Insurers Prefer a One-Way Door. Assuming you have good photos and a good story to tell, do you submit an insurance claim? Are there any other factors you should consider?
The first thing to know is that insurers are not your friends. You are not “in good hands” when you are in their hands. Insurers are in business to take in your premiums, but pay out as little as possible. They want the cash flow to flow in one direction only, their own.
When you submit a claim directly, you start out with a huge disadvantage. You may be great at managing properties, you are no match for the sophistication of insurance adjusters and policy managers. Let’s say you submit a claim for water damage, such as shown in this picture.
Will your insurer cover this? If the insurer finds evidence of construction or design defect, your claim will almost certainly be rejected because such defects are excluded from coverage.
Well before you submit the claim, you should have a clear understanding of the nature of the damage, the cause, and the language of the insurance policy that might apply to the claim. Finally, you have to know how the courts have interpreted those clauses in the policy.
