Orlando Property Damage Attorneys

Without a doubt, Orlando, FL is a fantastic place to live. There’s a reason so many families buy homes in this friendly, sunny town. At the same time, Florida is the state with the highest risk of property damage losses due to natural hazards.

Miles of coastland provide excellent opportunities for family outings, tourism business, photogenic occasions…and storms.

More Storms = More Property Damage

All Orlando, Florida residents and business owners need property damage insurance. These policies can provide some peace of mind that the costs of repair after devastating events from water damage or a fire won’t fall solely on your bank account or cause financial ruin.

Unfortunately, insurance companies often deny, delay or underpay such claims. Since the costs of this kind of damage is often in the thousands of dollars or more, such denials, delays and underpayments can be disastrous for a property or homeowner.

Why You May Need an Attorney

Orlando lawyers who specialize in such claims are in high demand. A lawyer may be indispensable in this process. Attorneys who are trained to pursue a legal settlement can help you get a better result and, more importantly, help you avoid potentially disastrous mistakes in the process.

Lawyers who focus on this area of the law know the ins and outs of the trade. An attorney can more effectively represent your interests and help maximize the full legal value of your claim. Simply put, with a good lawyer at your side, you can get a much better payout to repair or restore your property to its pre-loss condition.

When Insurance Companies Don’t Come Through

It is frustrating to pay your premiums on time every month, only for the insurance provider to drag its feet when you need to make a claim on our home or business. This is why finding a lawyer may be your best option.

A property damage attorney with practice areas in Orlando FL or Winter Haven can help you handle this situation and possibly speed things along with the insurance claims process.

Common Causes of Property Damage in Orlando

Property damage to a home or business in Orlando, FL comes in many forms – fire, water, lightning, hurricanes, mold, wind, and sinkholes can all cause catastrophic damage to a home.

Orlando Fire Damage Attorneys

Fire damage can cause unimaginable damage to a house. According to FEMA, losses due to residential fires reached $14.8 billion in 2019, up almost 75% since 2010. A fire is one of the most devastating events that can happen to a home and can result in a total loss.

Orlando Water Damage Attorneys

Water damage is especially common in Orlando, FL. Storm-related floods are certainly a cause of residential water damage, but the most common causes of such damage are actually not related to storms at all.

Instead, the most common cause of water damage in a home is flaws or leaks in water heaters, HVAC systems, roofs, toilets, and sprinklers. Leaking air conditioning units, pump failures, and overflowing gutters can also cause water damage.

Aging pipes and water infrastructure lead to an alarming number of flooding incidents in Florida houses as well. After hail and wind damage, the second most common type of insurance claim is water damage. Every year, a water damage insurance claim is submitted by one out of every fifty insured homes.

Water damage claims are also becoming more expensive every year. Since 2015, claims over $500,000 have doubled, while claims over $1 million have tripled.

Lightning

Florida is the top state for lightning-related insurance claims, followed closely by Texas and California. While the number of these claims has been declining in the past few years, the average cost per claim rose by eleven percent from 2017 to 2019.

Orlando Hurricane Damage Lawyers & Orlando Storm Damage Lawyers

The number and severity of hurricanes are steadily increasing, and Florida is significantly affected by this trend.

From 2018 to 2020, fifty weather and climate disaster events caused losses of $1 billion or more. In 2020 alone, 22 billion-dollar disasters occurred in the U.S. 2020 also marked the tenth year in a row with at least eight billion-dollar storms. Overall since 1980, $1.875 trillion of damage has been caused by climate events like hurricanes.

Hurricanes can cause catastrophic damage to a home. If climate scientists are correct, hurricanes will only continue to increase in frequency and intensity. The costs of damage to homes will only continue to grow, especially in Florida.

Mold

When most people think about property damage, mold is not one of the first things that come to mind. While fires, storms, and floods may be the sources of property damage that show up on the evening news, mold can be just as destructive to a home.

