's what I like to do. 17:45 Having said that, out of 100 cases, 17:49 95 or more are going to settle 17:53 because they know we're not gonna negotiate. 17:57 And so that hopefully answers your question. 18:05 There's a statute, 627.7015, that says 18:09 at the point when there's a dispute between you 18:13 and the insurance company, a dispute. 18:15 Subsection two says when there's a dispute, 18:18 the insurance company needs to notify you 18:20 of the state sponsored mediation program. 18:23 Okay, the failure to do that when there's a dispute, 18:29 it takes out of the policy 18:31 what's called an appraisal clause. 18:33 So, it removes it. 18:34 They're no longer allowed to enforce their appraisal clause. 18:37 This is a bunch of stuff you don't need to worry about. 18:40 You can ignore that letter. 18:41 They send it out before there's a dispute. 18:44 And so if there's an appraisal clause in your policy, 18:47 they've now waived it. 18:48 An appraisal is bad. 18:49 It's a splitting the baby thing, 18:51 and it ends up costing you a lot of money. 18:54 And so we don't wanna go through appraisal. 18:56 And I don't even know 18:57 if the frontline policy has an appraisal clause. 19:00 All right, so, just let 'em do what they're gonna do. 19:05 Don't worry about the letter. 19:07 Let's let you get a contractor, 19:09 and let's find out how much it's gonna be to fix your house. 19:11 You're gonna need to do that. 19:13 I suspect the frontline estimate, 19:16 if they're already sending you the dispute letter 19:20 before there's a dispute, 19:22 they're probably gonna be a low-ball. 19:24 - [Woman] Yeah. 19:25 - So, let's make sure you get a roof around, 19:28 get somebody out to give us an estimate 19:30 for the wind damage so that when we get the frontline thing, 19:33 I can look at those two things. 19:34 It'd take me a couple of minutes. 19:35 And I'll tell you yes, you have a case, 19:37 and here's the next right step. 19:43 Here's what he meant, and that's why I asked that question. 19:46 Let's say this is your, 19:51 tub area, and you've got a supply line back here. 19:53 And it's spraying into this open space back here. 19:56 So, you've got the block, 19:57 and you've got the wood members, the framing. 20:02 If the flood came up this high anyway, 20:04 they're gonna have to fix most of that. 20:06 They have to remove it to fix the flood damage. 20:10 And so that's the reason I was asking that question. 20:13 They may have to just do it anyway to fix the flood damage. 20:16 'Cause they're gonna have to put drywall back on there, 20:19 and if there's nothing to nail it to, 20:21 you got rotten wood back there, 20:22 they're gonna have to replace that too. 20:24 'Cause they're gonna have to be able to attach it 20:25 to something, or the metal. 20:28 They did or didn't? 20:30 I don't think they, - They wouldn't have. 20:31 - Yeah, no, they wouldn't have. 20:32 - [Woman] They're not gonna probably pay. 20:34 - But there's nothing to nail the drywall into. 20:37 They're probably going to pay. 20:38 They should pay it. 20:39 - Right. - Right, one. 20:40 Two, if they don't, the wind policy, 20:45 we'll have to look at it, 20:46 a lot of 'em say we cover hidden rusting or rotting. 20:53 And you may have what's called a limited fungi endorsement, 20:56 and rust is caused by a fungi, 20:58 and so I can get it under that sometimes too. 21:01 So, make sure you take 3,300 photos, 21:03 and, (laughing) 21:06 so I can document that well, okay? 21:13 So, let's talk about, 21:17 contractors, vendors, including water extraction companies, 21:21 roofers, and some contractors. 21:25 In their documents, they may have something 21:27 called an assignment of benefit. 21:31 What it means is, 21:33 sometimes it means Mr. Vendor, or whoever it is, 21:39 I'm giving you my entire insurance claim. 