Speaker 1: KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp the
Speaker 1: House Whisper on demand on the iHeartRadio app. I am
Speaker 1: Dean Sharp the House Whisper. I design custom homes, build
Speaker 1: a few custom homes, and on the weekends here I
Speaker 1: am your guide to better understanding that place where you live.
Speaker 1: Today on the show, I am very, very excited about
Speaker 1: today's show. You can hear it in my trashed voice.
Speaker 1: Let me first apologize. I mean, it's not my fault,
Speaker 1: but I lost my voice yesterday and so it's coming back. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm a little froggy. Hey Bud, I'm a little froggy today,
Speaker 1: so please just put up with me. I will try
Speaker 1: and be as smooth and comforting as I can be
Speaker 1: like I normally am. Today on the show, we are
Speaker 1: going to be talking about something so relevant, so important,
Speaker 1: and with a subject with so many questions attached to it.
Speaker 1: We're going to be talking about insurance claims after disasters,
Speaker 1: not just and of course the fires. This is the
Speaker 1: topic that has put it to the forefront of everybody's mind,
Speaker 1: but everything from that too. Well, you know what happens
Speaker 1: when the pipe breaks under the sink, and then there's
Speaker 1: damage and call my adjuster out. And where do we
Speaker 1: go from there? What's the nature of our relationship with
Speaker 1: insurance companies when we're just paying premiums versus when it's
Speaker 1: time to make a claim, what happens and all of
Speaker 1: that and everything in between. And I'm doing it with
Speaker 1: a couple of guys who could not possibly be more
Speaker 1: expert on this topic. I've got Aria Shack and a
Speaker 1: Deer be here. They are the founding partners of Damage Law.
Speaker 1: Yes they are attorneys. We will talk about their humanity
Speaker 1: in just a moment. But Aria and the Deer are
Speaker 1: here with me in studio and we're just going to
Speaker 1: be going for guys. Good morning and welcome Dean.
Speaker 2: How are you.
Speaker 1: I'm well, you can hear I'm I'm I'm okay, I'm
Speaker 1: all right. I'm gonna be fine. So great stuff on
Speaker 1: the show today. And of course, as always your calls.
Speaker 1: Here's the number. I'm gonna give it to you right now.
Speaker 1: I just saw Richie run to the phone line, so
Speaker 1: they are yep, they're open. The number to reach me
Speaker 1: eight three three two. Ask Dean eight three three the
Speaker 1: numeral two Ask Dean eight three three two. Ask Dean
Speaker 1: it's just that easy. The phone lines are open now
Speaker 1: and as always, we're talking about damage claims and insurance
Speaker 1: companies today. But when it comes to your calls, you
Speaker 1: can call me about anything at all about your home.
Speaker 1: Whatever's got you scratching your head, whether it is design,
Speaker 1: construction related, DIY, stuff inside outside, doesn't matter. Anything you
Speaker 1: want to talk about your home eight three three two
Speaker 1: ask Dean uh follow us on social media. We only
Speaker 1: do the good kind, I promise, uplifting, informative, inspiring stuff.
Speaker 1: We're on all the usual suspects Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, x
Speaker 1: you know, home with Dean, same handle for them all.
Speaker 1: And of course, if your home is in need of
Speaker 1: some personal house whisper attention, then you can book an
Speaker 1: in home design consult with me and the tea who
Speaker 1: is not with me this morning. Sorry, I'm sorry, but
Speaker 1: all do you have to do to do that is
Speaker 1: go to house Whisperer dot design. All right, let me
Speaker 1: introduce our awesome team, Elmer, as always is on the board.
Speaker 1: Good morning, Elmer, Good morning Dean, Good morning everyone. How
Speaker 1: are you doing in there? I'm happy? Yeah? Are you sure?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 3: All right?
Speaker 1: Believe me? All right, I'll trust you. Richie is not
Speaker 1: near Mike, is he? Oh my gosh. Every week, every
Speaker 1: week I have to say, Richie is nowhere near a microphone,
Speaker 1: and then there you are, right in front of the mic.
