We have opened an Arizona office in the Phoenix area. Monica Lindstrom is heading our efforts there. The primary reason for the office is to help policyholders with hail storm damage claims which are disputed by insurance companies.
A recurrent justification from many insurance companies and their hail damage experts is that the hail storm damage is not structural damage. Many of these findings are misplaced in fact because hail stones did damage the roofs. Second, cosmetic damage is physical damage covered under a property insurance policy.
I discussed this issue in Cosmetic Damage is "Physical Damage" and Recoverable Under a Property Insurance Policy. As a follow-up on the issue of whether an insurer has an obligation to match damaged areas with undamaged areas of a structure when considering the costs to repair, I suggest Coverage Issue of "Matching" Roof Tiles or Shingles Shows How to Use the Search Function of this Blog.
The hail damage issues raised in Phoenix are similar to those raised by insurance companies following the recent Dallas and Oklahoma City hail storms. You have to hand it some bad players in the insurance industry. They sell protection for the costs to make a structure the same as it was before a loss. But after a loss, the same product morphs into something else, with extraordinary creativity and explanations about why the fine print of the contract does not afford the prior promise of coverage.
