Madison Public Adjuster

Why a Local Expert Is Necessary for Madison Property Damage Claims

Madison is not just a typical Midwestern city of medium size. It is a combination of a university town, a state government center, and a lakefront community, which results in unique property insurance characteristics that cannot be found anywhere else in Wisconsin. The range of ages of the buildings in Madison goes back nearly 100 years within only a few miles, and the city's one-of-a-kind isthmus geography places a good part of the city's properties right on the edge of two big lakes. It is hard to say what kind of damage there will be after a severe weather event just by looking at the one in Madison.

Madison's Isthmus Geography Causes Flood and Water Damage Claims That Insurers Often Disagree With

The center of Madison is located on a very narrow piece of land between two lakes Lake Mendota and Lake Monona. The areas around the lakes, such as Tenney-Lapham, Marquette, Williamson Street, Monona, and Shorewood Hills, have been and continue to be real flood risk areas. When there is a heavy rainfall, the lakes are getting filled up and it is difficult for the city to handle the amount of water, thus getting it into people's basements and lower levels of their homes. The water damage is happening in such a way that it is very difficult to separate the damage resulting from floods and the damage resulting from leaks. This is very important when it comes to claims. The insurance carriers often use the water source as their excuse for denial or very limited payout, and most of the time, Madison policyholders are not knowledgeable enough about their policies to effectively oppose that decision. That is what we excel at.

Dane County Is Situated Right on the Hail Corridor that Is Most Active in Wisconsin

While the reason for the attention that Milwaukee gets is the severity of the lake-effect, Dane County is, in fact, one of the hailiest counties in Wisconsin permanently. Severe storm systems originating from the plains track to the northeast and often hit the Madison metropolitan area first before going on to Milwaukee and the Fox Valley. Therefore, large hail events, causing extensive roof, siding, and window damage to the city, are more frequent. Due to the fact that Madison is an inland city and has no hills surrounding it, the storms do not lose their force when they pass through, and the damage caused by one hail event can be so wide that it starts in Sun Prairie on the east side and stretches all the way through Middleton and Verona to the west. Also, hail claims are one of the most underpaid claim types in Wisconsin carrier adjusters constantly fail to detect functional damage to roofing systems which, although looking superficial on a quick inspection, in fact, compromise the roof's integrity and its remaining lifespan.

Madison's Housing Stock Close to Campus Is a Minefield for Insurance Claims

The areas usually occupied by the University of Wisconsin students, Miffland, Greenbush, Vilas, Regent, and the parts of Monroe Street, are, in fact, areas which contain the oldest and least maintained buildings in the city of Madison. Most of these homes have been turned into multi-family rental units over time without having been kept up or repaired, mechanical systems are old, and the roofs have only been met through patching instead of full replacement. When a storm or severe cold weather strikes a near-campus property, the damage that can most easily be seen is far from covering the whole scope of the loss. Preston carriers base most of their arguments on the condition of the building before damage and the general idea of wear and tear, especially for the old buildings in Madison, particularly when the issue of building condition is already being disputed in areas that have a lot of rentals. The difference between winning or losing these claims depends on how good the documentation is and interpretation of the policy.

Madison's Rapid Suburban Growth Has Created a Two-Speed Insurance Market

On one hand, you have the city of Madison with its historical neighborhoods struggling with infrastructure that is getting old. On the other hand, you have the city's rapidly expanding outer circle which includes areas like Fitchburg, Sun Prairie, DeForest, Waunakee, and the Middleton corridor that present a completely different set of problems when it comes to claims. The houses built recently in these places tend to be bigger, have higher replacement cost values, and have more complicated mechanical and exterior systems. So, if, for example, a newly built dwelling in Fitchburg or Sun Prairie gets bad hail or wind damage, it should go without saying that the replacement cost resulting from such damage is going to be significant. However, it is a common practice among the insurers to try and pass off strict depreciation schedules and undervalued pricing for materials on the newer houses in the suburbs, basically banking on the idea that the policyholders will not be paying much attention to the figures. We certainly do.