Speaker 1: All right, good to have you nearby. And in my earbud,
Speaker 1: Richie is standing by taking calls. We got a couple
Speaker 1: on the board even now. And so that is the peaceful,
Speaker 1: melodious voice you will hear when you call in. He'll
Speaker 1: tell you everything you need to know, and then you
Speaker 1: can listen to the show while you're in the queue.
Speaker 1: And of course, my buddy, Eileen Gonzalez at the news desk,
Speaker 1: Good morning Eileen, Good morning Dean. Good to see you today.
Speaker 1: Good to be seen. My voice is not so sunshiny
Speaker 1: today as usual. But you know what, you can't tell
Speaker 1: I'm in good spirits. You can't tell he didn't say
Speaker 1: anything I would not have known. Sitting across the table
Speaker 1: from me. This is when I usually say my better
Speaker 1: half and my design partner and my best friend in
Speaker 1: the world. But Tina is handling some other stuff this morning,
Speaker 1: so she'll be back as always, she'll be back. But
Speaker 1: Michelle Kelly is in the studio with me today. She's
Speaker 1: one of our account executives and she's just brightening things
Speaker 1: up in here. So we've got a room full of
Speaker 1: people and a room full of quality, quality advice coming
Speaker 1: your way. We're going to do it all right after.
Speaker 3: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 3: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1: I've got Aria Shack and a dear b and here
Speaker 1: they are the founding partners of Damage Law right here
Speaker 1: in southern California and Los Angeles. Guys, you're lawyers, and
Speaker 1: so let's just start with proving that you're human beings.
Speaker 1: And I want to hear. I want to hear how
Speaker 1: you guys got together because it was obvious to me
Speaker 1: the very first time we ever met that you guys
Speaker 1: have a very special relationship and you have launched into
Speaker 1: a very specialized field that well right now supposedly a
Speaker 1: lot of law firms are really good at at the moment.
Speaker 1: But this is something that you decided to do long
Speaker 1: before Uh there was you know, fire opportunity money to
Speaker 1: be made out there on this. So anyway, uh introduce yourselves,
Speaker 1: tell me how this all started for you guys. Oh
Speaker 1: we got it, Hey, Elmer, can we pop on, all right,
Speaker 1: I think we're good. Yeah, Hang on a second, hang on, yeah,
Speaker 1: all right, all right, I think we got it. Welcome
Speaker 1: to live radio. We're good, Okay, go for it.
Speaker 4: So I was blessed to meet my partner actually in
Speaker 4: law school. I was the first day of class, first
Speaker 4: year of law school, and it was actually quite funny.
Speaker 4: I thought there was an earthquake happening during the first
Speaker 4: ten minutes fast and I looked to my left and
Speaker 4: I see my partner's leg is shaking up and down.
Speaker 4: And we weren't friends at that time. I looked over
Speaker 4: and I saw that he was quite anxious.
Speaker 2: Hang on a second, Ari, we're still having trouble with
Speaker 2: your mic I think you guys can hear me, Yes,
Speaker 2: we can. So he Aria is describing you, go for it.
Speaker 1: I'm going to fix his mic.
Speaker 2: Aria is describing our first day in law school together.
Speaker 2: I'm I'm an anxious person in general, and I tend
Speaker 2: to shake my legs when I'm nervous in the first
Speaker 2: day of school, any type of extravagant type of ordeal
Speaker 2: that we're going to be going through. And as you know,
Speaker 2: law school's very very tenuous time for individuals and Aria
Speaker 2: and myself were working full time. We decided to do
Speaker 2: law school at night. And I've never met him before.
Speaker 2: This is the first day of school. My leg's shaking
Speaker 2: up and down, and to my right is sitting Aria,
Speaker 2: and he's looking at me like I'm some kind of
Speaker 2: deranged crazy person.
