Ordinarily, most insurance policies include coverage for the reasonable cost of necessary emergency measures taken to mitigate damages caused by a given loss. Ironically, the insurance policies actually require a homeowner to mitigate their damages after a loss, and the failure to do so likely causes denial of the claim. Usually, these kinds of services are performed by small businesses that would take an assignment of the homeowners' benefits under the policy from the insured, in order to be directly paid by the carrier for its work. This was helpful to homeowners in offsetting costs following an emergency loss and these services were required but they could not come out of pocket for the same. 

The problem is that once submitted, these assignments and the bills that accompanied them began to be refused or baselessly rejected by the insurance companies. This understandably led to a number of lawsuits being filed against the insurance companies to obtain fair payment and protect the vendor’s rights. This angered the big insurance companies in Florida, who lashed out and damaged vendor and homeowner rights via enactment of the unconstitutional HB337, that was later signed into Florida Law by republican Gov. De Santis as F.S 627.7152. 

This “law” was passed in 2019, in an environment that was very friendly to the big insurance companies. Led by Senators Broxson and Brandes, under the guise of “AOB reform,” the Florida Legislature passed this extremely damaging bill seeking to destroy the business of emergency mitigation vendors and their ability to be fairly paid by an insurance company for their work. This also eliminated key rights of the insured under the policy and impairs their ability to secure proper emergency services in order to mitigate their damages. 

To confuse the public, these Senators have misleadingly advanced the argument that this was, “assignment of benefit reform,” but that could not be further than the truth. The term “reform,” implies that a change was necessary and that the proposed cure will be an improvement; which is not true. To be sure, this law was pursued by the insurance companies and their legislative allies in order to prejudice mitigation vendors, run them out of business and to save their already wealthy companies more money. 

This was done with little regard for the effect this would have on policyholder and vendor rights in the State of Florida; which have been severely, negatively impacted.  

In order to assist our emergency mitigation vendor clients who wish to operate in the post F.S. 627.7152 world utilizing an assignment of benefits; our attorneys at Kowzan Law are equipped to help them comply. 

If our client prefers to circumvent this Statute and operate with work authorization and corresponding documents, we are also prepared to advise them on how to be successful in this path. 

In the end, we will remain on the front lines of fighting the “big insurance company friendly,” legislature and work to have this unconstitutional “law” overturned and stricken from the books. 

Bad Faith Damages

Insurance Claim Appraisals

In the event of a hurricane, fire sinking, flood, theft or any other casualty, an insurance company may choose to invoke a portion of the policy that seeks to resolve the claim via appraisal. An appraisal is a neutral, binding and oftentimes utilized process for the resolution of pending claims without ongoing litigation. If your insurance company is electing to send your claim to appraisal, our attorneys at Kowzan Law are fully equipped and experienced to assist clients throughout this process. Sadly, many homeowners are taken advantage of in appraisals by the common tactics employed by insurance companies that seek to improperly minimize compensation. We will work to prevent this and to obtain the funds you need to repair the damages caused by the loss.  

Public Adjusters

Public Adjusters are statutorily authorized representatives that are permitted to allowed to report a claim, negotiate a resolution and be compensated for their services rendered on the claim. Other than attorneys, public adjusters are the only other kind of representative that is permitted to engage in these functions. Should a client’s public adjuster do everything within their power to successfully advocate for the homeowner in connection with a claim and the insurance still will not do the right thing in terms of fairly paying the claim, we will them be referred to the file for all necessary litigation support. Unfortunately, the insurance company usually does not do the right thing in terms of covering and paying losses. At Kowzan Law, we provide assistance to obtain the monies needed from the insurance company to fix your home.  

Insurance Claim Reporting and Representation

Instead of retaining a public adjuster, oftentimes homeowners prefer to work directly with our Firm from start to finish in terms of initial claim reporting and ongoing representation. We take the stress and confusion out of the claims process and report your claim as soon as possible. Thereafter, we diligently follow up on the progress of the claim and if the wrong decision is made by the insurance company, we immediately initiate necessary litigation to protect our client’s rights.  

