OIC Answers, Episode 3 Transcript
Aaron VanTuyl
A lot can happen, and a lot of homeowners just aren't as prepared as they could be. Whether it's not having the right endorsements for specific weather or environmental situations, or simply not having enough coverage. Facing financial realities while trying to rebuild after a disaster is a daunting prospect. In this episode of OAC answers, we ask the question, am I ready for a natural disaster?
This is a podcast from the Washington State Office of the Insurance Commissioner. I'm Aaron VanTuyl, joined by my fellow public affairs staffer, Matt Baide. And on this show we talk to our coworkers to learn more about insurance and hopefully help people answer some basic questions about their coverage. Our office protects consumers and regulates the insurance industry, which ranges from setting and enforcing rules to answering questions and working on behalf of people having problems with an insurance company.
A big part of that work is done by our consumer advocacy program, which we'll call CAP for short. We've invited Amy Teshera, a senior compliance analyst in CAP, to talk about what happens after, basically, a natural disaster damages your home. So, Amy, you were just in Spokane working out of a disaster recovery center to help people after the Gray and Oregon Road fires. And not too long ago, you were also in Maui after the wildfires. Let's start there. tell us a little bit about those working trips for you.
Amy Teshera
Yeah. So, one of the things I, I'd like to, just point out is the resilience I saw in both of those communities. I was really impressed to see how much support was being provided throughout the communities where everybody was standing together, trying to help each other with the disaster, to navigate, to just be there for each other. And it just makes a lot of sense to me that if you have that kind of backing in that community support, things are going to be a little easier. Certainly, in a disaster. And you're a survivor of a disaster. that's a devastating thing. But to know that somebody is there to, you know, kind of hold you up when you might not be able to hold up yourself is pretty amazing. So I was really impressed with both the Lahaina and the, Spokane County fire communities.
Aaron VanTuyl
Okay. So Amy, tell us a little bit about your work with the OIC as a compliance analyst. What do you do day to day in the office?
Amy Teshera
Yeah. So, on a daily basis, one of the things that we do in the CAP division, the consumer advocacy program, is we answer a lot of insurance questions. We call it a hotline. It's available Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and we answer all types of insurance questions, you name it. If it's insurance related, we answer it. So we provide a lot of information about consumer rights. We give folks information about how to navigate certain things. There's a lot of talk about rate increases right now. So that's something we're talking a lot about. And then beyond that, if somebody has a complaint about their insurance company, we will look into those complaints. We'll even send a letter to an insurance company, ask them to respond to consumer concerns or, issues that they might be having. And then we will provide that response to the consumer and then give them some information about how they can help themselves. It's a big thing is the more you know, the better you are able to advocate for yourself. And that's a really important thing for our agency. Okay.
Aaron VanTuyl
And so is that kind of the same sort of thing you're doing when you're on site in Maui or in Spokane after the issues there?
Amy Teshera
Absolutely. So in Maui, obviously, I'm from Washington State. So the Hawaii Department of Insurance asked other states to participate because they were overwhelmed. So in Maui, it's exactly what we did. Kind of gave them an idea of timing, how to navigate if they're not getting a response from their insurance adjuster or from the insurance company. We even looked at some policies to see if maybe there was coverages that have been overlooked that might have been available to them.
Amy Teshera
So a lot of education, a lot of guidance on really what? Because I'm not an attorney, I can't make a company do something. But I can certainly tell you how you can get a company to adjust to what they're doing, or to provide you better answers, or to answer your questions or to, make sure that you're in getting what you're entitled to.
Aaron VanTuyl
What type of questions do you get from people who have lost their home to a wildfire?
Amy Teshera
You know, one of the things that we saw and recognized in both Lahaina and in the Spokane County fires is that people were underinsured. They didn't have enough insurance to cover all of their losses. A major question we heard was, isn't it up to the insurance company or my insurance agent to make sure that I have enough insurance coverage to protect my home? And that is something that's our responsibility. I, as a policyholder, as a homeowner, am obligated to make sure that I'm properly covered. Certainly, the insurance company is going to check their evaluations to make sure that they are insuring for what's called the replacement cost coverage. But ultimately, it's my responsibility.
Aaron VanTuyl
Okay. What, what other type of questions did you get? Anything else that really sticks out? A question you heard more than once. Anyway.