Speaker 1: And he tells me.
Speaker 2: Hey, it's gonna be okay, don't worry, sorry, and I
Speaker 2: look at him and I go, you know, my fiance
Speaker 2: is in law school, and she's telling me about all
Speaker 2: these things about you're gonna get cold called and they're
Speaker 2: gonna ask you a bunch of questions. You've got to
Speaker 2: stay on top of the reading. We work full time.
Speaker 2: We're working ten hour days and we have to come
Speaker 2: at night, and he's like, hey, it's gonna be okay.
Speaker 2: And you know what, it turned out to be okay,
Speaker 2: it turned out better than okay. I created this bond
Speaker 2: with Aria, and we stayed very close friends throughout the
Speaker 2: entirety of law school. Aria is like my brother. We've
Speaker 2: been through highs and lows together, and then after law school,
Speaker 2: when we graduated past the bar, we decided to join
Speaker 2: a teen up together and create damage law and really,
Speaker 2: you know, hit these insurance companies hard and make sure
Speaker 2: that insurance are getting the benefits that they're prescribed to
Speaker 2: for their policies and make sure that they're acting approporately.
Speaker 1: This is not a it's not a massive field.
Speaker 2: No.
Speaker 1: As a specialty.
Speaker 2: No, this is a very Nietzsche industry. It's a very
Speaker 2: niche aspect of law.
Speaker 4: And you know, you have to have the background of
Speaker 4: knowing exactly how the whole construction process also occurs, because
Speaker 4: at the end of the day, insurance carriers they look
Speaker 4: at the insurance as if they're experts as well when
Speaker 4: they're going through the claim process. So at the end
Speaker 4: of the day, you always want to make sure that
Speaker 4: you know what's going on with your home and what
Speaker 4: the valuations if your home are, and these insurance carriers
Speaker 4: they try to, you know, skip steps and at the
Speaker 4: end of the day, we're just making sure that everyone
Speaker 4: gets what they're entitled to exactly.
Speaker 1: And so what drove you in that direction, I mean
Speaker 1: there was so much other law to do, you know.
Speaker 2: It really was Aria's idea when he came up to me,
Speaker 2: I was going to go into transactional work on a
Speaker 2: corporate level. I was the director of underwriting for a
Speaker 2: high risk business to business lender for about eight years
Speaker 2: prior to becoming an attorney. And I'm a very financially
Speaker 2: oriented individual. I can read financial statements. I have that aspect.
Speaker 2: I can underwrite businesses and make sure that they can
Speaker 2: withstand alone. And Aria has about fifteen years of experience
Speaker 2: in real estate and real estate transactions, and he's seen
Speaker 2: how insurance carriers take advantage of their insurance through the
Speaker 2: process unfortunately, and he came up to me with this
Speaker 2: idea of how, you know, we could be advocates for
Speaker 2: the insurance and make sure that they get the benefits
Speaker 2: that they pay for on a monthly basis when a
Speaker 2: loss is the state right. And when he came to me, I,
Speaker 2: you know, I looked at it and I was like,
Speaker 2: I've never heard of this before. You know, I've heard
Speaker 2: of personal injury. I've heard of corporate law. I've heard
Speaker 2: of transactional law, I've heard of litigation. Breach of contract
Speaker 2: and essentially this is a breach of contract because your
Speaker 2: policy is a contract. The policy binds you and the
Speaker 2: insurer into an agreement where there are certain policies and
Speaker 2: I mean benefits and restrictions in that policy, and once
Speaker 2: that's breached, you file an action against the insurer and
Speaker 2: make sure that they pay out accordingly.
Speaker 1: But the trick here is the trick is that there
Speaker 1: is some definition out there of what is fixed and
Speaker 1: what is whole yes, and what is restored yes. And
Speaker 1: the insurance company versus you know, they're not in there.
Speaker 1: They're not in the business to educate homeowners as to
Speaker 1: all the layers of what fixed means and covering all
Speaker 1: those bases.
