Public Adjuster Articles and Presentations

Entries for August 2000

When Insurance Won't Pay

When the firetrucks arrived, Howard Green of Valparaiso, Ind., was atop his house with a garden hose, trying to keep the roof from igniting. He had accidentally set the chimney on fire while attempting to remove a beehive, and the second floor was in flames. The next day, Green says, his State Farm insurance agent delivered a $5000 check. Green and his wife began to inventory the debris – 40 bags of "smelly, smoke-laden stuff" and burnt mattresses. Seven months after the September 1997 fire, the bags were still in the garage and the Greens were still sleeping in the dining room. While State Farm had paid $75,000 for structural damage, it still hadn't paid the $70,000 claim to replace the destroyed contents...