What To Do When Your House Floods

You’ve built a life in your house. All of your memories, your families memories, are archived there. Not just in the photo albums, refrigerator drawings and homemade cards. But, in the markings on the door frame where your children grew to be taller than you. In the patchwork sheetrock where your boys loved to rough-house. In the permanently scuffed floors from too much running in the house.

And then, disaster strikes. With no warning, Mother Nature releases a fury of rain and, in just a few hours, you find all those memories washed away.

For some, this scenario seems like it could never happen. For people in South Louisiana, though, it’s all too familiar. In the span of one day, Baton Rouge and its surrounding cities were overwhelmed with rain. Levees broke. Rivers flooded. And houses in no-flood zones were engulfed in water.

When a flood strikes, immediately call your insurance company.

If you’ve found yourself up to your knees in water with no flood insurance, apply for federal assistance.

While you’re working to get your life back in order by clearing out your house, removing ruined carpets and sheetrock and salvaging everything you can, remember to pay attention to all of the potential dangers your house may now hold.

Wetness and high humidity will cause molds, fungi, algae and bacteria to grow within only a few days, and if the water was contaminated with sewage or other biological pollutants, your home may be doubly contaminated. Therefore, it’s important to begin cleaning and drying quickly and thoroughly. Mold spores can wreak havoc on allergies, fungi can deteriorate your wood, and some molds produce mycotoxins; all of these will cause an unhealthy living environment and a house that steadily rots. Often, the damages these growths cause will not be covered under flood or homeowner’s insurance.

If you have the funds, it’s best to have a professional water damage restoration contractor with special drying equipment come to clean, disinfect and dry your home. If you don’t have that option, be sure to wear protective clothing on your legs, arms, feet and hands while cleaning, and wear rubber gloves and goggles while removing flood-damaged items. If your home was built before 1978, be wary of lead-based paints.

Begin cleaning by removing wet carpets, carpet pads and rugs within 24 hours of the flood, and disinfect the slab underneath. An economical, general purposed disinfectant is 1/2 cup laundry bleach to a gallon of water, but can damage finishes (wood, metal, colors) and may pose health threats. Remove any other flooring once the flood has receded and clean the floor underneath. For wood floors, carefully remove a board every few feet to reduce buckling and leave open until the flooring is dry.

All wet insulation needs to be removed, and the insides of walls should be flushed. Be sure all areas are dry before installing new insulation and sheetrock. Replace all porous insulation with new material.

Flush out the insides of the walls. Allow wetted areas to dry thoroughly before installing new insulation. If possible, air condition and use a dehumidifier to speed the drying of materials by drying the indoor air.

To dry the rest of your home: open all closet and cabinet doors, remove drawers, wall panels, vinyl wallpaper and baseboards.

When refinishing your home, opt for latex paint, flood-hardy materials, ceramic or vinyl tiles or solid wood flooring.

Remove vinyl wallpaper to allow sheetrock or paneling to dry. Removing baseboards will help too. Refinish interior walls with latex paint—never use vinyl wallpaper—to allow the walls to continue to dry to the inside. A shellac-based sealer, however, may be needed over ceiling water stains before painting.

Texas & Louisiana Property Insurance Lawyers

If your flood or homeowner insurance carrier has denied your insurance claim, we can help. The experienced property insurance attorneys at Chad T. Wilson Law Firm have represented more than 1,000 clients in cases against insurance companies and aggressively protect the rights of insurance policyholders. Our consultations are free, and you owe us nothing until your case is won. Contact us today to see how we can help.

Liberty and Injustice For All

Our clients, a couple whose home was damaged during a severe storm, were forced to file a lawsuit against Liberty Insurance Corporation and its agent after they conducted a substandard and improper inspection of the clients’ property, grossly undervaluing the cost of repairs and deliberately yielding an unrealistic amount to underpay coverage.