Speaker 2: They don't have an incentive to right. You know, they
Speaker 2: have a bottom line, and unfortunately the bottom line is
Speaker 2: the shareholder. The insurance carriers only care about making sure
Speaker 2: that you know, the shareholders are maximizing on whatever they're
Speaker 2: getting paid on dividends and whatnot.
Speaker 1: It's a really difficult subject for me to wrestle with.
Speaker 1: I think everybody wrestles with it because because you know,
Speaker 1: I don't want to communicate today to anybody that that
Speaker 1: you know, insurance companies are evil uh entities. Uh because
Speaker 1: we all need them, we all use them. But it
Speaker 1: is a bizarre relationship. It's the weirdest relationship. When you
Speaker 1: think i've i've i've i've grabbed on to uh to
Speaker 1: this company to assist me in my life. You know,
Speaker 1: we've made a contractual relationship. You're my friend. You know,
Speaker 1: you're the helping hand and uh and and so I'm
Speaker 1: paying you to help protect my assets and and my life.
Speaker 1: And that's all well and good. And then something happens
Speaker 1: when it's time to pull that trigger. And the reality
Speaker 1: is not to overstate it or overblow it, but the
Speaker 1: reality is, I am now at best in a in
Speaker 1: a original and antagonistic relationship because because suddenly suddenly, I mean, yeah,
Speaker 1: we've got the contract to hold us in place, but
Speaker 1: we we suddenly have very very different goals now. And
Speaker 1: that's really tough. That's really tough on a homeowner. It's
Speaker 1: a really tough position to be in, especially if you
Speaker 1: don't know every layer of your home from beginning to end.
Speaker 1: And what homeowner does well a few do, a few do.
Speaker 1: But the point is this, there are so many aspects
Speaker 1: of where this goes. And I wish it wasn't the case.
Speaker 1: I wish we weren't in this situation. I wouldn't know
Speaker 1: how to do it otherwise. But it's just the reality
Speaker 1: for everybody who's listening that when it comes to making
Speaker 1: a claim. Once the claim day comes, you have got
Speaker 1: to be wise. I'll just put it that way. You've
Speaker 1: got to be wise how you deal with your insurance company,
Speaker 1: because their goal is to reduce the payout, to minimize
Speaker 1: the payout, and your goal is to maximize the payout,
Speaker 1: all right, so that you are made whole, truly hold
Speaker 1: the right definition of whole. And that's I think where
Speaker 1: we're going to go next is what does it take
Speaker 1: when something happens? And I want to talk about the
Speaker 1: fires and the unprecedented nature of that. So, guys, thanks
Speaker 1: for being here. Thank you, everybody, hang tight. We're gonna
Speaker 1: dive deep into this conversation.
Speaker 3: But first, you're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on
Speaker 3: demand from KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1: KFI. That's where I am at AM six forty live
Speaker 1: streaming and HD everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. Dean Sharp
Speaker 1: the house whisper with you on this lovely have you
Speaker 1: seen it outside? Lovely, crisp, cool, relatively cloudless Sunday morning
Speaker 1: here in southern California wherever you are across the nation listening,
Speaker 1: I hope, well, you know, I know it's not going
Speaker 1: to be as warm as it is here for a
Speaker 1: lot of you. But I hope you're in a good spot, safe, warm,
Speaker 1: dry good, got a warm beverage by your side, and
Speaker 1: you got me in your ear. And we're talking insurance claims.
Speaker 1: This is truly something that has nothing to do even
Speaker 1: though my guests are founded a law firm to do
Speaker 1: exactly this stuff right here in southern California. These truths,
Speaker 1: like so many things that we talk about your house,
Speaker 1: are universal across the nation. This is just the reality
Speaker 1: of working with insurance companies, and that's where we're going
Speaker 1: and of course also your calls as well in just
Speaker 1: a bit, so hang tight with me through it all.
