As Florida residents work to clean up their homes, yards and streets after the recent hurricane activity, Florida business or commercial building owners are also aggressively trying to get their businesses back on track. The financial lossess associated with property damage as well as lost business may not fully be known for some time. It is important that people carefully review their insurance policy contracts.
Reports indicate that within a mere nine days of the strike of hurricane Irma, nearly 500,000 claims for lossess had been filed. In all, these claims total over $3 billion. More than 18,000 of the claims were made by businesses and it is not known how many more may yet be to come.
However, before people automatically assume that these numbers represent the amount of money that will be paid, more information is important. The fact remains that many of these claims may be denied or only be paid in part. There can be many exclusions in an insurance policy especially when it comes to storm damage. This is why understanding the terms of the contract makes a big difference. In some cases, there can be a very fine line between what is coverable and what is not and this may even lead to disputes between insurance companies and their insured customers.
Business owners who have sustained storm losses may find it helpful to discuss their current situations and insurance needs with an experienced contract attorney in Florida.
Source: Sun Sentinel, “Hurricane Irma claims in Florida: $3.1 billion so far,” Ron Hurtibise, September 21, 2017