Bidding storm damage insurance jobs

[BoesTreeService]

Are there tried and true ways you can work with your clients when bidding jobs to help them keep thier out of pocket expenses down in those situations when its going to be paid for by insurance - but there is going to be a deductible.

Also, has anyone ever known an insurance company help the homeowner pay to have a tree removed when its falling onto a house is emminent? I have had several clients recently tell me thier insurance company has told them they would cancel the policy if they don't have a tree trimmed or removed.

My thoughts are that sometimes when a homeowner calls me and I look at a 60' tree leaning at a 15 degree angle over thier house, with a 6' long split down the middle, that it would be to the insurance companies benefit to pay to have the tree taken down, rather than wait and pay for the tree to be removed from the rubble that is left of the house, and for the damage to the house... Any advise from experience would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Mike Barcaskey]

I bid them like any other job. to do any thing to help their "out of pocket expenses" is insurance fraud.
and while I know the insurance industry is full of slimeball hucksters who couldn't make it as lawyers, I wont break the law

 

[BoesTreeService]

Aren't there legal ways to do this, like the medical industry does?

Have you ever gotten a statement from a doctor or other medical provider and they have reduced your bill after the insurance has paid? This is how that industry has helped keep the insured party from paying larger portions of the bill. If they reduce your bill by $50, do you think they might have added that $50 amount onto the front of the charge, knowing it is thier standard procedure to "write off" a portion later? I would assume this is perfectly legal because almost every medical bill I have gotten in the last few years has had this done. Maybe I am comparing apples and oranges, but that was what got me thinking about that, because thier write offs reduce the amount the patient pays, while the insurance company still pays based on the full pre-written off amount.

 

[Mike Barcaskey]

do you get the leads referred to you by the insurance agent?
try this. tell the insurance fellow that you are going to charge an extra $500 above the stanard price for the job so you can kick it back to the homeowner to cover his deductible. see what he says.

unless I am mistaken in what you want to do.
if so sorry

 

[Mike Barcaskey]

I get a good bit of work reffered by insurance agents. I believe it is because they know I wont BS it.
on the other hand I bet 60-75% of the homeowner calls on insurance jobs lead to the homeowner asking if I would charge "a little more to cover my deducible".

 

[BoesTreeService]

Most of the time the jobs are from the homeowner. The jobs that come from the insurance companies are still calls from the homeowner who is told by the agent to remove the tree - at the homeowners cost - to save the insurance company from having to pay the inevitable claim, that by the way the homeowner has been paying thier premiums for. (That is BS in my book but I stay out of that argument.)

What I am talking about is when a tree falls on a house - and then the homeowner has the deductible to pay out of pocket before the insurance kicks in. If you dont think that the insurance agent would approve of giving a higher estimate, then "writing off" a portion of the remainder AFTER insurance pays, I would agree with you. (i prefer to say 'writing off' like the medical industry does, not kicking back like you say...haha)

So why can a doctor who makes grotesque fee's screw the health insurance industry-which is already grossly overpriced, but a tree service cant do the exact same thing in the homeowners insurance area?

Here is one example that got me thinking of this: A client calls me and says a recent wind storm broke a tree in half and it landed on her garage. I go out on Sunday afternoon to remove it from her garage. She asks me to tell her how much to take it off and how much to take the wood away. She says the insurance agent told her they would only pay to have the tree taken off the garage- NOT to have any of it hauled away or chipped, OR to have the rest of the dead and cracked portion trimmed back so it wont be the next to take down the garage or power lines. She says she wants me only to remove the tree from the garage and she (70 yrs old woman) will move the wood and burn it later. I tell her I only make one charge for removing the wood from the roof, and hauling it away is a free service I provide with removal. This is true, I never break down a bid into hauling, although I do give a lower estimate if I dont have to buck or haul, at the request of the client. The agent also will not tell her how much they will allow for this job. How can homeowners insurance get away with that? When you go to the doctor, you know how much the insurance will pay. When your car gets hit, you know how much they will pay before you get the work done.

 

[alanarbor]

The thing is, insurance companies vary quite a bit. I've had some cut the client a check for a $5500.00 SD without even looking at it, and I've seen other companies that would only pay for the 1/3 of the tree that was actually laying on the house, and even then only up to $500.00.

 

[BoesTreeService]

More storm damage work

The agent for another storm damage client called me today, you sure are right about how they vary in the way they do business. The top 30 feet of one of two forks of a pin oak dropped onto a house. No damage to the house as the break was only 10 feet above the roof of the 2 story, the brushy part landed on the house. I took the broken portion off, as well as the limbs below it to provide a drop zone. I charged the client $200 for the 45 minutes of work (they are neighbors of mine) He told me to send him a copy of the invoice and he would pay for that as it was emergency work.

I told him that I had told the homeowners I would charge $700 to take down the entire tree previous to this storm - and would credit them the $200 towards that. I told him now that removal was no longer an option as the tree now needed to come down with that large of a split. He told me to send him the estimate as well, and he would cover that up to $500 AS A SEPERATE CLAIM! I was pleasantly surprised for my clients. The company was Farm Bureau. I hope the other client I mention previously has the same luck with her agent.