Making a Difference:
First Call helps area Iraqi vet with insurance claims

Williamson Herald – by Carole Robinson
March 20, 2008 | View Story

When the tornado siren went off at Pinewood School on the evening of Feb. 5, Heather Pepper had just enough time to scoop up her two sleeping daughters and run to the basement.

“The tornado sirens went off and it got dead quiet – so quiet you could hear a pin drop,” she said. “I got Naomi up – she was asleep – I saw a flash of lightning – I never ran so fast in my life.”

During the past several years, South Harpeth Road residents Jason and Heather Pepper have learned to deal with adversity and challenges. Jason spent 10 years in the Army. While in Germany he met and married Heather, the daughter of a soldier also stationed in the Rhineland. He also did tours in Kuwait, Kosovo and Bosnia. While serving in Iraq, on May 7, 2004, Sgt. Pepper’s convoy was ambushed and an incendiary explosive device was hurled at the vehicles leaving Jason seriously injured.

Totally blind and still battling other injuries, his tenacity, his pride and his family have helped Jason overcome his disabilities and move beyond being a victim and rebuilding his life and the lives of his family. As part of that rebuild, he is currently taking classes in business management at ITT Tech, which is where he was when the tornado hit his home.

Now it appeared the Pepper family would once again face the challenge of rebuilding.

When the storm had passed, most of the four walls of the Pepper’s recently renovated 12-year-old home were still standing, but the 5,000-square-foot house was far from whole.

Trees that once surrounded the home were strewn around like matchsticks.
Five-year-old Naomi’s room was gone, along with other sections of the house. Furniture from missing rooms was found on the front porch. All that was left of a second garage was the pad, windows were blown out, columns on the front porch were knocked over and cracks in the bricks, twisted nails and split roof joists showed signs of the struggle between the roof and the twister.

But when Heather called their insurance company, the real nightmare began.

“They started off as the greatest thing in the world,” Heather said. “Come the next day it all fizzled away. They said the house was ‘grazed by the tornado.’ I thought for sure they were going to take care of us.”

The Peppers are not alone in their experience.

Every year, Tennesseans experience devastating losses due to floods, fire or severe weather, and often those losses are compounded by problems with insurance companies.

Enter First Call, a licensed public adjuster company that advises individuals on their Tennessee property loss claims and guides them through the complicated process.

“It’s all about money,” said Phil Breeden, First Call’s president and founder. “When insurance companies have major losses, then the name of the game for the insurance company is let’s cut our losses.”

Most property owners don’t understand the burden of proving loss is on the policy holder, not the insurance company. Breeden said.

Property owners have certain duties after a loss, including submitting a detailed itemized list of damages to the home or business with repair or replacement estimates.

“Homeowners never do that because the insurance adjuster comes out with a contractor they hire, an engineer they hire and they start writing estimates,” Breeden said. “They take control and the homeowner is happy to let them do it. They don’t realize they have a voice in the process.”

Since 1989, First Call has been a voice for the property owner at a vulnerable time.

Dealing with the destruction of their home was emotionally daunting for the Peppers.

“I was pulled in 15 different directions,” said Heather.

When hit with the devastation of home or business, the victims are emotionally distraught; their life has been turned upside down, and it becomes inconvenient to handle a major financial matter, Breeden said. The insurance company is not emotional about it.

“Thank God for insurance – it’s great, a necessary thing to have,” Breeden said. “We hear so many people say they feel victimized twice. The first – the loss – was an accident, but the second victimization is at the hands of the insurance company and that’s not an accident – it’s intentional and it’s harder, but we can do something about that.”

First Call works closely with clients to take the emotion out of the process and get down to the details so clients can deal with the process.

“We are experts at accessing damage correctly and reading insurance policies,” Breeden said. “Often adjusters tell people things aren’t covered and it’s not true.”

According to the Peppers, their insurance adjuster told them much of the damage their home sustained was preexisting and that foundation damage was not covered in the policy, even though the home was renovated by the son of the original builder after the couple purchased it in May 2006.

“When you’re looking from the driveway, you think it’s not that damaged,” said Breeden. “Sometimes a well built house stays in tact longer, but eventually it gives; sometimes as a unit instead of pieces. It looks to some degree that’s what happened.”

Insurance adjusters estimate on the low side but First Call’s public adjusters go over the sight “with a fine toothed comb, regardless of the cost” to put an estimate together. First Call has built a record on improving settlement outcomes.

“The devil is in the details,” Breeden said.

A typical adjustment increase ranges from 30 percent to 50 percent.

“For the insured, the last three-year average increase on the structure portion of a claim was a 57 percent increase in the initial settlement,” Breeden said. “Our fee comes out of (a percentage of) the increase in the settlement. It’s a worthwhile effort and really changes people’s lives keeping a negative from impacting their entire life. We look at the situation of each loss and structure a win-win situation. If they don’t experience a substantial increase, we don’t get paid.”

Clients find the service First Call provides is measured in time and convenience. It takes 90 percent of the work and worry off a client’s hands making it possible for them to manage the rest of their lives.

“We’re human beings, we didn’t ask the tornado to hit us,” said Jason. “We expect to have what we had before the storm. We don’t expect the insurance company to give us a hard time.”

Working with First Call, the Peppers have all ready seen a $30,000 increase in their insurance settlement and First Call is not finished “combing.”

For more information or to contact a First Call public adjuster, call 615-724-2424 or visit www.FirstCallClaims.com or E-mail info@firstcallclaims.com

Important Steps After Property Loss

After you experience a property loss:

Do:

report losses to insurance company or agent as soon as possible.

report any theft to the police immediately.

protect or mitigate property from further loss or damage. Make any reasonable repairs, like covering a damaged roof, to protect the property and keep accurate records of the costs of those repairs.

keep accurate records of any increased costs in living expense or business expenses that are a result of the insured loss.

complete any paperwork required by the insurance company. Some may require a sworn “Statement of Proof of Loss” to be filed within a specified period of time.

secure a copy of the insurance policy with the applicable declarations unique to the situation and claim.

call a public adjuster to work on your behalf and not on behalf of the insurance company.

Don’t:

Don’t loose control of the direction of the claim.

Don’t feel guilty about having a loss or making a claim.

Don’t be intimidated.

Don’t sign anything with a contractor unless they are independent from the insurance company.

Don’t allow a contractor to remove personal property until satisfied with what has been declared cleanable and what has been declared a total loss. Those costs reduce the total money available for a personal property claim.

Before you experience a loss:

Review insurance coverage annually – keep plenty of replacement cost coverage on structure and personal property.

Don’t save money on insurance – relative to payback, insurance is cheap but being underinsured is expensive.

Document everything in the house or place of business by taking hundreds of pictures with a video camera and/or a digital camera. Burn the photos to CDs or DVDs and store them off site. A picture is worth 1,000 words; hundreds of pictures can be worth 10s or 100s of thousands of dollars.

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