21:45 Wait, I didn't know I did that. 21:48 But some of the documents that people are signing 21:50 hand over the entire insurance claim to a vendor. 21:55 It may be somebody coming in 21:57 who's just doing the water extraction, 21:59 and you think they're gonna put in some dehumidifiers 22:01 and air scrubbers, get the water out. 22:05 And then later, they're hiring the people 22:09 to build back your kitchen 22:12 and your bedroom and your drywall. 22:15 It's them picking it and not you 22:16 because you've assigned the benefits 22:19 of the insurance policy to that person. 22:21 So, read that. 22:24 I would not sign that and give them the entire claim. 22:27 You should not. 22:29 Or roofer, you may say, you know, 22:31 whether you use me or not, you gotta pay me. 22:33 Or you gotta pay me 20% if you don't use me. 22:36 Don't, don't sign it. 22:38 Scratch that out. 22:39 Now, if a water extraction company 22:42 or a contractor comes in and says I just want an assignment 22:47 for the work that I perform, and you get to control, 22:50 or you tell me what I'm gonna do, 22:52 and just for that work that I perform, that's okay, 22:57 if you know the contractor. 22:58 What I would prefer that people sign is a direction to pay 23:03 that just says I hereby direct the insurance company 23:06 to issue checks for the work performed 23:08 under this contract to me as a policyholder, 23:12 and to the vendor. 23:13 And that's just a better way to control the claim. 23:15 You don't wanna give up control of the claim. 23:17 That's a good question. 23:23 With your wind policy, does anybody have State Farm? 23:28 Okay, anybody State Farm? 23:29 All right, State Farm's policy says that you have 23:32 to provide a proof-of-loss within 60 days 23:34 of loss whether they ask for it or not. 23:36 Nobody knows that's in there in the State Farm policies. 23:40 And if homeowners fail to do that, 23:42 or they didn't advise them there's a statute 23:44 that helps us on that one, 23:46 and they have to show that they were somehow prejudiced 23:49 by that failure to provide a proof-of-loss. 23:52 Most of the other policies say 23:54 that you need to provide a proof-of-loss 23:56 within 60 days of our request. 24:00 And so if they request it, then you do need to fill it out. 24:04 Now, sometimes the insurance companies send you 24:07 a proof-of-loss form, and say hey, 24:08 we can't pay you until you sign this. 24:11 And then the top of it says the loss, 24:15 the amount of the loss, box, 24:17 it's like six A on the form. 24:20 Says, you know, $25,000. 24:23 They've already filled it out, 24:24 and they say just sign this, and we can process your claim. 24:27 You've just signed something that says, 24:30 that they've drafted that you say 24:32 I, the policyholder, swear under penalties 24:36 of perjury that this is the amount of my loss. 24:41 Don't do it. 24:43 You gotta go get your own estimate, and let's look at that. 24:46 You know, you can't just sign something, 24:48 a proof-of-loss form that they filled out with a number. 24:51 And they go well, that just gets us started, 24:53 and we need to process this thing and get things moving. 24:55 You need your money. 24:56 Because you've now just sworn that's the amount of the loss. 25:03 It's gotta create the opening. 25:05 I mean, most of the policies are gonna say, 25:07 that have that clause, 25:08 some of 'em don't have it at all. 25:10 And some of 'em are gonna say it has to come in 25:12 through an opening created by the storm. 25:14 - [Woman] So the fact that it rained sideways, 25:16 - Yeah, but if it sucks out the caulking, 25:20 then I'm good with that. 25:21 Yeah, if it just comes and blows through. 25:23 - [Woman] Ours only came through the vents 25:25 on the top of the roof. 25:26 That's the only-- 25:27 - Well, I gotta see the policy. 