Speaker 1: All right, I want to continue my conversation with my
Speaker 1: special in studio guests from Damage Law, the founding partners
Speaker 1: Aria and a Deer. Guys, let's just talk about the
Speaker 1: fires for a second, Okay. I want to get more into,
Speaker 1: you know, the the aspect of anybody making claims and
Speaker 1: all of that. But the big question is like, oh
Speaker 1: my gosh, what is going on with the fires. This
Speaker 1: is an unpreceded circumstance. It's very, very different, and I've
Speaker 1: had to explain that to so many people because people
Speaker 1: want to know when are they going to get rebuilding
Speaker 1: on that stuff. I'm like, yeah, you know, if a
Speaker 1: single house burns down in a neighborhood or a couple
Speaker 1: of houses next to each other, that's a completely different
Speaker 1: animal than what we're dealing with right here, because that's
Speaker 1: not the infrastructure of the neighborhood being wiped out. That's
Speaker 1: just a house. And so when does rebuildings start. I
Speaker 1: don't know, like tomorrow. You know, essentially in that situation
Speaker 1: out here Alta Dina Palisades, we have entire neighborhoods gone
Speaker 1: and there are issues, and there are no you know,
Speaker 1: experienced experts. It's about, oh, yes, I'm the guy who
Speaker 1: knows how to rebuild neighborhoods after fires have wiped them
Speaker 1: all out. You would think by this time we might
Speaker 1: have one of those guys, because it's been happening a lot.
Speaker 1: But what are the unique issues that you're discovering right now?
Speaker 1: I just want to hear from your perspective, because I
Speaker 1: know you guys are in the thick of it. You know.
Speaker 4: The biggest thing that I'm seeing right now that's an
Speaker 4: issue is that testing. Most people are not getting testing
Speaker 4: conducted or the insurance carrier is not proving testing.
Speaker 1: Okay, so what does that mean? Break that down?
Speaker 4: Testing testing for contaminants, because all these houses around the
Speaker 4: surrounding area are older homes which carry contaminants such as lead, asbestos,
Speaker 4: and it's just spreading throughout the whole neighborhood. We're finding
Speaker 4: positive tests of arsenic as well on these properties, and
Speaker 4: we're telling our clients especially, just make sure you're testing
Speaker 4: your property inside and outside to know what the current
Speaker 4: condition is so you can follow the protocol necessary to
Speaker 4: abate it at the end of the day. Because there's
Speaker 4: proper abatement that needs to go in process. You can't
Speaker 4: do smoke remediation before you do lead or asbestist remediation,
Speaker 4: so you got to test to see if that's within
Speaker 4: your property or surrounding your property.
Speaker 1: All right, So now are you talking about homes that
Speaker 1: are directly adjacent to the fire damage, or homes that
Speaker 1: have been partially fire damaged, or properties that have been
Speaker 1: wiped out completely, all of the above, all of the above,
Speaker 1: because all of this stuff, the lead, the arsenic, the asbestos,
Speaker 1: it was all inert and it was all you know,
Speaker 1: you know, in stable, in place inside the home. But
Speaker 1: these fires have literally just tossed it out into.
Speaker 2: Uh spread of contamination everywhere, everywhere, everywhere.
Speaker 1: What insurance suggestor is going to come to a homeowner
Speaker 1: and say, all right, first of all, we have to
Speaker 1: test everything. Oh good luck, so none of them, zero
Speaker 1: of them.
Speaker 2: So maybe if it's not zero zero, it's a few
Speaker 2: that will do it.
Speaker 4: It all comes down to they're trying to skip steps,
Speaker 4: not all of them, some of them, and they're asking
Speaker 4: the clients to just start the smoke remediation at the
Speaker 4: end of the day. You first need to know what
Speaker 4: the condition of the home is, what it's contaminated with
Speaker 4: before you start removing combustion byproducts such as smoke damage,
Speaker 4: material of ash and set So you need to get
Speaker 4: a baseline and once you know that baseline, if something
Speaker 4: is contaminated with lead or asbestos. The protocol is for
Speaker 4: porous items they need to be completely thrown out and
Speaker 4: the non poores items can be professionally clean. But they're
Speaker 4: not pushing for that. They think that you can just
Speaker 4: come and clean it or get some dry cleaning, just
Speaker 4: wipe it down, just clean it down.
