In the many years you have spent as a homeowner, you may have never claimed against your homeowners’ insurance company before. This is until disastrous weather strikes, and you require outside aid to recover your property’s incurred damages. So it may be completely disappointing that when you need your insurance the most, they turn their back on you, so to speak, and delay, undervalue, or flat-out deny your claim. If you are nothing less than perplexed about why this was the outcome, you may consider whether the explanation is simply insurance bad faith. Well, without further ado, please read on to discover whether you have been made the victim of insurance bad faith and how a seasoned Miami bad faith insurance claim lawyer at the Law Offices of Gonzalo Funes, PA, can help you take proper action to bring justice to the matter. 

How do I know if I’ve been made the victim of insurance bad faith?

First of all, by its general definition, insurance bad faith is when a homeowners’ insurance company fails to act fairly, honestly, or, as the name suggests, in good faith when handling one’s property damage claim. In other words, an insurer may prioritize their financial interests and “meeting their bottom line” over a homeowner’s right to coverage under their given policy. Therefore, to better understand if this correlates with what you experienced, below are common examples of insurance bad faith incidents:

  • Your insurer may unreasonably minimize or deny your claim without offering proper justifications. 
  • Your insurer may excessively delay investigating or processing your claim without valid explanations.
  • Your insurer may fail to conduct an objectively fair and thorough investigation of your claim.
  • Your insurer may misrepresent or misapply policy provisions or other state and federal laws on your claim. 
  • Your insurer may request unnecessary or burdensome documentation to delay your claim further. 

How should I respond once I confirm that insurance bad faith occurred?

If you strongly believe your homeowners’ insurance company manipulated you, you should know that you may receive some of the best consumer protections available in the country by being a Florida resident. Namely, there is the Florida Statute 624.155, which holds that you may pursue legal action if your insurer does not attempt to settle a claim in good faith when they reasonably could and should have done so. 

So, should you choose to exercise your granted legal right, your first step must be to file a Civil Remedy Notice of Insurer Violation with the Florida Department of Financial Services, along with the insurer itself. With this, your insurer may have 60 days to correct the bad faith incident. But if they fail to respond within this timeframe, you may move forward with initiating a lawsuit against them. If successful, you may be able to recover the original claim amount, plus additional financial losses like attorneys’ fees, legal costs, and other harm your insurer’s conduct caused.

To conclude, to ensure you put your best foot forward when starting your case, please consult with a competent Miami property damage lawyer from the Law Offices of Gonzalo Funes, PA. We are willing to answer any questions and concerns you may have regarding your situation, no matter how minor you may think they are. So call us today.