Mold is a fungus that grows in any wet breeding ground. It can occur in any place where there is dampness, high humidity, or water intrusion. As mold grows, it can degrade its host material.
When there is some form of water intrusion in a house, it is essential to remove the moisture within the first 48 hours of exposure; otherwise, mold sets in.

While some types of mold have no adverse effect on most people, other types can cause severe health problems. Individuals with asthma or other respiratory issues are especially susceptible to health problems related to the spores released by the mold.

In addition to threats to the health of a house’s residents, mold can cause damage to the house itself. Every year, mold actually destroys more wood than termites and fire combined.

The number of mold-related property damage claims is on a steady incline, especially in Florida. Professional mold removal can cost anywhere from $500-6000 on average, but that price can be in the tens of thousands if the mold is widespread.

Wind

Wind is one of the most common causes of property damage insurance claims. Roughly one insured home in forty has a wind-related property damage claim every year, compared to one in 350 for fire or lightning and one in 400 for theft.

Exterior wind damage accounts for 25% of all insurance claim losses. Damage from strong winds is actually more common than damage from tornadoes.

Orlando Hail Damage Lawyers

Along with wind, hail is one of the most common causes of home damage resulting in insurance claims, accounting for 15%. Insured losses related to hail averaged between $8-14 billion a year between 2019 and 2000.

As with hurricanes, hail storms seem to be steadily increasing over time –  2020 saw a total of 4,611 major hailstorms.

While hail storms are notoriously difficult to predict, hail is most common in Florida during the months of May and June and between the hours of 2:00 and 4:00 PM.

Hailstorms can cause roof damage as well as dents in gutters, shingles, and aluminum siding. Large hail can crack wood shakes, asphalt roofs, and vinyl siding. Hail storms can also cause limbs on surrounding trees to break off and fall on a house.

Sinkholes

Sinkholes are perhaps the most unpredictable of the major causes of property damage in Orlando.

Sinkholes are cavities under the ground caused by water erosion. When the underground caverns formed by this erosion become too large to support the surface layer, the ground collapses into the cavity, taking anything built on it down with it.

Unfortunately for us, Florida is the state with the most sinkhole occurrences, followed by Texas, Alabama, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Pennsylvania.

Homeowners insurance in many states does not cover sinkholes, but because of their prevalence in the state, insurance carriers must include catastrophic ground cover collapse according to Florida law. However, other damage caused by a sinkhole may not be covered, depending on the policy specifics.

Sinkholes can inflict various kinds of damage to a house, including causing the foundation to crack or settle, floor cracks, wall cracks, uneven floors, window frame cracks, door frame cracks, and windows and doors that will not close properly.

Since 2006, the average sinkhole damage per year has been over $300 million. The average claim for sinkhole damage in Florida is over $140,000.

How Insurance Works (Or Doesn’t)

Homeowners insurance is considered a package policy, meaning it covers both damage to the property and legal liability for any property damage or personal injury the policyholders cause.

Most homeowners policies exclude earthquakes and flooding from property damage insurance.
Taking photos of the damage for verification or evidentiary purposes is often necessary and always suggested. Left unchanged, the damage can permanently destroy the value of your Orlando home.

Types of Coverage

Homeowners policies generally include four types of coverage:

Structure of the Home

This section of the policy pays for repairing or rebuilding the house itself after a disaster or accident covered by the policy.

Personal Belongings

This section of the policy replaces clothes, furniture, leisure equipment, and other personal items destroyed by a disaster covered by the policy.

Liability Protection

This section of the policy covers lawsuits filed regarding property damage or personal injury caused to other people by accident or negligence of the policyholder or family.

Additional Living Expenses

This section of the policy pays the expenses of residing away from home while the house is uninhabitable due to a disaster covered by the insurance policy.

Levels of Coverage

There are three levels of coverage:

Actual Cash Value

Pays to repair or replace damaged property minus a deduction for depreciation.

