Contractor Quarrels
JEFFREY GOULD: You are free to use any contractor that you would like to do the repairs.
DAVID PISANIC: Insurance suggesters will recommend contractors, the people do not know how to use who is reputable and who is not?, but the bottom line is you choose the contractor and you are responsible for whatever as you work out with the contractor.
JEFFREY GOULD: Show the insurance companies estimate to your contractor, make sure they agree whether they can do it for the price that the insurance company has offered.
DAVID PISANIC: Now, the contractor may come in and says it is going to cost you $10,000 for me to fix your kitchen.
JEFFREY GOULD: There maybe issues that your contractor notices that have been considered by the insurance company.
DAVID PISANIC: I am going to do an estimate and I think it is going only cost $6,000. So at that point, the contractor and the insurance adjuster would have to battle that out to you know in order to decide, what was actually there? What was not there?
JEFFREY GOULD: How much is it going to cost to reframe the house? How much is it going to cost for drywall in the house? How much is it going to cost for carpeting?
DAVID PISANIC: See! lot of times people will have cheap carpeting in their house and they will think that we do not know the difference between cheap carpeting and good carpeting.
JEFFREY GOULD: They are going to want to see a detailed list room-by-room of what materials are being used.
DAVID PISANIC: So they will try us to get us put a good carpeting in, what we know, the cheap carpeting is all they had. That is one of the common examples of people trying to get away with up grades and this and that and the insurance company they are on to that they know exactly what is worth. All written down in charts and tables.
JEFFREY GOULD: An insurance company is not going to accept a lump sum figure that says I have a contractor says he can put it back together for a $200,000.
DAVID PISANIC: And, the contractors generally know that. They know what we are going to pay and not pay for a particular repair at your house.
JEFFREY GOULD: If not, he need to go back to the insurance company and try to resolve any differences before any expenses are incurred. Otherwise, you might find that the insurance company is not going to honor the additional charges.
