Today’s video is about damage to your home or business caused by water. Representing individuals on water losses might seem to you to be something that is not especially interesting. Of course, unless you’ve had that particular water loss. I want to share a story with you about a family that we represented several years ago against Florida Insurance Peninsula Insurance Company, located in Florida. What occurred is, the owner of the particular home had died about three weeks before the actual loss occurred. His family came down, participated in the funeral, and ultimately took possession of the house itself. When they ultimately got over to the house where the man had been living before he went into an assisted living facility, they discovered that the entire house had been flooded. Our calculations were that it took somewhere around 95,000 gallons of water to fill this entire house. Meaning that the damage to this house was virtually everywhere, because it had resulted in a water main break that had occurred underneath the foundation itself. When the insurance company got involved in the claim they took about two or three weeks to even make a claim decision. Which means by the time I was called the mold and water mildew had literally encased the entire interior of the home. But ultimately, Florida Peninsula had decided to deny the claim, claiming that the house had been vacant for longer than 30 days. Well, lets see… What does the word vacant mean? When Florida Peninsula investigated the claim, they were told that no one had been living in the house for more than 30 days. So, they tried to use their 30-day vacancy rule to deny the claim. Well, they didn’t do their homework. We did. The definition of the word vacant doesn’t mean that your home is without people, vacant means without things. Occupied is the word that Florida courts use to address whether people are there. Vacancy in this situation, didn’t apply. Because when we subpoenaed Florida Peninsula’s records, we discovered that they had photographs of the furnishings of the man that in fact had been living there. Which meant as a matter of law, the property was not vacant. We were able to get that claim paid. If you or your family has suffered a water loss at your home or business, you need legal counsel in during with the insurance company. Go to our website at www.CorlessBarfield.com, or give us a call. You take care of your family; we’ll deal with the insurance company. 813-258-4998