Insurance companies routinely deny claims and sometimes insureds will accept the denial not pursuing the claim any further. If nothing else delaying the payouts helps their bottom line numbers for their quarterly dividends and the insurance industry ratings. Many insureds hire an independent adjuster. This frequently helps in dealing with the insurance company and getting the claims paid.
My husband just retired last month from working as a risk control specialist in equipment breakdown for a major insurance company. His territory was all of Florida south of Sarasota over to Fort Pierce and clear down through the Keys. He inspected a lot of condos, businesses, timeshares, etc. In handling the claims from Irma he saw one place that hadn't properly repaired the AC system after Hurricane Wilma. They didn't want to spend the money which they would have been given back then and chose to substitute a cheap and entirely inadequate repair instead of replacing like for like as they should have done. In cases like this the insurance company is entirely justified in denying the Hurricane Irma claim. It is his experience that management companies frequently don't act in the best interests of the owners and boards of directors often make decisions they don't have the knowledge or background to be making. That being said management companies can be sued and boards of directors should have director and officer insurance which covers them should they be sued.
I can't even begin to tell you the number of times my husband has come home and said he would never consider living in some of condo's and hoa's in our area because of what he saw when he went in to do a full assessment of their equipment and electrical systems. When we stayed at Sea Gardens in Pompano Beach, a Wyndham resort, for two years running he told the resort manager and the head of maintenance that they needed to put in metal or concrete poles to protect their transformer. They had cement poles protecting the dumpster and he explained that even scrap metal poles sunk into the ground would help so this isn't an expensive very much needed preventive measure. He explained if his company were to insure them and he did the initial assessment that would be something they would be required to do for his company to insure them. If anyone would ever hit the transformer the whole resort could be without power for several days and that is only if there was no subsequent damage as a result of the power outage. Last time he looked a couple of years ago this still hadn't been done.
A forensic analysis/property analysis report of everything a business, timeshare, condo, hoa is responsible for including buildings, clubhouse, pool, sidewalks, any equipment, etc. should be done by the property insurer every time the policy comes up for renewal. If they didn't do it then the insured can request that it be done. In my husband's experience getting the boards to agree to spend the money to do whatever is recommended is frequently a problem and getting the cooperation of the management companies often even a bigger problem. Some of the equipment he inspected required State operating certificates which he refused to issue until certain repairs or replacements were done. Never assume you have a good property management company or board of directors.
