Insurance/Legal Matters in Restoration

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In disaster restoration, most negotiations occur between the contractor’s estimator or project manager and the insurance adjuster. The negotiation tends to be adversarial in nature, and generally ends with one of the parties feeling like they were cheated or taken advantage of.

A few years ago, a restoration client of mine asked me what he could do to speed up payment from bank escrow accounts for the insurance claim work he had done. 

I was recently asked to speak at a regional claims conference. Two days later, I was uninvited. The reason? I have an adjuster’s license.

Conflict is not always avoidable. Inevitably, many companies will find their way into a courtroom, whether chasing payment, in a dispute with a former employee or business partner, or for any number of other reasons.

Every cleaning and restoration contractor knows there are times where they are working on or around some pretty valuable items.

Usually mold testing is done with an inspection plus air and/or tape sampling. In recent years, our industry has seen a new method of mold testing – Environmental Relative Moldiness Index (ERMI) and sometimes it’s cousin HERTSMI-2.

Every restoration contractor seems to know an insurance agency can be a good source for referrals. Most marketers have noticed marketing to insurance agencies is becoming less productive over time. The good news is – there is a way to reverse the trend by understanding how and why it is happening.