Amy Teshera
There was a lot of question about debris removal. Okay. A lot of folks didn't even know that there was debris removal available under your insurance policy. It's not a huge amount of money. It's a percentage of your coverage. But a lot of folks didn't even know it was available. So some folks had paid to have their own debris removed, ashes, trees, building structures, and then didn't even know they had that coverage. So that was something. And I was really glad to be able to explain to them, no, there's some coverage for that.
Aaron VanTuyl
We talked about being under insured. If someone is underinsured, what other options do they have?
Amy Teshera
Through the insurance policy? There isn't. If you if you have, we'll just give an example. If you have $100,000 in coverage in your home is $150,000 to ensure you're under insured, you didn't have enough insurance. Your policy is not going to pay for that because you get what you paid for. So there what I always recommend is you check with some of the charities that are available Salvation Army, the American Red cross, churches, senior centers, groups that you belong to. There's a lot of people out there that are wanting to help folks if they can.
Aaron VanTuyl
And now in Spokane, there was FEMA coverage that came in. How does how does a FEMA declaration impact people who have been hurt by a fire like that?
Amy Teshera
The FEMA declaration is actually a really great thing. And what I experienced in, Spokane County just last week I was there. is they really care. They are trying to find coverage for you. And so FEMA is not the end coverage. They are not the ones who are going to indemnify you for your loss. They're not the ones who are going to pay for everything, but they're going to assist you where they can. One of the main things they were doing in Spokane is they were helping with skeptics and wells not covered under your homeowner's insurance. So that was a big help. And then there were other types of things, like if you had not enough insurance, but not too much insurance, they could supplement that. And that's part of what they were doing. What I saw was a great compassion for people and that it just felt good. Yeah.
Aaron VanTuyl
You mentioned septic. What else might not be covered that people would think would be covered under their homeowner's policy?
Amy Teshera
The homeowner policy is very specific. It actually lists what's covered. It's called perils. And under your policy there's a list of there's fire, theft, vandalism, malicious mischief. Those things are covered perils. So there are certain things that are not covered. If you have let's say your dishwasher's leaking and it's been leaking for two months and you didn't know it was leaking until all of a sudden you're stepping in water that would probably not be covered under your homeowner policy, because it happened over a period of time. Anything that occurs over a period of time is considered wear, tear deterioration or a maintenance issued isn't covered under your homeowner policy. That's actually a really shocking thing for a lot of folks.
Aaron VanTuyl
So let's get back to, to claims say somebody has coverage after, fire, what have you, and they have enough coverage. How difficult is it to file a claim when everything you have is gone?
Amy Teshera
Yeah. So when you when you have a total loss, there was a lot of, homes that were lost completely. The structures were lost, the contents were lost, everything was lost. And so then you're having to recreate your life, basically recreate everything that you might have had over the last ten, 20, 50 years. Filing the claim is the easy part. Call your insurance agent or your insurance company. You talk to the first person. They take the information, basic information. And then from there you get assigned to somebody who will be your adjuster, the person that's going to walk with you through the claim process. One of the things that we were able to do with the Spokane County fires is the commissioner wrote a letter to insurance companies urging and encouraging them to be a little more lenient with their claims processing, especially with your contents. You know, not everybody is going to remember everything they lost in a fire. And it's going to be stressful as it is. And things are going to come up along the way. So the insurance commissioner sent out a letter to all of the insurance companies in Washington state requesting that they be a little more lenient, maybe even set a percentage that they're just going to pay right out of the chute, and then work with each consumer individually to get to that policy limit.
So those are some of the things that can be done in in our office tries to help with.
Aaron VanTuyl
And then once your claim is filed, does that cover temporary housing, a hotel, finding you a rental house, an Airbnb. What's going on there?
Amy Teshera
Yeah. So most policies are what we call a package policy, the homeowner policy. And so part of that package is what's called additional living expense or loss of use. And so the additional living expenses, just that anything you're having to do to continue to live in your normal expectation is, you know, your housing, if you pay rent and you didn't pay rent before, that's an additional expense that would be covered. Most insurance companies have a housing vendor that will help you find a place, an Airbnb, a hotel, or even temporary rental house. It also covers, you know, your additional costs for food or your additional cost for electricity. Anything that's more than you normally would pay the insurance company that additional living expense or loss of use pays that overage whatever was more than you normally would pay.
