Hey, so Hurricane Beryl has made its way through and left a lot of damage out there. There are lots of trees down, lots of fences down, and lots of damage to folks’ homes and vehicles. I wanted to create a short video to talk about a few Hurricane Beryl insurance claim scenarios that are probably top of mind right now and hopefully help you decide whether or not it makes sense to reach out to your insurance company to file a claim.

SCENARIO 1: Hurricane Beryl Insurance Claim – What should I do if my neighbor’s tree falls and causes damage to my fence?

First scenario I’ve got is an example right behind me. You can see I’ve got damage to my fence. My neighbor’s tree actually fell through the fence here. Alright, so it’s my neighbor’s tree. Shouldn’t their home insurance policy pay for it? The answer might surprise you.

As you can see, there’s a root system there that looks pretty healthy. The ground probably just got a little too saturated, and the wind blew this tree over, so there’s no neglect by my neighbor. They shouldn’t have thought ahead of time to remove this tree because it wasn’t already dead. So their home insurance policy will not pay for the damage to the fence or the debris removal. It wouldn’t even matter if their tree fell over onto my house and destroyed my roof or damaged my vehicles.

Their home insurance policy would not pay out because there’s no neglect, so my home insurance policy would be where I would look first.

Tips for Filing a Hurricane Beryl Insurance Claim

So there’s some scenarios for you. If you do feel like you need to file a claim, obviously reach out to your insurance company to file the claim. Pack as much patience as you can with the claims adjusters at this time because they’re going to all be overwhelmed regardless of who the insurance company is. If you have the ability ahead of time to reach out to the appropriate contractors to see if they can give you an estimate for repairs to make sure that those repairs are more than your deductible, I definitely suggest doing so.

But either way, hopefully this has answered some questions that you might have. Feel free to reach out, though, if you have any others, and I’d be happy to help out. Give us a call at (281) 528-5737 or visit Pinnacle Point Insurance.