How to Dispute a Resolution by Home Insurance
Making a claim with your home insurer can quickly lead to a resolution settlement offered by the insurer to cover your claimed damage. Usually the settlement is enough to cover the damage sustained, rewarding you for your efforts to keep your home reasonably insured. On occasion, however, the settlement is less than you think it should be, or no offer is forthcoming at all. When this occurs, there no need to accept the insurer's offer immediately, instead you can dispute the offer, entering into a series of negotiations with your insurer to bring you to a settlement resolution.
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Instructions
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Write a letter to your insurance broker detailing your dispute with the resolution reached by your insurance company. Include your reasons for disagreeing with the resolution offered, including any information you have that backs up your claims. Ask for further communications on the issue, or a change in the company's decision to match your claims. Sign, date and copy the letter. Send the letter to the broker using certified mail to ensure that you have proof of receipt, and file the copy along with the proof in your own records.
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Contact the branch manager for your insurer by letter if the first letter sent to your broker fails to result in the changes desired. Allow the manager a few weeks to deal with the dispute, but if the manager fails to resolve your issues within two weeks, or fails to contact you, then move on to the next contact level. Branch contact information is included with your insurance paperwork.
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Send a letter to the insurer's compliance officer detailing your issues, and the dealings with the broker and branch manager. The contact information for the compliance officer is contained either in your insurance paperwork or you can find it listed on the insurer's website. Include copies of your correspondence with the two in your letter. Allow the compliance officer 30 days to help you resolve the issue.
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Contact your state's insurance regulatory board. You can find contact information for them on your state's official website. Make your initial contact by letter, detailing your dealings with the insurer. The state board's investigation process is often a slow on. Provide them with whatever information they request to help speed up the process. Unless fraud is involved however the board will likely suggest mediation between you and your insurer to settle the issue.
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Enter into mediation with the company to reach a resolution more to your liking. Mediation involves a third party sitting in on meetings between you and the insurer to help you reach an agreement. The results however are non-binding. For a more binding resolution, enter into an arbitration process with your insurer, which is much like mediation only an agreement between both parties before the process ensures that the result determined by the arbitrator is a binding one.
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Hire an attorney and file a lawsuit if no other course of action proves successful.
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