Speaker 1: It's dirty. It's dirty. But if it's porous. Then that
Speaker 1: contamination has gotten into the material in a place that
Speaker 1: cannot be cleaned. Sure by kind of by definition. All
Speaker 1: you have to ask is the folks over at Notre
Speaker 1: Dame Cathedral in France, it's like, how easy is it
Speaker 1: to get lead dust out of limestone? Exactly? Right? Exactly?
Speaker 4: I mean at the end of the day, the way
Speaker 4: that they're saving their cost is that they're trying to
Speaker 4: clean these items. They're getting dry and cleaned, but the
Speaker 4: cost to replace that item is ten times more. So
Speaker 4: that's what we're showing that the clients is that you're
Speaker 4: entitled to replacement of those items because you don't want
Speaker 4: to walk around with those clothes on your body, or
Speaker 4: sleeping that mattress that's contaminated, or that furniture that's sitting
Speaker 4: in your living room. It's just it's not safe for
Speaker 4: anyone to be living around those conditions.
Speaker 2: So your first step is you want to do an
Speaker 2: environmental testing, see what the results of that testing is,
Speaker 2: present the results to the carrier and tell them, hey,
Speaker 2: look there's either lead or a specialist present in the home.
Speaker 2: You got to do an abatement.
Speaker 1: Now. In a situation that we're in now, like in
Speaker 1: the Palisades or in Altadena. When do you do that
Speaker 1: testing or how many times do you do it? Because
Speaker 1: I could imagine, Okay, what if I test now and
Speaker 1: I identify certain things on my property and then in
Speaker 1: a few weeks, when OEES and the EPA are supervising
Speaker 1: the neighborhood cleanup, yeah, and kicking up particulates from other
Speaker 1: people's homes again into the air, how do I know
Speaker 1: that my property isn't getting recontaminated.
Speaker 4: And that's that's the number one question right now. When
Speaker 4: do we start actually abating these contaminants? And our answer
Speaker 4: is try to delay that process as long as you can.
Speaker 4: Like you said, you might clean your property. A month later,
Speaker 4: your neighbor starts kicking up dust and then it recontaminates
Speaker 4: your property. And insurance carriers are not the type to
Speaker 4: pay twice for the same work exactly.
Speaker 2: There are discussions right now inside of insurance carriers where
Speaker 2: they're saying, okay, there may there may come a time
Speaker 2: where double testing will be required to see if there's
Speaker 2: contaminants in the beginning and in the end, and they
Speaker 2: may pay for that, but there's no guarantee of that.
Speaker 1: I think we talk about time a lot on the show.
Speaker 1: Time and sense of like, I'm always encouraging people when
Speaker 1: they're building their dreams to slow it down and take time,
Speaker 1: and it sounds like in this situation, the rush to
Speaker 1: rebuild is not necessarily in a homeowner's best interest. It's
Speaker 1: not not at this time.
Speaker 4: I would say, this process is going to take some time,
Speaker 4: and at the end of the day, you don't want
Speaker 4: to go and conduct all this work and then your
Speaker 4: insurance carrier doesn't cover for the cleanup again.
Speaker 1: Right, exactly, all right, We've got to take a break, man.
Speaker 1: I have so many questions for you, guys. This is
Speaker 1: good stuff, right right, This is not the kind of
Speaker 1: stuff you've heard before. People are sitting at home right
Speaker 1: now thinking testing. Nobody ever mentioned that. That's why we're
Speaker 1: doing this for you.
