What Do YOU Expect?

tonyb · Joined: 04 Jan 2004 Posts: 17 Location: Montgomery, PA

Dialogue About Victims

Common Problem For Disaster Survivors--Who cares...let them fend for themselves?

This document was created (compiled from actual forum dialogue) because when a building is ordered demolished that has been involved in a disaster, it is unconscionable that disaster survivors are paid for partial loss when they have lost everything and are entitled to total loss. And, merely because no one told them what they really had coming and how to get it.

This applies in this day and age, to property in every community where fire, hurricane, earthquake, tornado, flood or other disaster happens, and should be of concern to all insurance policyholders. I hope you will agree when you see how the public is affected.

Antone Braga
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The building dept. in my town is pressuring me to tear down what remains of my fire-damaged home but I don't want to yet. I'm still dealing with my insurance company. Has anyone else had a similar problem?
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See full article.

This is one example of a great many where it is essential for policyholders to have authority to file a "claim" for an amount of loss that does not agree with the insurance company. Although we have lost that right, the word "claim" has been removed from many of our insurance policies: http://www.disasterprepared.net/postmortem.html ... our presence can still be made known. And there is VAST hope. The power of people sharing a realization...the making of a presence known. The public has nowhere to turn for this otherwise unavailable information, except from those who care enough to share.

Who Cares? Hopefully, you do!
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I can speak for my fire department only. We are not involved when the building inspector condemns a building, no matter what the reason. Your information may very well be valid and important to that homeowner. I'm not sure what you are expecting us to do as again, we don't make the call to demolish or not. We are not even informed that a building is going to be demolished.
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Virtually no one dealing directly with disaster survivors is concerned with informing them that if their building is ordered demolished, they are entitled to claim total loss...not the firefighters, not the Red Cross, not FEMA, not the insurance companies, not the State Departments of Insurance, not the building departments, not the media...nobody says a word. The question I asked at the outset is still the question:

Common Problem For Disaster Survivors--"Who cares...let them fend for themselves?"

The continuing answer from all quarters is an emphatic, "Yes."
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What would you have us do, take money out of the FD budget to build them a new house? Its just not feasible, and as a fire dept. affiliated with the city, town county, etc., etc., it is a conflict of interest for us to recommend any type of service. Example: if I go to a wreck I can say you need to have the car towed because it is no longer safe to operate, but I cannot by any means say, call for Larry's towing service, that's who I would use. It may appear that once the fire is out we pack up our toys and go home without another thought to the individual affected, but really we are bound by laws that prohibit us from doing anything more. So, do we care? Yes we do, but we are between a rock and a hard place. So once again what would you have us do?
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No need to use any money, and no need to recommend a service, by speaking up and saying something on the order of, "If you check on the internet, there is information there that can help you understand what you have coming on your insurance claim."

By the way, I do not have a service..I publish information, a book. I can understand if no recommendation on the book is given, but the link I give has free information that is otherwise not available to victims.
Rebuilding Under Replacement Coverage
My insurer asked me to give a recorded statement
Claim Adjusting
http://disasterprepared.net/whatdoyouexpectforum.html
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How to know what to expect in case of loss: http://www.disasterprepared.net/deserve.html

Your Insurance: You Know What to Expect