Cleaning Up After a Flood or Fire: What to Expect
Feb. 23, 2015 — After disaster strikes comes the difficult part: cleanup and restoration, not to mention the insurance claims. Restoration service companies are typically brought in by managing agents to handle the mopping up and repairs. These companies are paid by insurance. Either a claim is made on a building's policy or through the policy held by a unit-owner or shareholder. The amount of charges are determined by rates set by the insurance industry that cover everything from the number of air dryers used to the square footage of drywall that has to be ripped out, says Kathleen Hogarty, who works in commercial and residential sales for Servpro Scarsdale/Mount Vernon, a remediation service company.
What the Restorer Does
In the case of fire, after emergency services have been called and everyone is out of the building, Hogarty says building management should call a restoration services company immediately and then notify their insurance carrier.
"We show up at the scene to identify what has happened, where the origin [of the catastrophe] is," Hogarty says.
But Hogarty says that condo and co-op boards should start thinking about the possibility of an emergency long before they ever face one. That's why she offers educational seminars for boards and property managers on what to do in the case of emergencies.
"I can take a walk-through on the building and be a second set of eyes to point out problem areas, point out where all the emergency switches are, talk about what needs to be shut down, and when and how to do it," Hogarty says. "You also should have a good emergency contact list of who to call for what type of emergency."
In the case of a fire or flooding emergency, Pamela Delorme, president of Delkap Management, says she almost always uses a public adjuster when dealing with a disaster.
"I want someone fighting for my building to get the maximum amount of insurance coverage so there is no out-of-pocket expense to take care of the damages," Delorme says. Adjusters get paid out of the insurance settlement. "I definitely believe that you are better off for the small amount of money it costs to have a public adjuster who can get the maximum funds available."
Delorme cautions boards to consider whether or not it's best to file an insurance claim or to just bite the bullet and pay out of pocket. If you've filed a significant number of claims, it can affect your premiums. "When you bid out for insurance and the new company asks for your loss runs, and you've had, say, 10 claims in the past five years, you're going to find yourself in the hot seat," she says.
The bottom line, argues Barbara Strauss, executive vice president at York International Agency, an insurance broker, is that cleanup should take priority over worrying about who is paying. "I tell my managing agents, 'Clean it up and then worry later about who will pay for it,'" Strauss says. "You get situations where the building believes that the unit-owner should pay and the unit-owner thinks the building should pay, but you need to get it cleaned up first to mitigate further damages."
Adapted from "After the Flood" by Jennifer V. Hughes (Habitat, February 2015).
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