Hi all:

Here are today's updates in insurance. Again, any confirmation on whether or not Parc Fontaine had insurance or not would be greatly appreciated (see previous entries and Parc Fontaine entries in the other Polimom forums).

19126. Who does Insurance pay first
by worriedinCal, 9/13/05 18:43 ET
Ok lets suppose the Insurance companies do start paying, who do they pay. If the home was flooded but not totalled, do they pay the lender, do they pay the construction repair company or do they pay the policy holder, Ive never made a homeowner's claim in my life, so I am a little lost.

19126.2. Who does insurance pay
by AndyofCroix, 9/13/05 21:18 ET
Re: Who does Insurance pay first by worriedinCal, 9/13/05
It pays the "Loss payees" listed in the policy. If you have a mortgage and the company is listed as a loss payee, the check will be made payable to both you and the company. If you are having the restoration work done, the mortgage company will probably set up an escrow account to disburse the funds to pay the contractor as various mile stones are met.

19228. INSURANCE-Advance Payments
by JChanes, 9/14/05 13:35 ET
Here's another post from an insurance coverage lawyer. First, and I CANNOT STRESS THIS ENOUGH, ask for an advance from your insurance company NOW. Don't wait to settle the whole claim (I'm in NYC and handled many, many small business claims on a pro bono basis -- and of all these dozens of claims, the first one to be settled was paid out nine months after 9/11. NINE MONTHS. Most people cannot afford to wait that long.). Here's how you work it: If your insurance company says your claim is worth, say, $1,000 and you think it's worth $100,000, tell them you want the undisputed amount of the claim ($1,000) paid now as an interim payment (if they want you to sign anything to get this money, make sure the document states that this is an "Interim Payment." Write in "Interim" by hand if you have to before you sign.). In most states, insurance companies are obligated to pay undisputed amounts immediately and cannot hold up the whole claim. Not sure about LA, but it's the law in NY, which is much less policyholder-friendly than LA. Second, if you have (or may have had) looting, that is a SEPARATE OCCURRENCE that would trigger coverage under a standard form homeowner's policy. That means you would have coverage (and additional policy limits available) for your looting losses even if you have no coverage for flood losses or hurricane losses, so give notice for your looting losses as well.I would be happy to discuss this in more depth with any of you. Although I cannot take on the kind of pro bono effort that I did after 9/11, I am doing some Hurricane Katrina pro bono work and I would consider the time spent talking to any of you as part of those efforts: I can be reached at 212-785-6543 or emailed directly atsjchanes@aol.com Now I have to put in the standard disclaimer about this not being legal advice, etc., to make my malpractice insurance company happy.

Go to the » N.O. Town Hall forum

19103.1.1. Binder
by Chathamchats, 9/14/05 16:44 ET
Re: Katrina & Insurance Proceeds by Chathamchats, 9/14/05
A binder may be issued orally, under La. R.S. 22:691(C). Under this statute, such binder "shall be deemed to include all the terms of such standard fire insurance policy . . ." A homeowners policy is a fire policy under the law. The long and short of it is that you have to prove that a binder was orally issued. The burden is on you to do so if the agent won't help. Are there any contemporaneous writings that you can submit to the ins. company to do so -- notes, for example? What were the limits of the policy you thought was being bound? Even so, it is helpful for you to be able to, and you should, stress to the insurer that an oral binder is valid under this statute.
Go to the » N.O. Town Hall forum

19252. LA Law
by Chathamchats, 9/14/05 17:09 ET
It is indeed the law of Louisiana, under a Louisiana Supreme Court case called McDill, that an insurer must make a tender of an amount that is indisputably due the insured to the insured in a timely manner. A breach of this obligation subjects the carrier to liability for penalties and attorney's fees. The problem is the degree to which there is a powerful likelihood of the denial of coverage altogether by homeowners insurers in this instance, a fact that is illustrated perfectly by what is currently occurring in MS. Again, this is a very dangerous place for sophisticated discussion of the implications of this coverage dispute, or imminent dispute. Be careful, for example, if you quickly get money from an insurer, not to sign a release. But the point of the post from NY is quite valid in La in the sense that the law is similar. The problem is the threshold issue, i.e., the likelihood that the insurer will deny coverage altogether. 9/11 was not Katrina. There are critical differences having to do with the standard terms of a homeowners policy, most notably, the absence, in the 9/11 tragedy, of floodwater -- the factor, so present, in contrast, here -- and so likely to lead the property and casualty insurance industry to generally deny coverage for losses caused, in LA, by concurrent causes. There are critical nuances to this in La due to certain statutes in the La Insurance Code but those are issues that all of you who are concerned with these matters should discuss with your lawyer or lawyer friends. As stated originally, these posts are designed to alert fellow citizens to the fact that there are important developments coming on the insurance front that folks need to put on their radar screens now. This is not, however, ethically or in any other sense, a fit place for the giving of legal advice. This gadfly is accordingly done with these notes. Y'all have been warned. But good luck to all!