25:28 - [Woman] Is that considered wind-driven rain? 25:30 - Probably is not gonna be covered 25:33 if your policy says that we only cover loss 25:36 inside the house caused when the rain comes 25:39 in through an opening caused by the storm. 25:42 The opening has to be. 25:44 Let me look at it, just let me look at it. 25:50 You go try to find a replacement costs, 25:53 and that's what your entitled to, replacement costs. 25:55 - [Woman] Most of the stuff's like three years old. 25:57 - Okay, I mean, if you lose, 25:58 let's say this couch is destroyed. 26:01 It got rained on. 26:01 It got mold on it. 26:04 Take a picture of the couch. 26:05 Put one loveseat, brown, with wood. 26:10 And then go on the internet and find a cost for it. 26:13 You get replacement costs. 26:15 - 1,500. - Yeah, list 1,500. 26:17 And don't drive yourself crazy 26:19 whether they say, you know, we need receipts. 26:22 Gotta have receipts. 26:23 They will pester people 26:24 to death saying give us the receipts. 26:27 Just tell 'em I don't have receipts. 26:28 Well, we gotta have 'em. 26:30 You do not have to give them anything that you do not have. 26:35 - [Woman] Right. 26:35 - So, don't give it to 'em. 26:37 I ain't got no receipts. 26:38 Don't worry about it, and that's how you do it. 26:40 Just go on the internet, get a couple prices, 26:42 and it's replacement cost. 26:44 And I don't care if that was 25 years old, 26:47 and the springs are bad. 26:50 You get a new one. 26:51 You paid for replacement costs. 26:58 No, it doesn't matter. 26:59 I mean, people burn their own houses down, 27:02 and they still get covered as long as it's not on purpose. 27:05 I mean, I can't tell you how many people go to Walmart 27:06 and leave the stove on. 27:08 They must have all gotten together. 27:10 But they still covered. 27:13 So, you had to get up there. 27:15 Getting up there caused the damage, 27:17 and you have a duty actually to make reasonable repairs 27:20 to prevent further damage. 27:22 Submit it, and if they don't pay it, let me know. 27:24 Just get an estimate for the whole thing. 27:28 When they give you their estimate, they have a duty. 27:31 In fact, there's a case that says 27:32 the insurer doesn't have to contact the insurance company 27:35 and ask if they were joking. 27:37 It actually says that. (laughing) 27:40 Because the insurance company said 27:41 they never said they had a problem 27:44 with what we estimated the damage to be. 27:47 They said they don't have to call you 27:48 and find out if you were joking. 27:50 That's your number. 27:52 And so get their number, get our. 27:58 Yeah, but if it's not covered, I'm fair both ways. 28:01 If it ain't covered, it ain't covered. 28:04 But don't get yourself in trouble. 28:06 Remember that section in my book? 28:08 - [Woman] Yeah. (laughs) 28:09 - That section in my book, you gotta read it. 28:10 It's called winning without your help. 28:12 Most of the people that I talk about there 28:14 that tried to help me are in jail. 28:17 So, read that section. 28:19 Let 'em do what they're gonna do. 28:21 So, I told you about the receipts. 28:22 They're bugging people for receipts. 28:24 I had a client. 28:25 Drove her crazy, so she went to Rooms R Us 28:30 and Best Buy or wherever and got some receipt. 28:34 Bought a little bit of stuff, 28:35 and then she went with her computer. 28:37 - [Woman] Oh, no. 28:38 - 'Cause the insurance company told her, 28:40 you gotta have receipts. 28:42 She's like my house burned down. 28:43 Well, how are we gonna pay? 28:45 And she made up the receipts, 28:46 but she screwed it up a little bit. 28:49 And she had a TV, but that wasn't the receipt for her TV. 28:52 She went to jail, and I didn't know about it 28:54 until we went to the deposition at Best Buy, 28:58 and they said is this a receipt of yours? 29:00 And they go no, and here's why. 29:01 I go oh, crud. 29:04 That's a problem. 29:05 So, nah, don't tell 'em to rip it out. (laughs) 29:09 All right folks, I really appreciate you coming.