Do you know what you own? NJ Public Adjuster helps fire victim.
A couple of
months ago we received a call from a young woman in Asbury Park. Her house that she was renting burned down to the ground due to a massive fire at 2 am in the morning. This left her with absolutely nothing other than the shirt on her back. Thankfully, she had renters insurance that covered the contents of her house.
NJ Public Adjusters Tip: We have had many cases where a tenant lost everything due to a fire but did not have renters insurance. They assumed the owner's insurance covers them. BIG MISTAKE! The owner's insurance will only cover the structure but NOT the contents belonging to the tenant! They were left with absolutely nothing and we were unable to help them. Piece of advice: if you are currently renting - look into renters insurance. In case of the unthinkable - you will be covered.
So this woman comes to us, a single girl expecting a baby in a few months with no place to live and all her worldly possessions gone. She has no idea where to start. Her family all lived out of state and she felt truly alone. She needed at least some money quickly to buy the bare necessities.
New Jersey Public Adjusters took on the case. We of course got the insurance company to forward money to her to cover her immediate needs. The challenge facing us was, when a house is completely destroyed by the fire and razed the next day by the city due to safety concerns, you have nothing to work with at all. What type of furniture did she have? Clothing? Appliances? Electronics? Jewelry? DVDs? How many of each? The woman, in her distraught state after such a traumatic event could hardly think clearly enough to come up with an inventory list to present to the insurance company.
Think about it. If your house was completely destroyed, would you be able to come up with list of EVERYTHING you own? You have nothing to go by other than your own memory. Does your wife remember how many shoes she owns? Do you know exactly how many tools you have? DVDs? Pieces of jewelry? Socks?Can you mentally go through every drawer in your house and tell me what's in it? Do you know what's in your storage room or garage if you have to document what you lost? Difficult.
NJ Public Adjusters Tip:It is highly recommended that you take off 30 minutes on Sunday and run through your home with a camcorder. Open up all drawers and closets and just walk around the room talking about the various items you are capturing on camera. Keep the CD/Video/DVD off site. It will save you hours of heartache and grief in case of the unthinkable. It will save you thousands of dollars of unclaimed contents. Additionally, with photographs or videos the insurance company will give you a much easier time. There are a number of inventory services out there that will do this for you for approximately $350.00. If you have the money and don't have the time, you cannot afford NOT to do this.
In the end, we did manage to secure for her: $40,000 from her insurance company. We just had to mentally go through with her - room by room, jogging her memory about possible items she overlooked and we came up with the inventory. She was very appreciative that she had a NJ Public Adjuster there for her every step of the way, answering questions and helping her out.
I keep telling you. It pays to have a Public Adjuster on your side.
Henry
