Ask An Expert

We had a pin hole leak in our hot water pipe in our crawlspace. We noticed a tiny speck of mold on our furnace cabinet, discovered the leak under the house, immediately turned off the water and repaired the pipe. Our claim was denied as…

Is it normal for a contractor to charge an up-front fee for providing a written building estimate, bid or quote that is required by the insurance company?

I was parked in a large parking lot and was slowly, very slowly backing out of my spot at the same moment another driver in a larger car than mine was also backing out. The shape of the parking lot on that row was slightly…

Our Insurance company recommended a water mitigation company on their behalf. The water mitigation company exacerbated an issue. Is this relationship between the insured and water mitigation company or is this relationship between the insurer and water mitigation?

Hi, Our home was in the Marshall Fire in CO, but survived with smoke & fire damage. Prior to the event, we were underinsured. Since then, we’ve been trying to increase our dwelling coverage with our insurance company (USAA). After two attempts, we were able…

We recently had damage occur to our community pool. The adjuster is requiring a contractor to help determine the cause of the damage. Who pays the contractor?? Thanks, Don

The “extended coverage” that they add to coverage A (that extra 20% or whatever), do you get that if you are buying a new house or only if you are rebuilding?

Can you recover the amount in your policy for code upgrades if you buy a house elsewhere that meets those codes?

Can you clarify further the difference between a scope of loss and an estimate? I feel like my insurer went straight to the estimate without sharing a detailed scope. How long and how in-depth should the scope be?

Can you provide a list of items that are commonly left out in estimates?

Do cost to rebuild estimates from insurers include architect fees, structural engineering, etc?

My adjuster said that architect plans specific to building code upgrades are also part of our building code limit and wants the firm to price that portion separately. Any insights? I will greatly exceed my code limits.

Our adjuster gave us an estimate with a very small amount for code upgrades, without explanation. In response to a question about it, they said they would revisit it in the future when we rebuild and get evidence of what the upgrades cost. Is this…

How do you distinguish code upgrades for what is essentially a new build? A builder wouldn’t do a new build to outdated codes, so how would they price out what would essentially be a downgrade?

Our policy includes code upgrades, but our city may be waiving some of the codes they added last year. Do you think we can still get funding for code upgrades if our city had them originally but is waving some now?