Speaker 3: You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
Speaker 3: KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1: We are having a really, really important conversation on the
Speaker 1: program today. I have very special guests with me in studio,
Speaker 1: the founding partners of Damage Law here in Los Angeles,
Speaker 1: Aria Shack and A dear b These guys, I cannot
Speaker 1: even begin to tell you. You know that when I
Speaker 1: bring experts in studio with me. It is to help
Speaker 1: you in whatever category we're talking about. Whether you know,
Speaker 1: next weekend, I'm going to have one of my favorite
Speaker 1: concrete contractors on the planet sitting across the table from me,
Speaker 1: talking all things concrete and masonry. So when I bring
Speaker 1: these folks in, they're always a benefit to you. But
Speaker 1: let me tell you, this topic of insurance companies and
Speaker 1: claims after property damage to your precious home is so confusing.
Speaker 1: It is. It is so it can be so deep
Speaker 1: and so multi layered, and so misdirected so often that
Speaker 1: let me let me tell you, I am just I
Speaker 1: am opening a door for you today to talk to
Speaker 1: the guys who are going to help you. Just see
Speaker 1: it straight through now, I know, I know, I am
Speaker 1: the first guy in the world who is going to
Speaker 1: step up and say, hey, not every problem in life
Speaker 1: has to start with hiring an attorney. Okay, But but
Speaker 1: how can I tell you that this one is a
Speaker 1: different situation? Okay, So guys, aria a dear we were
Speaker 1: talking during the break. Undoubtedly the most confusing aspect of
Speaker 1: all of this is right up front. Because I'm a homeowner,
Speaker 1: My property has been damaged on some level, right, and
Speaker 1: so I file a claim. Okay, Then comes the adjuster. Yeah, okay,
Speaker 1: So what is Dean saying. Is he saying that I
Speaker 1: shouldn't trust the adjuster to just handle this for me.
Speaker 1: And then the insurance company is going to recommend their
Speaker 1: list of approved contractors. Then they're like, hey, you know
Speaker 1: our guys, if you use one of our contractors on
Speaker 1: our approved list, we can fast track some of this
Speaker 1: work and get you back in and blah blah blah blah.
Speaker 1: And so there's that there are public adjusters out there,
Speaker 1: there's all who do we call?
Speaker 4: You know, the first phase at the end of the
Speaker 4: day is calling a professional who could quantify the loss.
Speaker 4: So either a public adjuster, a contractor who's familiar with
Speaker 4: insurance practices and knowing how to quantify through their system
Speaker 4: called exact demate, or even an attorney who's has the
Speaker 4: season in this, because quantifying is the biggest problem here
Speaker 4: is knowing what is it going to cost to bring
Speaker 4: you back to your pre lost condition, especially taking an
Speaker 4: account that labor costs and material is going to go
Speaker 4: up at this time.
Speaker 1: Okay, so already I'm like, great, now I'm out of
Speaker 1: pocket on this stuff. Now, I gotta I gotta call
Speaker 1: people in and pay people to watch dog the people
Speaker 1: that I'm not so to pay to rebuild my house.
Speaker 1: But you guys do it differently, all right, This is
Speaker 1: I'm not setting this up to be a damaged law commercial,
Speaker 1: but honestly, I am so impressed with how you guys
Speaker 1: handle this. Somebody can call you and you're gonna do what.
Speaker 2: So somebody will call us and we will review their
Speaker 2: policy for free. We'll review their situation for free and
Speaker 2: give them advice as to how they can move forward
Speaker 2: with their claim on their own. But unfortunately, they're going
Speaker 2: to hit a roadblock or an impasse at some point.
Speaker 2: God forbid. I hope they don't, but they may end
Speaker 2: up hitting a roadblock with the insurance carrier and they'll
Speaker 2: get taken advantage by the insurance carrier, and that's when
Speaker 2: they need an advocate to support them. We don't charge
Speaker 2: on an hourly rate. We charges what's called the contingency fee,
Speaker 2: where we take a percentage of the gross funds that
Speaker 2: are issued to the insured after everything's been settled out,
Speaker 2: So kind of like a personal injury situation, right, and
Speaker 2: what we've been doing, you know, is devastating. Times, it's unprecedented.
