Orlando Sinkhole Insurance Attorneys
Your home is probably your biggest investment, and you purchased homeowners insurance to protect that investment. What do you do if you start to see cracks in your home, or spaces opening up? Often the cracks and spaces are the result of sinkholes. Don’t be confused – sinkholes are not always big, gaping holes in the ground. That is only one type of sinkhole. That is known as a catastrophic ground cover collapse sinkhole. But, much more common are what are known as subsidence sinkholes. These typically cannot be seen with the naked eye. They result in a softening of the ground under the foundation of your home which ultimately results in your house beginning to crack.
Ground cover collapse and subsidence sinkholes are both covered by your Florida homeowners insurance policy. However, in order to avoid responsibility for the coverage, these insurance companies will often send an engineer to your house to perform an inspection. This can be a basic process, such as taking “hand auger borings” near the foundation of your home. It could also involve large machines that take borings deeper underground. In many cases, regardless of the process, the results are the same: their engineer finds that the cracking is due to “settling” caused by high organic content in the ground. You cannot take the insurance company’s engineer report at face value; simply put, these reports are often flat-out wrong.
You have to understand that the insurance companies routinely hire the same engineering firms time and again in order to provide reports so that the insurance company can deny the claim. You need to have your home inspected by an engineer who is not biased in favor of the insurance company. If I take your case, I will pay to have your home independently inspected to determine if you have sinkhole damage. If the answer is “no,” then you owe me nothing. If the answer is “yes,” then we can discuss the options.
The Nation Law Firm | Legal Help for Sinkhole Damage Victims 1(800)NATION-LAW | Se habla español
I have handled 1,000’s of insurance cases, and many sinkhole cases. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or concerns about whether your home has sustained sinkhole damage.
Another type of sinkhole case is where the insurance company admits there is sinkhole activity but is not offering enough money to repair the damage. Often I have found that the insurance company simply offers a low amount of money to “grout” under the home. This is often a mistake.
Remember, the insurance company’s “no” is not the end of the inquiry – it is just the beginning. In fact, every insurance case I’ve ever won has one thing in common – they all began when the insurance company said “no.”
Our firm has a team of experts to determine whether there is sinkhole activity, and the amount of damage.
If you have questions regarding a sinkhole claim, please call us toll free for a free consultation at 1-800-NATION-LAW, or submit the free case evaluation form. Remember, there are never any fees or costs unless we win, and if we lose “I’ll work for free.”