Examinations Under Oath

Under most, if not all, insurance policies, there is a requirement that the insured homeowner cooperates with the insurance company’s investigation of a property damage loss and comply with all reasonable requests for documents/information. This includes submission to examinations under oath that are conducted by the insurance company. While this is not a deposition or sworn proceeding, our attorneys will nonetheless prepare our clients for and attend the examination under oath along with our clients in order to make them feel comfortable and so that the statement will assist in their claim determination. Without proper representation and preparation, homeowners are likely to fall into the common traps used by insurance companies to wrongfully deny claims.

Basic Advice on Property Insurance Claims

At times, our clients come to us after being placed on the “back-burner” of another big law firm’s gigantic case list. This leads to subpar representation and sadly enough, usually results in prejudice to the homeowner’s claim. This will not occur with Kowzan Law. Being a boutique law firm allows us the ability to give each file more personal attention and move it along more quickly than other bigger firms are capable of. This gives us an advantage that we pass along to our clients. We are happy to review any currently pending claims and to give our best possible advice as to how it should most successfully progress.  

Contents Claims

When a loss occurs to a home, especially regarding a water loss, there is oftentimes collateral damage caused to homeowner’s personal belongings. Most insurance policies provide separate coverage for repair/replacement of personal property damaged by a given loss, if properly documented and claimed. This requires the insured to properly track and account for the damaged property in order to recover compensation under this portion of the policy. At Kowzan Law, we are very well versed in these types of contents claims and how to navigate this component of the main claim. We help our clients create an accurate inventory of damaged property and to gather the necessary backup information such as receipts and photos to support the claim. Then we will continue to fight hard for replacement of damaged property or to obtain the funds needed to repair this property. 

Disaster Preparedness

Disasters like earthquakes, hurricanes, floods, fires, and tornados often involve significant, if not catastrophic damage to property. While these disasters initially receive media attention, the burden involved in doing the important work of rebuilding and repairing the resulting damage, can be alleviated by retaining Kowzan Law. We fight hard to recover the money you need to perform these repairs and will not stop until it is obtained.  

Review and Production of Estimates

An important part of any property insurance claim is the creation and production of a proper estimate of damages involved in the claim. Here at Kowzan Law, we take care of this difficult process for our clients. We do so, without requiring our clients to pay anything upfront in terms Once finished, this estimate is submitted for preparing an estimate of the cost of repair or replacement of the insured's property loss. Not all adjusters are bad; however, following a major loss...

Construction Disputes

An overlapping area that can intersect cases involving our main specialty of first-party property insurance claim representation, is construction-related disputes and litigation. Whether this involves contractors, material man, builders, sub-contractors or similar industry professionals, we assist in the collection of payment for work completed and assert any necessary liens to protect our client’s rights and get them paid. We also help victims of shoddy work and unscrupulous tactics employed in construction-related work and obtain recovery to account for this improper conduct and injuries.

Recovery of Attorney’s Fees for Cases Involving Insurance Companies

In the event of litigation involving a property insurance claim and assuming a finding is made that the insurance company failed to abide by the policy and breached the same, Florida Law provides a statutory mechanism for a homeowner to recover its attorney’s fees and costs incurred, from the insurance company. This oftentimes means that our clients do not have to come out of pocket for our Firm to be fairly paid for its services rendered on a claim/case. This important legal mechanism is found in F.S. 627.428 and is what Kowzan Law primarily relies upon to obtain fair payment for its work on the claim. We do this in a manner that does not require the client’s contribution of funds coming out of their repair proceeds. Plus, at Kowzan Law, we never ask for upfront monies at the inception of a claim.

And, we do not get paid unless & until our clients get paid. No questions asked.