Insurance companies make a strict point to differentiate these two, and perhaps for good reason. Water damage refers to commonplace water accidents in the home: broken pipes, appliance leaks, clogged toilets, and the like. Flood damage, on the other hand, refers to water damage caused by a natural flood: heavy rain storm, public water incident, hurricane, etc.
The differences between these two will make an impact on your case, as some policies cover one and not the other. Additionally, flood damage tends to be more complete, more destructive, whereas water damage tends to affect only a small area of the home.
Frequently Used Bad Faith Tactics
Insurance companies are notorious for attempting to utilize loopholes to avoid paying out. The moment you run into this problem, contact a qualified New Orleans bad faith insurance attorney. In dealing with them yourself, they may lead you down a chain of events that confuses you and voids our attempts to recover your disbursement.
Contact a property damage attorney if you experience the following:
- Deliberate delaying of the investigation
- Claiming the damage was caused by another force
- Claiming your home had existing damage
- Deliberate delaying of your payments
- Intentional shortchanging or misrepresentation of the coverage needed
- Manipulation of the evidence during investigation
What You Can Do to Avoid Bad Faith
In addition to calling an attorney to handle the insurance companies for you, there a few things you can always do in the event that your home or automobiles experience flood damage.
Keep a record of all of the following items:
- Your interactions with the insurance agency
- Pictures of the damage in contrast to before the damage
- Invoices, appraisals, repairs, quotes
- The original terms of your insurance policy