Aaron VanTuyl
Okay, so we've been talking about wildfires here, but what other natural disasters would home insurance cover? Thinking like floods, tsunamis, blizzards, hurricane? Landslides? Mudflows? Any questions that have popped up about that for you, or anything people might assume is covered under their homeowner's policy that maybe isn't.
Amy Teshera
Yeah, pretty much everything you listed just now is not covered under your homeowner policy. Great. Those types of disasters are not meant for your typical homeowner policy. So your typical homeowner policy is going to be like I was saying, that flood, theft, vandalism, malicious mischief, things like that. You're natural disasters like your earthquake, mudflow, landslide, those kinds of things are not covered under a standard homeowner policy. Earthquake and flood are things that you can add to some policies if they're available through your carrier. Or you can buy a separate policy for those. And there are policies that are called a difference in conditions. We call them DC difference in condition. And those policies you actually can create, like say you lived on a hillside and you want earthquake, landslide and flood. You can buy one policy with earthquake, landslide and flood. And so those are an option for, for consumers to, to protect themselves. It's not something you buy from Allstate or farmers or any of those stand or insurance companies. It would be policy you'd buy from what we call surplus lines or excess insurance through an insurance broker.
Aaron VanTuyl
In your opinion, how could people better prepare themselves for an emergency situation or a natural disaster situation that impacts their home?
Amy Teshera
The biggest thing I've been telling folks is talk to your agent. Talk to your insurance producer. Let them know what's going on. Ask them, you know, do I have enough insurance when you get that insurance renewal card, when you get the text or the email or the, you know, postcard that says, hey, can we review your policy? Do it. I can't emphasize that enough. There were so many folks that were underinsured. It's devastating. It's devastating to me to hear it, and I didn't even experience it. Yeah. So talk to your agent. You know, insurance is tough. I'd rather go on vacation than pay for my insurance. I'm telling you, that's just it. But if I lose my home, I want my insurance. Right. So you just have to do it. You have to bite the bullet, figure out how you're going to do it, and you have to pay the premium. Yeah. And, you know, I talked to a lot of folks who said I wish I would have I wish I would have, I wish I would have. And so that's the, the main thing I encourage folks, talk to your agent, see how you can get your coverage to make sure you're properly insured. And then there's going to be other ways that you can lower those rates. You know, bundling, adding your home and auto and umbrella together or increasing your deductibles. Or maybe there are some coverages you don't need. Maybe you have, you know, something you don't have to have on your policy that can be removed or reduced. Those are some ways to try and reduce that premium. But talk to your agents, okay.
Aaron VanTuyl
And then one last thing. How can our office help? What can the OIC do for someone having issues with the claim after disaster?
Amy Teshera
CAP is here to help you. We are. You know, we work really hard for Washington State consumers. We want to help you. We work really hard to get things rolling with insurance companies and their customers. Again, you know, you get frustrated by the process. You get frustrated with your rates or you get frustrated with the claim. we get companies and insurers talking again. We help thousands of consumers every single year. You know, we're a regulatory agency. We're not a court of law. So we can't make them pay a claim. But we certainly make sure that they're paying what you're entitled to. We want to make sure that they're timely. They respond to you that you're not waiting months to find out what's going to happen next. Those kinds of things. So call our office. We want to help you.
Aaron VanTuyl
Okay. Matt, do you have anything you'd like to add? Yeah.
Matt Baide
I mean, you know, we all read about the fires in Hawaii as well as, you know, near Spokane. But when you're when you get out there, like, how much does it different when you're out there seeing it for real and then trying to help these people deal with the disaster that they've just experienced.
Amy Teshera
You know, and the part that's hard is the tears. Yeah. I kind of feel a little bad. I had a gentleman come into the medical lake. disaster recovery center, DRC is what we call it. And he was fairly good. And I asked him some questions, you know, how was the claim? Did they cover your home? You know what's going on with your contents coverage? And he started to talk about his music collection, and he teared up. And I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. But, you know, that's it's just the it's a grief, you know? And so I'm a very passionate person, I am compassionate, I feel your pain. And so, that makes it a little more difficult. But the message is the same. We want to help you. We are not miracle workers. Although sometimes we are. And we can't make a company do something they don't have to do. But we can certainly ask them to consider it, just like the commissioner did with his letter.
Matt Baide
Well, Amy, thank you very much for coming on.
Aaron VanTuyl
Yeah, Amy, you've been great. And this has been OIC answers. We will be back soon with another installment and more information about your insurance and what our office can do for you.