Tornado season hits hard in Texas most years, leaving plenty of people grappling with concerns about how to get their property repaired or replaced. If you have insurance to protect you in the event of tornado damage but are having issues with your insurance company, you may have grounds for a bad faith insurance claim.
Our Houston tornado damage claim lawyers can help you if you have a bad faith dispute with your insurance company. Many insurance policyholders do not recognize their legal rights and fail to protect themselves in the event of a tornado damage dispute with their homeowners insurance carrier.
If you’re trying to sort through a tornado damage dispute with your insurance carrier, get the lawyers at Haun Mena on your side.
Property Damage from Tornadoes in Houston
Tornado damage coverage is typically included in insurance policies under the umbrella of windstorm damage.
In addition to covering some personal property in your home, most policies cover dwelling damage for the home itself, your loss of use costs for temporary living expenses while you’re unable to live in the home, and other covered structures like a garage or tool shed. Review your specific policy to learn more about what is and isn’t covered.
Many insurance disputes arise over the application of dwelling damage. This coverage helps to repair or rebuild your home if it gets damaged by a tornado.
For most tornado victims in Texas, a home may be a total loss or so significantly damaged that the dwelling costs may be in the tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars. With so much at stake for your home and your future there, it’s important to make sure you get everything you’re entitled to under your insurance policy after a tornado.
What to Do if Your Home has Sustained Tornado Damage
You need to document the damage and communicate this to your insurance policy as soon as possible. Many policies that cover damage caused by a tornado’s violent winds may fall under several different labels on your policy which may be named as weather, tornado, hurricane, storm, cyclone, or windstorm insurance.
Regardless of the name of your particular coverage, it is common practice for insurance companies to try to exclude your coverage after an actual tornado. This means that the insurance company may unreasonably delay or deny your tornado damage claim.
If the insurance company’s conduct has violated your rights or broken the law, you may have grounds for a bad faith action against that insurance carrier.
What if Your Home Insurer Denied Your Tornado Claim?
There are many different problems that insurance policy holders may face after submitting their tornado damage claim to their carrier. These include:
-
Failure to promptly pay claims
-
Wrongfully denied property damage claims
-
Unreasonable reporting requirements for damage from tornadoes
-
Lowball settlement offers and claims assessments
-
Accusations that your home or building did not meet specified code requirements.
It’s hard enough to lose your home and other property in a tornado. No policyholder should have to argue with their insurance carrier on their own for the coverage owed.
Insurance companies are legally required to show reasonable cause for delaying or denying payment. If the policy clearly covers windstorms, hail, rain, tornado, or other weather-related issues, working with a knowledgeable insurance denial attorney can help you.
An insurance company has the legal responsibility to investigate your insurance claim without bias and to fairly compensate you for losses covered under your policy. If you purchase specific tornado insurance coverage or storm damage protection and your insurance company is unreasonably refusing to pay your claim, you may have grounds for a bad faith lawsuit.
Our bad faith insurance lawyers will look at the damage to your home, the insurance company’s reasons for the denial, and the specific language of your policy. Expert witnesses can counter the insurance adjuster’s valuation. In the event that we cannot reach a reasonable resolution of your tornado claim outside of court, we will take your case to trial in a bad faith lawsuit.
If you are successful in a bad faith insurance lawsuit, your insurance company may have to pay for actual losses based on your policy limits. In addition to punitive damages for their dishonesty and the hardships you sustained. Punitive damages are evaluated as part of the insurance carrier’s net worth. For further information about tornado damage coverage and how a law firm can help, it is extremely important to retain a dedicated attorney.
Help with Deceptive Tornado Insurance Claim Practices
It can be very difficult for a policyholder to determine their legal rights and to counter the insurance company during tough negotiations or a stalled claim. When you’re dealing with substantial challenges, it is important to communicate with qualified insurance lawyers immediately.
Contact our Houston tornado damage claim lawyers to learn more about your legal right to recovery and what we can do to help to support you in a bad faith insurance claim.
At Haun Mena, we know how hard it can be for victims who have to put their lives back together after a devastating tornado. Let us take charge of your legal case.