Ask An Expert

My car was stolen July 9th and recovered 4 days later. At the time my coverage had lapsed due to an auto-payment that didn’t go through two months prior. I intended to make up the payment but just procrastinated it. You can imagine my additional…

Let’s say: A married couple own a building in Brooklyn NY with one tenant. This building is their primary residence. The homeowners insurance policy is a Multi-peril Special Form policy. They create a revocable living trust. They are the Trustees of the newly created trust.…

Complete loss of house in Palisades Fire, I have CA Fair Plan insurance, they’ve paid all buckets except $20k plants, $25k debris removal, and $160k code upgrade. Since they must pay me these amounts whether i rebuild or buy a replacement property, why will they…

I’m looking for guidance on an ALE issue stemming from prolonged carrier delays. I experienced a significant interior flooding loss that left my condo unit fully gutted and uninhabitable. For approximately six months, I received inconsistent and conflicting guidance from my insurer regarding whether my…

I saw somewhere that when a state of emergency is declared in California, additional time is allowed to submit a requested sworn statement of proof of loss. I understand that it is normally 60 days from the request, but I thought I saw that it…

The home we lost in the Eaton Fire consisted of a two-story front house of approximately 2,700 sq. ft. and a rear unit of about 500 sq. ft., for a total of roughly 3,200 sq. ft. of living space. The design-build firm we are currently…

How do insurance carriers qualify a home as "habitable" when it comes to ending ALE under a policy holder’s coverage C provision? By way of an example, our home contained moderate – severe heavy metal contamination from the Eaton Wildfire. We had our home remediated, and post…

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If an insurance company determines a constructive total loss on a house fire claim, do they need to formally inform the insured of this determination in a written letter? If so, how long after this determination are they required to inform the insured?

We have identified a replacement property for our Eaton Fire loss that the insurer has approved as being of ‘like kind and quality.’ However, we are still negotiating the final Replacement Cost Value (RCV) of our original home. Can we proceed with purchasing this replacement…

We lost our home in the Eaton Fire last year. A family member owns a property that we would like to purchase as our replacement home. This property is similar to what we lost. Is it allowed to purchase a replacement home from a family…

Our family lost multiple homes in the Eaton Fire. Many of the valuable items were one-of-a-kind (artwork, antiques, handcrafts) or uniquely valuable (signed first-edition books, etc.), so their worth cannot be easily determined by simply searching current retail prices. The anguish and exhaustion of the…

I lost my homeowners insurance about two and a half months before the Palisades fire. At the time, I was insured through State Farm and then transitioned to the California FAIR Plan. Since the fire, State Farm has declined to continue providing the wrap policy…

When homeowners form a revocable trust and move the title of their NY property to the trust, what is the correct way to update their homeowners insurance policy? Is it to write a new policy in the name of the Trust or is it to…

After the total loss of my home in the Eaton wildfire in January, I have retained a design-build firm, and our plans for the rebuild are with the permitting dept. now. But–this far into the game– I’m considering cancelling the rebuild plans. Can you point…