What can I do if I had a house fire but my insurer is making me a low offer on my claim?
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What can I do if I had a house fire but my insurer is making me a low offer on my claim?
My house had a gas fire and the insurance company declared it a total loss. I had a large collection of items in my house. The fire was 2 years ago and they have made a totally ridiculous offer and payment. I had hundreds of records and a huge collection of sports cards, postcards, magazines and the amount of items was huge, thousands and thousands of items in my one room. They had done my inventory list, the list in my one room was about 7 thousand items. And the reallity is there was well over double t items and they returned dozens of boxes and I saw many problems with their prices as I did my own inventory and sent in all this into them this month but now they told me I had a 2 year limit.
Asked on April 18, 2014 under Insurance Law, New York
Answers:
SJZ, Member, New York Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 10 years ago | Contributor
An insurer is obligated to pay out what the policy (which is a contract) requires it to pay out; it is also obligated to deal in good faith with its insured. If you beleive it either is violating its policy obligations and/or is acting in bad faith--which includes not offering you what your property can be proven or demonstrated to have been worth--you could sue them to get them to honor their obligations. You may wish to consult with an attorney about this case, to see what additional amount you may be able to seek and what it would cost to pursue the case.
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