High Park fires are now causing many policyholders to have to fight for compensation.
The homeowners who lost their houses to the fires in High Park attended a Larimer County meeting in order to express their frustrations regarding the way that their wildfire insurance claims are being handled by their insurers.
There were around 130 people in attendance, who complained about the depreciated fire insurance settlement offers that they received and which will not provide them with full coverage of their costs to rebuilt. They also shared their struggles to receive complete reimbursement for the possessions that were burned within the homes.
Specific aggravation was geared toward the fire insurance struggles about those claims.
Anyone who had not made an exhaustive inventory list of their personal possessions has been seeing notable struggles in the attempt to obtain a reimbursement. This is particularly difficult at this emotionally trying time.
The participants of the meeting expressed extreme distaste toward the task of having to list all of the personal contents of their homes, calling it “time consuming,” as well as “painful” and “inhumane”.
However, it is the depreciated payments that have caused the most financial grief among homeowners, as they said that the fire insurance payments make it either difficult or impossible to be able to rebuild.
A resident who lost her Rist Canyon home, Trish Garner, expressed her concern and upset with the statement that “If they feel the need to depreciate my policy by that amount, then why did they accept my premium (payment) for that value?”
It was quite common in this instance for fire insurance companies to settle the amounts of the claims based on a percentage of the cost to replace the homes. The complete policy value remains unpaid until the structures have been rebuilt and the possessions have been replaced. Representatives of the industry explained that the insurers are working well within the law and are following the standard practices of the industry by needing an account of the costs and completion before the complete reimbursement has been made.