The Win The Storm Conference was a very different and thought provoking conference because contractors and roofers involved in the insurance restoration and construction industry were the target attendees. Steve Badger, who was a speaker and observer for the insurance industry, mentioned that this was not a typical insurance conference because most of the attendees were in trades that are often not invited to the insurance industry table—the people doing the repair and reconstruction after catastrophes. Kudos to Anthony Delmedico for founding this informative and successful conference.
A major topic at the conference was what occurs when contractors are forced to fight with insurance company adjusters and claims managers to receive acceptable payments for profitable repair and reconstruction. From my viewpoint, there seems to be a war between those doing the repair after a catastrophe and those obligated through insurance to pay for it. I encourage all in these professions: contractors, roofers, insurance adjusters, and claims representatives, to look at this through the eyes of policyholders, who are the customers of both.
What policyholder would want to have a contractor strapped to make little or no profit performing the repair of a house or building? Reasonable construction pricing is important.
Contractors and roofers need payment for scope and repair that fully repairs damage from losses so that they can make a reasonable profit. I suggest that insurance executives consider paying amounts sufficient for them to have enough profit and that they stop cutting coverages for matching and limiting payment for full replacement. Would those same insurance executives want contractors who are forced to cut quality workmanship working on their homes? Would they want an insurance claims culture that reduces claims severity goals and claims payments regardless of the impact of the policyholder? If they lived by the Golden Rule, I doubt that would be the culture of claims payment.
Reasonable repair construction pricing is an important topic I will discuss more tomorrow. Until then, I suggest that those interested read the blog I posted following April Hall’s restoration seminar. This type of activity by claims departments should stop.
April Hall has an excellent storm restoration and contractor summit. Merlin Law Group attorneys Larry Bache and Drew Houghton will be speaking. Larry and Drew will be addressing, in part, the “reasonable cost to repair” a damaged structure and why the insurance industry often gets it so wrong by improperly using Xactimate.
Here is a link to sign up for her event. Larry Bache told me that he can hardly wait to hear Roger Staubach’s speech. I told Larry that his own speech and lessons should be more profitable to contractors than “Roger the Dodger’s” talk. If not, April might demand that I show up instead of him and Drew Houghton.
Tomorrow, I will write more about a reasonable cost to repair when issues arise between contractors, insurance company adjusters, and public adjusters. I will also write about my impressions from Win The Storm.
Thought For The Day
The whole difference between construction and creation is exactly this: that a thing constructed can only be loved after it is constructed; but a thing created is loved before it exists.
—Charles Dickens
