Do You Have An Insurance Claim?
FILING AN INSURANCE CLAIM ON YOUR RESIDENCE, RENTAL OR COMMERCIAL PROPERTY?
Do you wonder whether or not you have a claim to file on your home insurance policy…. or even whether you should? Do you worry about your insurance rates going up if you do file a claim? Does your homeowner’s insurance policy cover your type of damage or loss? We always recommend calling your agent first but if that’s not an option give us a call at Langley Construction today and we can assist with your next decision on whether to file, or not to file the claim.
Langley Construction works closely with most Homeowner’s and property Insurance companies to help alleviate your worries and confusions. We can help handle your claim by working directly with you, your insurance company and your designated adjustor, or even do the adjusting and repair portion for you. We will determine, with your help, whether you have a claim, if it meets or exceeds your deductible and whether or not it’s in your best interest to file the claim or to do the repairs without needing to have the insurance company involved in the process.
Here are some general rules and ideas to keep in mind when considering filing a claim with your homeowner’s or property insurance company:
- If you are going to contact your insurance company to ask questions on whether or not damage or loss is covered, be sure to ask your questions in a “hypothetical” situation. Even if you don’t actually file a claim the insurance company creates a file for each situation that you have contacted them about, whether they pay out or ultimately deny your claim. In turn, your insurance company reports this information to what is called CLUE (Comprehensive Loss Underwriting Exchange) to track and monitor your claim history. This database holds all personal property AND personal auto claims that you have made over the past 7 years. This is why it’s very important to talk to your insurance company in a hypothetical situation.
- We advise not trying to file a claim on your property if it is less than your deductible, mostly due to it not being covered. You must meet your deductible before your insurance company will pay out and if the damage or loss is less than your deductible, you may have filed a claim for no reason. This subsequent claim will sit on your insurance record for a minimum of three years and can/may increase your insurance premiums. Also, make sure to weigh the benefits and risk-reward to not filing a claim even if it goes over your deductible by as little as $200-$1000.
- Know your insurance policy! Make sure before you decide to file a claim with your insurance company that you actually have that coverage on your policy. If you file a claim and the insurance company subsequently determines that it is not covered by your specific policy and they don’t pay out, that claim doesn’t go away. It still sits on your record as a claim filed and will be on your record for a minimum of 7 years after the incident. Make sure you’re covered for the claim!
- Don’t submit an insurance claim for something that is really more of a home maintenance project. For example, if your fence is falling apart, rotting away and needs to be repaired or just completely replaced, decide to add into your monthly budget saving the money to repair the fence on your own without filing a claim. This will save you time and money in the long run by not having to involve your insurance company and by also not taking the chance of having your insurance rates increase because you filed a claim. The added benefit to replacing your fence, roof, siding, windows, etc., on your own as well is that a better maintained home gets better premiums. (NOTE: the best way for the layman to look at insurance is like this, Insurance is for non-maintenance items, which as a general rule should be taken care of on a routine basis. Obviously, hail damage to a roof, driving one’s car through the garage, pipes bursting in your home and causing interior water loss, etc. are not what we consider “maintenance” items). Painting, fence, deck, roof, siding maintenance (things that wear out over time), etc., should be considered more along the “maintenance” line of things.
If you have questions pertaining to whether or not you have an insurance claim, or whether or not you should file the claim, call Langley Construction. We can answer most of your questions dealing with these types of scenarios. We will assist you in making the most informed decision for your specific situation. As we all know, no incident is exactly the same. Give us a call today! 406-251-6900 or 406-251-7916.
** SERVING MONTANA AND IDAHO
Please note, we can only give advice on the information we’re given and an on-site inspection is always the preferred method for us to be able to represent our clients to the best of our ability.
Did you know that some homes have “eyebrows?” It’s a colloquial term for a small, shingled awning or shed roof, which can be added to your home to change up the look and create some eye-pleasing details. This beautiful home on Frey Lane in Missoula (pictured below) had some darker fascia installed, along with several eyebrow accents along the gable ends. Our crew didn’t change the structure of the home, yet it looks incredibly new, sleek and fresh with the addition of those stark eyebrows. We think it’s a real head turner! Interested in adding some flair to your home? Jared Langley Enterprises, Inc. can help! Give us a call at 406-541-ROOF or contact us through our website, jaredlangley.com.
Do you want a new look for your home? Does it lack the curb appeal you want? Jared Langley Enterprises, Inc. can help! Check out the difference in appearance we helped to achieve, on this Grant Creek home with minimal cost! We added a dormer over the bay window and a shed roof over the garage door. We replaced the existing roof with new GAF 50yr architectural shingles in the “Barkwood” color and then we installed new steel fascia and vented steel soffits, including new gutters, to complete this transformation. If you’re interested in updating the exterior of your home, we can help. Give us a call today at 406-251-6363! We look forward to serving you in the future.
