In order to participate in the GunBroker Member forums, you must be logged in with your GunBroker.com account. Click the sign-in button at the top right of the forums page to get connected.
Recoverable Depreciation
scooterdriver
Member Posts: 1,197 ✭✭✭✭
UPDATE: After a few more conversations, I received several thousand additional dollars and a vague note that this was my recovered depreciation. Not itemized and about 20% short of my calculations. Can’t get a straight answer out of these folks...guess that’s their business model. So, they win. I’m done fighting, but I am looking for a new insurance company. Thanks for all the input.
————————————
Any insurance-smart folks out there? I have a recoverable depreciation policy; submitted a claim (flood) for some personal property; was paid the actual cash value (ACV) of those items; repaired/replaced some of the items; submitted the receipts. I expected to receive the difference between my replacement cost and ACV for each item. Instead, insurance company says there is no recoverable depreciation because my total costs were less than the ACV payment I already received. Reread all my policy documents and it is unclear (imagine that!) how to calculate recoverable depreciation. Anybody know which methodology is correct? ————————————
Comments
Although it was almost 20 years ago (before the military), I used to be an insurance property claims adjuster. Here is my take on it.
1. First, depreciation is calculated based on an industry standard list of how items depreciate over time. Everything depreciates differently, depending on the type of item and its expected life-span. We used to have a list that specified yearly depreciation on each item.
2. My practice was to pay ACV up front, and then reimburse up to replacement cost for individual items as the customer replaced items. Unless specified otherwise in your policy, this is the fair and proper way to do it. After all, it is YOUR choice what you choose to replace or not replace. In some cases, people just choose to accept ACV on certain items and not replace them. This should not cause you to be penalized on other items (i.e. you should not be forced to replace everything to get replacement cost on SOME things).
3. It sounds to me like your adjuster is taking a holistic look at your claim. In other words, he/she is saying that the TOTAL for the items you have replaced has not yet exceeded the comprehensive ACV payment they gave you. That, in my opinion, is very shady dealing. As an example, say they paid you $500 each ACV on a chair and a couch ($1000 total). You decide to replace the couch ($900), but not the chair. Based on their logic, they're saying they don't owe you anything because they already gave you $1000 and you haven't exceeded that. BS!! The chair money has nothing to do with the couch. Each should be dealt with individually and independent of one another.
In any case, I hope that helps. I would definitely escalate your complaint. In my experience, that is the name of the game on insurance claims. If you even remotely have an argument, escalate, escalate, escalate. Once it hits management, they tend to just pay......especially if you threaten a complaint to your state insurance agency.
Good luck!
Frog
Note: One note I forgot, though. Sometimes folks end up "replacing" an item for less than its estimated replacement cost. If you replace an item for less than the ACV payment on it, they owe you nothing more on that particular item. If you replace it for more than ACV but less than estimated replacement cost of the item, they only owe you the difference between ACV and what you paid for it. In short, you can only get reimbursed for what you incurred....can't profit on the claim.
UPDATE: After a few more conversations, I received several thousand additional dollars and a vague note that this was my recovered depreciation. Not itemized and about 20% short of my calculations. Can’t get a straight answer out of these folks...guess that’s their business model. So, they win. I’m done fighting, but I am looking for a new insurance company. Thanks for all the input.
Glad you got some more out of them, but sorry to hear the rest. No excuse for not providing the itemized inventory with specified amounts. I would definitely take your business elsewhere.
Best of luck.