If the insurance company is trying to lowball you, your lawyer will bring in an independent insurance adjuster to provide a fair appraisal of the damages.
There are over 400,000 households in Rhode Island and most homeowners in the state have at least standard home insurance to protect them against certain risks, such as wind, storms, lightning or fire. Unfortunately, when they need to file a claim many homeowners discover that their insurer is unwilling to fulfill its fiduciary obligations and compensate their losses. If your claim is unreasonably delayed or denied, you shouldn’t give up. It may feel like you’re at their mercy, but you’re not. You have rights and the best way to protect them is to look up the best homeowners insurance claim denial lawyers in Rhode Island you can find.
What is insurer bad faith?
An insurance policy is a contract between you and the insurer. Under this contract, both parties have rights as well as duties. If you don’t do your duty to pay your premium on time, they have the right to cancel your policy. At the same time, when you file a valid claim it is your right to be compensated for the losses caused by an insured peril. If they fail in their duty to compensate you, a skilled homeowners insurance claims lawyer in Providence can help you sue them for breach of contract or bad faith.
What are the most common forms of insurer bad faith in Rhode Island?
Insurance companies use various tactics to avoid paying the damages a homeowner is entitled to. Here are a few examples.
- Failure to acknowledge or investigate a claim
- Requiring unnecessary documents just to have a pretext to deny your claim
- Lowballing you by offering a settlement well below your expectations
- Misrepresenting or misinterpreting the terms of your policy to claim you lack coverage for a certain risk
- Accusing you of arson or other intentional acts that would render your policy void.
How can an insurance claims lawyer help?
The first thing an experienced insurance claims lawyer will do is to review your file and determine if you do have a case. If they think you don’t, they won’t waste your time. Insurance claims attorneys work on a contingency fee basis, which means that they don’t get paid if they don’t win the case for you.
Another great advantage of having a good lawyer watching out for you is that a professional can easily understand and interpret the extremely-confusing wording in your insurance policy. If the insurance guys are trying to misinterpret the terms and conditions in your policy, your lawyer will put them in their place.
If the insurance company is trying to lowball you, your lawyer will bring in an independent insurance adjuster to provide a fair appraisal of the damages. You can use this to counter the estimate provided by the adjuster sent by the company.
Perhaps the greatest benefit of hiring a lawyer is that such a move sends a powerful signal to the insurer. You are not at their mercy. You have someone who knows all the tricks they routinely use and can sue them for bad faith. They cannot fool you.
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