What about my deductible? How does that work?
Whether it’s us, or any other contractor who does your restoration work, you must pay your deductible to them. Your bill cannot be exaggerated to the insurance company and you cannot be discounted for the deductible as that is insurance fraud and is punishable by law.
How does the hurricane deductible work?
Your deductible is part of your insurance contract. Like with your automobile insurance, it is the amount you have to pay out-of-pocket before insurance kicks in to pay the balance up to the insured limit. So, if your deductible is $5,000, and your loss costs $12,000, then you must pay the $5,000 before insurance will pay the remaining $7,000. The contractor cannot increase the cost of the loss to $17,000 to get the insurance company to pay the full $12,000, as that would be insurance fraud. Nor can the contractor discount the amount the customer must pay, for the same reason. Unless the total loss is less than the deductible amount, the customer must pay the full amount of the deductible. Additionally, the customer will need to pay any amount that exceeds the insurance total coverage amount. If your insurance company determines that the amount of the loss is less money than either your deductible amount or your estimate, ORC Services will work with the insurance company to close the gap, and hopefully, come to agreement. And since ORC will be working for you and not your insurance company, unlike an insurance company preferred vendor, we will work hard to ensure you receive a benefit equal to or as close as possible to the total loss amount as estimated.
If you need multiple repairs from various contractors, how is your deductible applied?
This is one of the advantages of using ORC Services as your restoration company. Because we are also a general contractor, we will manage the complete job, and you will only be invoiced from us. We do use subcontractors for certain work, but we take care of them and you don’t have to worry about bills coming out of the woodwork! But, in any event, your deductible is only applied once for any given loss, and the amount of the deductible is contained on the declarations page of your policy.