Replacement Cost

Pays to repair or replace damaged property with no deduction for depreciation.

Guaranteed/Extended Replacement Cost

Pays to repair or replace property even if it exceeds the policy limit. This form of plan is especially beneficial if a natural disaster has caused a shortage of supplies, driving prices up.

When Insurance Companies Resist

In theory, you sign up for an insurance policy, which provides you the coverage you think you might need to protect your house and belongings from various threats and any personal injury. You pay a monthly premium to your insurance company. Then, when disaster strikes, you make a claim.

Insurance adjusters come to your house to evaluate the property damage. The insurance company issues a check for the replacement value of your property and any cost incurred by personal injury. You get your home back the way it was.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work out this way with insurance companies. This is why lawyers must often get involved.

Much like a driver’s insurance company, Orlando property insurance companies are not churches or charities – they are a business. Their main goal is to make money. They do this by collecting more in premiums from a client than they pay out to that client in claims for property damage.

They have an inherent motive to collect the highest premium they can convince a client to sign up for, then minimize, delay, or outright deny your claim when your property has suffered damage. This is where an experienced law firm comes in.

A free consultation can help you get started: discuss the settlement you deserve with a lawyer who works with the insurance business every day and can secure the appropriate compensation for your claim.

How a Florida Property Damage Attorney Can Help

An experienced insurance and property damage attorney in Orlando can help private individuals deal with a recalcitrant insurance carrier by offering legal advice and advocating on your behalf during the claims process.

An insurance and property damage attorney in Orlando can analyze your policy and help you determine whether the insurance carrier’s offer for compensation of your damaged personal property is fair and made in good faith.

If the compensation offer is not fair, a good property damage attorney in Orlando can negotiate with the insurance company to secure a more appropriate amount for the property owners to cover the value of the property damage. It is extremely important that you seek a free consultation with a law firm regarding your claim as soon as possible.

If necessary, an Orlando insurance and property damage attorney can represent you in court proceedings if your insurance carrier acts in bad faith regarding your property damage claim. A free consultation can help determine if a law firm can offer helpful legal advice regarding your claim in central Florida.

For Free?

In most cases, Florida law will allow us to represent you on a contingency basis, meaning that you will not owe our law firm any legal fees or costs if we do not obtain you more money from your insurance company! No monthly legal bills, and nothing paid upfront! We collect only if you prevail against your insurance company.

Become a Client of an Orlando Attorney to Get a Better Settlement

Florida residents can often obtain a better settlement after they discuss their legal options with a lawyer. Our Orlando lawyers have the legal training to evaluate a settlement and determine if their client is being treated fairly, so it’s a good idea to contact a lawyer early in the process so that an attorney can effectively represent you in negotiating with the insurance company.

Don’t Accept a Lowball Settlement without Consulting a Lawyer

Lawyers who specialize in this area can help you get a much better settlement. A good lawyer at our firm’s Orlando offices can likely secure a higher compensation amount than you would receive without a lawyer.

A lawyer can be your best weapon in the fight to fund your repairs since lawyers are trained to represent your interests in these cases. Facing off against your insurer without lawyers on your side is not a good idea. Don’t sign or agree to anything without having an attorney review your case first!

Contact Us

Vargas Gonzalez Baldwin Delombard, LLP, is one of the best law firms handling insurance claims for property damage in Orlando, Florida. We will work tirelessly to obtain fair payment for your property damage and other insurance-related claims. If you think your insurance company has not offered fair compensation for your property damage claim, take the first step toward receiving the settlement you deserve; contact us and sign up for a free initial consultation regarding your claim.

We have proven prior results of success for our clients and we will do our best to achieve a better, positive outcome for you as a client than you could on your own. Whether your property has suffered hurricane damage or has been damaged by another cause of loss covered by your insurance policy, you deserve a law firm who will get you the best settlement possible for your property damage claims.

Contact us to set up your free consultation today!

(407) 603-7940