Speaker 2: People don't have homes right now, they're not at home,
Speaker 2: they're relocated. We've been reducing our rates significantly and you know,
Speaker 2: trying to accommodate these these individuals who have been drastically
Speaker 2: affected by these fires. So we've been going out of
Speaker 2: our way to kind of just be a support system
Speaker 2: to these individuals and help them through this process.
Speaker 4: At the end of the day, we're here to provide
Speaker 4: guidance and there are times that you need public adjusters
Speaker 4: and attorneys, and there's times that you don't need us.
Speaker 4: You'll know when you need us when the insurance carrier
Speaker 4: is trying to skip a step or they try to
Speaker 4: fix your home at an amount that you can't even
Speaker 4: get a contractor mediation company to do the work for.
Speaker 4: So it's always best to know what's going on in
Speaker 4: the market and when are they going to be able
Speaker 4: to do this work and for how much, and getting
Speaker 4: their insurance carrier to approve it before you even go
Speaker 4: and sign that contract, because you don't want to be
Speaker 4: out of pocket.
Speaker 1: They should cover this if you have that coverage, gotcha.
Speaker 1: And obviously there are degrees here of what gets an
Speaker 1: insurance company's attention. Yes, I would say, I tend to
Speaker 1: put it in the order of in my own experience,
Speaker 1: and I'd probably get going to get this order wrong
Speaker 1: because I'm putting myself higher on the chain than I should.
Speaker 1: But but no, I mean I've got friends and family
Speaker 1: members who go through stuff, and I get the first call, right,
Speaker 1: and so I kind of step in in the role
Speaker 1: sort of like what a public adjuster would do because
Speaker 1: of my experience with what a home is and what
Speaker 1: it takes and how it should be handled and so on,
Speaker 1: and do better advocacy for them. Right. The difference though,
Speaker 1: where where my contribution in that process, and or as
Speaker 1: an experienced builder and or a public adjusters contribution hopefully
Speaker 1: in the same realm. We can't sue an insurance company,
Speaker 1: you guys can, ye, And so they're listening twice as
Speaker 1: hard when when you guys get involved, I would imagine,
Speaker 1: because there's a lot more on the line for them,
Speaker 1: all right. I just want to underscore this point because
Speaker 1: because I love you guys so much that you guys
Speaker 1: that somebody can call you today today and for free
Speaker 1: you will evaluate you know where they're at and and
Speaker 1: give them good direction as to where to go next.
Speaker 1: So this is the first step, the best, the best
Speaker 1: first step.
Speaker 2: We've been doing this since January seventh. We've been doing
Speaker 2: free policy evaluations and free review and we're happy to
Speaker 2: continue doing so.
Speaker 1: We're right, all right. When we come back, we're going
Speaker 1: to go to the phones as promised, like we do.
Speaker 1: We've got some calls on the board. When we return
Speaker 1: to this subject again, I want to first start out.
Speaker 1: I want to define some of these terms that we've
Speaker 1: been using. I don't want to presume that everybody knows,
Speaker 1: you know, damage law attorney, public insurance adjuster, in insurance contractors.
Speaker 1: Let's figure out exactly where everybody stands and who everybody
Speaker 1: is in the game. Uh, before you know, before we
Speaker 1: you know, kick off as it were, all right, y'all
Speaker 1: your calls when we return. You're listening to Dean Sharp,
Speaker 1: the House Whisperer on KFI. This has been Home with
Speaker 1: Dean Sharp, the House whisper Tune into the live broadcast
Speaker 1: on KFI AM six forty every Saturday morning from six
Speaker 1: to eight Pacific time, and every Sunday morning from nine
Speaker 1: to noon Pacific time, or anytime on demand on the
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