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Erika Heads Our Way – Is Your Community Prepared?

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With Tropical Storm Erika bearing down upon us and likely to hit our shores over the weekend or early next week, it is important for you to know what to do if your community suffers a property loss due to this storm.

There are certain steps you must take to ensure that your insurance claim is handled properly and with an eye towards maximizing your recovery. Far too many board members and managers mistakenly believe that the adjuster sent out by the insurance company to assess your property damage works for the association or, at the very least, has an independent view of things. In fact, the adjuster sent out by your insurance company works for the insurance company and is looking to keep the estimate of covered damage as low as possible. Most, if not all, insurance companies look at claims through their own filter which treats property damage as either a pre-existing condition or a failure to maintain on the association’s part, both of which work to reduce or deny your property damage claim.

One of the many benefits of being an annual retainer client of Becker & Poliakoff is that you are entitled to receive a post-disaster visit from your association attorney as well as one of our Insurance attorneys, to help you assess and document any damage you have suffered. We can also handle any insurance coverage claim you may have, and in most circumstances, without any out of pocket cost to your association. If you have property damage please keep in mind that proper notice to the insurance company is critical. We can assist you with that notice and initial claim preparation as well. While this reminder is timely and specific to hurricanes, we will also provide this service for any disaster, including, for example, a pipe bursting and leaking down to multiple floors.

If Erika does cross your path in the coming days and cause damage to your community, please call or email your B&P community association attorney as soon as possible so that we can help fast track your recovery and repairs. You can also feel free to call our Client CARE Center at 954-364-6090 or toll-free at 1-844-CAREBP1 (1-844-227-3271). You can also reach our Client CARE Center via email at care@bplegal.com.

Please keep the contact information contained in this CALL Alert handy as the most active month of our 6-month hurricane season is still to come- October.

If you haven’t already reviewed our Disaster Preparedness and Recovery Guidebook, it is not too late to gain a few tips before the 2015 hurricane season ends.

We hope that the remainder of the hurricane season keeps all of your community members well and safe.

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