Summer has flown by in a busy blur – we can hardly believe it’s already the end of August! Aside from a few scattered storms, we’ve been blessed with beautiful weather that has lent itself well to outdoor work and we’ve moving right along through our schedule. Along the way, we’ve seen some drastic and beautiful transformations take place that we’re thrilled to share with you! Take a look at some of the before and after shots from our recent work below.
When your basement floods and you need someone to repair the damage, who do you call? Repairing water damage requires a wide variety of skills, from installing carpeting to repairing drywall to replacing damaged doors, and that’s why it’s good to find a contractor with eclectic experience in construction to help you reclaim your home – even better if it’s someone you already know!
One of the most incredible things about working in remodeling is being able to personalize a space for a homeowner. Often, when we think about this process, we think about decorating – putting up art, moving in furniture, bringing in a house plant or two. In this case, the house is a static canvas, but with a little bit of help from an experienced professional, making a space your own can be so much more. Recently, we finished a project for a wonderful client who called us in hopes of giving her home an updated look that matched her lovely personality. She had lots of great ideas, but only two very specific requests for us: she wanted new, black cabinets in her kitchen and bathrooms, and copper appliances. With these two things in mind, a fantastic new project took shape, and over the course of the next few months, we transformed her home into an exciting new space all her own! For this remodel, we updated both the interior and the exterior, so while the bones are still the same, the house itself looks brand new, especially from the outside! We replaced the old, outdated blue siding and cream trim with new Tru-Guard lap siding in a nice shade of green called “pine cone” accented with “smoke stone” shakes and “spiceberry” trim. Then we topped it off with brand new GAF Grand Canyon lifetime specialty shingles in a subtle neutral brown. The discolored wood of the front deck was replaced with composite decking in a color to accent and compliment the rest of the home, and new powder coated railings were installed to tie everything together and to enable the use of the new deck without having to spend the entire summer sanding and staining rails. In the back of the house, we constructed an entirely new deck with an overhang that not only provides excellent shade for summer afternoons, but connects with the roof of the garage to make a weather protected path to the garage door for those snowy winter days and spring rains. Additionally, all the vinyl windows were replaced with Pella wood, metal clad four-pane windows with integral blinds and sun defense glass. We also added a bay window to the front of the house for a little extra pop.
If you’re considering getting a new roof, there’s one question that always seems to stump our clients: what color shingle do you want to put on your home? It’s a more difficult question than it seems, but that’s why we’re here to help. We offer a variety of colors to match any home, no matter the color. The following collection of photos are from projects that we did in the Missoula area and are not touched up to help give you a better idea of what each color looks like in the real world. As a rule of thumb, lighter colors make your house look larger and keep your house a bit cooler, and darker colors make the colors of your house look richer and absorbs heat. If you want to see these colors for yourself, we always have samples available for viewing in our office!
The summer moves on and things here at the Missoula office are busy, busy, busy! We’ve done many a roof in the past weeks, along with a few other exciting projects, including this awesome kitchen remodel! For many, the kitchen is a gathering place, a hub of family activity, and having a kitchen that functions well and feels good is an important part of any home. A family’s needs can change over time, however, and sometimes that kitchen requires a little updating to keep it looking sharp and feeling homey. This remodel involved bringing together a lot of smaller elements – flooring, cabinetry, countertops, and backsplash, to name a few – to create a cohesive look that the homeowner loved, so we enlisted the help of a designer to assist in coordinating everything and making the space look amazing. Once the selections were made, it was time to put our talented professionals to work. The finished product gave an old, familiar space an entirely new feeling!
Sometimes, opening up a roof can bring about a lot of unexpected surprises. A roof past its prime can suffer from a myriad of problems, and at times it can be hard to tell exactly what’s going on beneath the shingles until they’ve been torn off. Such was the case with a roof our crew replaced recently – after tearing up the shingles and flashing, they found a very furry, very cute surprise: three tiny baby squirrels! The squirrels had made their nest in the roof’s sheeting, safely tucked away from the weather underneath the shingles, and the three little ones were curled up together in a warm bundle of shredded wood.
While weather in the northwest is not always known for following the calendar, March 20th marked the first official day of spring! Here at our Missoula Roofing, Restoration and Construction office, we’re loving the warmer temperatures and seeing the sun again after all those gloomy, wet winter days – and our crews and clients out in the field are too! Our construction professionals work year round, but snow and ice can cause complications on any project, just as they can cause damages to your home.
We want to give a huge thank you to Montana and Idaho for helping us bring our 30th year of business to a close. We look forward to serving you and our future generations. Happy Holidays from our families to yours.