March 16, 2016 Hailstorm

On March 16, 2016, a severe hail- and windstorm swept across Harris County, Texas, destroying homes and lives as it went. Our clients were no exception. Their home suffered significant damage, including damage to the entire roof, master bedroom, bathroom, living room, kitchen, and foyer, among other damages. After the storm, the couple hastily submitted a claim to Liberty, hoping to get their lives back in order quickly.

Liberty Insurance Company Home Insurance Claim

Liberty assigned one of its agents to inspect the property and adjust the claim. The agent knowingly conducted a subpar investigation, employing the “pay and pray” approach — an insurance company favorite. With this type of inspection, an agent will deny any and all damage the storm caused to the roof, while covering the less expensive interior damage. The damages the agent found totaled only $500, leaving our clients without the recovery needed to mend their home.

The third-party expert hired after the insurance company’s negligent inspection found a plethora of damages that were conveniently absent from the previous inspection, totaling more than $30,000.

Liberty’s agent intentionally undervalued our clients claims in order to maintain her job, misrepresenting the amount of damage in the hopes that our clients would simply rely on her expertise and fraudulent estimate as a true representation of the property’s damages.

Because of Liberty Insurance Corporation’s gross negligence and fraud, our clients were forced to retain an attorney to prosecute their claim for insurance benefits. On August 3, 2016, the Chad T. Wilson Law Firm filed suit, on behalf of this couple, against Liberty Insurance Corporation for fraud, breach of contract negligence, gross negligence, negligent hiring, and violations of the Texas Insurance Code and the Texas DTPA.

Texas Property Insurance Lawyers

If your homeowner insurance carrier has denied your insurance claim, we can help. The experienced property insurance attorneys at Chad T. Wilson Law Firm have represented more than 1,000 clients in cases against insurance companies and aggressively protect the rights of insurance policyholders. Our consultations are free, and you owe us nothing until your case is won. Contact us today to see how we can help.

Texas Farm Bureau Leaves Policyholder High and Dry

In early May 2016, severe thunder, wind, and hailstorms ripped across Willis, Texas, their malevolent currents crashing through the small town.

Our client, a man in Montgomery County, Texas, found his home a victim of the storm’s violence.

After the hailstorm, he immediately filed a claim with his homeowner’s insurance company, Texas Farm Bureau, asking them to pay for the damages so that he could make repairs and start getting his life back in order.

Texas Farm Bureau hired an adjuster to inspect our client’s home and assess the damage. The inspector found that there were nominal damages to the property — namely the fence, a gas grill cover, and a wooden playset — therefore denying his claim and leaving him with no recovery to make repairs to his home.

So, our client hired a third-party expert, who conducted an unbiased inspection and found a litany of damages that Texas Farm Bureau’s adjuster had left off, resulting in more than $24,500 worth of damages to the home. Seeing that he was owed much more than the $416 of damages Texas Farm Bureau suggested, the client promptly sought out the Chad T. Wilson Law Firm to help him obtain the recovery he had, essentially, already paid for through the purchase of his insurance policy.

On Tuesday, August 2, 2016, the Chad T. Wilson Law Firm filed suit against Texas Farm Bureau Casualty Insurance Company in Montgomery County, Texas for fraud, breach of contract, violations of the Texas Insurance Code and Texas DTPA, and wrongfully denying our client coverage under his policy.

Through its adjuster, Texas Farm Bureau conducted a substandard and improper inspection of the client’s home, which grossly undervalued the cost of repairs in its estimate and yielded an unrealistic amount to underpay coverage. Texas Farm Bureau unreasonably adjusted our client’s claim, misrepresenting the cause of, scope of, and cost to repair damages to his property.

Because of Texas Farm Bureau’s misrepresentations, our client was forced to hire an attorney to file a lawsuit for insurance benefits.

If your homeowner insurance carrier has denied your insurance claim, we can help. The experienced property insurance attorneys at Chad T. Wilson Law Firm have represented more than 1,000 clients in cases against insurance companies and aggressively protect the rights of insurance policyholders. Our consultations are free, and you owe us nothing until your case is won. Contact us today to see how we can help.