Boats of every type can be found up and down the coastline and inland waters throughout Florida. Boats, yachts, ships, and the specialty marine items inside them are very expensive, to say the least. Marine insurance is designed to protect water vessel owners from financial loss if their boat or equipment sinks, is lost, or suffers significant damage. A marine insurance policy may also cover damage from collisions with another boat, a dock, or other objects, or due to storms, hurricanes, vandalism, theft, and fire. Damage from these events is common and can result in significant financial loss if the boat owner does not have an adequate policy in place which covers that property.
As one of Florida’s Premier Boat Insurance Claims Attorneys, we always recommend boat owners purchase a quality marine insurance policy. These policies might be your only hope of recovering money for the loss or damage to your boat or equipment. However, just because you have an insurance policy does not guarantee the company will pay for that loss. Unfortunately, it might become necessary for you to hire a Florida Boat Insurance Claim Attorney’s services to receive full and fair value for your losses.
Once you report a loss or damage to your marine insurance company, the insurance adjusters might tell you it cannot pay the claim, or only a small amount of it, because of certain conditions or exclusions in your policy. However, the adjusters do not work for you. Instead, they work for the company that wrote your policy. Their job is to save the company money, by either denying your claim or paying out as little as possible on it. Most people are not aware of how insurance companies operate, so they take the insurance adjusters word for it, and walk away from or give up on their claim. Nevertheless, you bought your insurance policy in good faith and paid a lot of money for it. So, it’s now time for the insurance company to pay you for your covered losses.
Watercraft can be damaged in any number of ways. According to the BoatUS Marine Insurance Program, the primary ways boats are damaged are :
- Wake damage: by hitting docks, due to the wake of a passing boat
- Theft or vandalism: This is the most expensive payout in boat claims because the loss might be for the entire insured value.
- Fire: This type of claim, like theft, is another high-value insurance claim since the boat and equipment are often a complete loss.
- Striking a submerged object: Droughts are often a common cause since as the water gets shallower, submerged items become closer to the surface of the water.
- Hurricanes: A single hurricane can result in thousands of boat insurance claims.
If you have suffered the loss of, or damage to your boat, or equipment, and the claim has been denied or received a small amount of money that doesn’t cover all of your losses, you need to seek the help of a Florida Boat Insurance Claim Attorney. At the Law Offices of Rand Saltsgaver, LLC, we have decades of experience in handling claims against insurance companies, and the resources needed to fight it out in court. Most of all, we have the will to win, because we handle these cases on a contingency fee basis, which means we don’t get paid unless you get paid. Contact us today for a free consultation on your claim.