We lost our house to a fire in 2007. Fought with the insurance company (big one). They didn't give us trouble on our contents claim, but tried
to buy us off for about 2/3 of the replacement cost --yes, we had replacement cost insurance--and made us fight for the rest of it. We hired
what's called a public adjuster here in NC and they managed to negotiate with the insurance company to get us the rest of what we needed to
pay off the mortgage. Fighting with the mortgage company was a whole other story and after 6 months of their refusal to reduce our
variable rate loan balance (after giving them the 2/3 check the insurance company had written) I wrote a letter to the NC Commissioner of Banks (when
we had a Democratic state administration) and whammo, I had a phone call from the mortgage company within a week exclaiming how they just couldn't figure
out what had gone wrong. The mortgage company had been ignoring me--and our attorney--for months until the NC Commissioner of Banks (which licenses banks
in the state) got involved.
I don't know if they have public adjusters in your state, but you may want to look into it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_adjuster
He charged us 15% of what they recovered, so we did end up having to pay some costs out of pocket (removal of the house remains), but at least
we didn't end up owing well over $100,000. to the mortgage company for a burned down house. And, to add insult to injury, we also had to pay the full calendar year property taxes
even though the house burned down in August.
Believe me, you're entitled to your rant. It's awful having to deal with insurance companies.
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