KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp The House Whisper on demand on the iHeartRadio app.
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So if you've missed any part of this critical discussion here today with my special in studio guests, the founding partners of Damage Law, as we talk about insurance claims and all of the trickiness of that. If you've missed any part of this show today and then we've been given out a lot of solid info, then just turn to the podcast. You can listen any time at all,
as much as you like on demand. And if you're thinking, hey, that's all great, but what we really need is you and Tina standing in our family room telling us what we're going to do with this beast, well you can do that too. You can book an in home design consult with me and the tea. You just go to house Whisper dot Design. All right, we are back at it. I want to get back in to conversation, excuse me with my very special in studio guests from Damage Law,
Aria Shack and a dear b guys. So we talked. We've kind of identified the players now I set up. I kind of teased this out before we went to break about advice of what I call it wasn't your words, but not corrupting the crime scene. Homeowners want to get in to the debris and the mess, and they want to start picking through stuff, and they want to start cleaning up stuff. And again we're talking about more than just the fires. I'm just talking about any time this happens, right, So,
there's a there's a balance here. There is leaving things be and there's a good reason for that that I'll have you explain. But there's also what we call mitigation, which means if the damage has opened up potential more damage, we have to at least address it to the point where the damage isn't causing more damage which causes more of a claim or basically stuff that won't get covered under a claim. Because the homeowner has a certain responsibility there.
So let's start with the crime scene first.
Yes, So the biggest and the most crucial aspect of this all is to making sure that you don't dispose of any items that may have been contaminated or damaged through the fires or even if you had a water damage situation. Because you want to prove your loss to them, you have to give them the right to inspect, and if you immediately dispose of these items, they're going to ask what the condition was and you can't prove it
no longer because you've disposed of it. So it's really key to keeping all the items in place so you can show the insurance carrier, this is what's wrong with this item. It's either miss smoke damage or water damage, and this is what I need in order to bring it back to its original condition or to get it replaced,
because we have a duty to prove our loss. And another aspect of that is you also don't know whether these items are contaminated or not, so it's really key that you don't touch it because you can take that contamination with you to other places and you can get very sick from these items. So you want to test
before we're even doing anything and cleaning. The biggest key is if you you know, we have an automatic instinct where when we see our homes are dirty or there's there's ash and smoke around, you want to clean it. But the problem is when you start touching that stuff, not only are you exposing yourself to contaminants, you're also making it more difficult for yourself throughout the claim process
to show that how horrific this scene really was. So you want to keep everything as is so your adjuster can see what they need to do in order to bring you back to your home and safe and clearly.
At the end of the day.
So hence my metaphor, which is not a bad one, right, don't tamper with the crime scene until the investigation is complete, until you get the sign off that it's time to clean it up.
Does all the contents that are within and all the damage structure that are within is that crime scene. It's the evidence that helps prove your case to the insurance carrier.
Hey, you got to pay for this right exactly? All right? So what about mitigation? What does that word mean? And you know why? Is that an important factor here as well?
So mitigation.
Why it's so important is because most policies require their
insured to mitigate their damages to prevent further damages. So, for instance, if your roof has been affected by these fires and now there's rain coming this week and you don't get a professional roofer to EXAs and your roof and to do some temporary fixes or tarping to prevent water from coming in, the insurance company's going to say, hey, you had a duty to mitigate and you failed, and for that reason, now we're not going to cover for the water damage portion of this claim, or they're going
to try to open up a second claim. So it's really important that you mitigate. And this also includes like if you had a broken window and now there's looters in the area and they come in and they start ceiling or damaging your property. They're going to say, if you had just boarded up your windows and secured your property, this could have been avoided, and for that reason, we're not going to cover or they're going to give you a hard time covering those items.
So there are certain elements of the scene that we document. This is damaged, this is messed up, this is part of the claim. But it also has opened up a
vulnerability and we got we gotta seal it up. So we board up damaged windows, we cover up, we at least tarp over you know, exposed roofs so that the next bout of rain or like you said, you know, looters in the area or whatever that that it's not like a multi level uh, you know chain reaction of damage and more damage and more damage, and the homeowner in a in an insurance contract is responsible for mitigating the damage that happens so it doesn't spread further.
Exactly, But you don't want to just use your handyman. You want to use someone who's license so in the event something goes wrong, you can show your insurance can be you use the professionals that are within that industry to do this work and not just someone who is a handyman that wasn't licensed.
So to Aria's point, you don't want to hire a handyman to come up to the roof and do the tarping to the roof because that person doesn't know how to do proper it doesn't know the proper protocol in terms of.
Tarping or exactly they're not for boarding a roof, so they're.
Not qualified to do so, and you can show the insurance carrier. Hey, I use the licensed roofer, who's insured, who did the work, and even that even after they did the work, it's still caused damage and therefore.
And then it's then then you're safe. You're safe if you're using license proper expert pieple correct. All right, there are a bunch of things that homeowners are entitled to in their claims that I'm guessing most of us don't know or aren't aware of, or at least not aware of the scope. Can we talk about that next? Yeah, all right.
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from KFI AM six forty.
I've gotten used to ignoring the sound of my regular voice, but I've got this little scratch in my voice, and now i feel like I'm back like on my first day ever on the radio, where I'm overly conscientious about the sound of my voice, and so I'm just kind of taking it in these weird directions, like, you know, maybe I should just do the gangster thing. I don't know. Anyway. Hey, now that I've wasted a minute of your time, thanks for joining us on the program today. I'm so glad
that you are here. We're having a really really important conversation with my very special in studio guests, who happen to be the founding partners of damage Law right here in LA, a very very specialized form of law all about property damage claims, working with insurance companies, helping homeowners get everything that they deserve from their claims, which is a tricky thing at times. So I've got Aria and a deer here, and what are we up to now? Oh?
I wanted to ask you guys specifically about because in the course of our conversation, there have been several times that you've mentioned, you know, there are things that are homeowners entitled to, and you'll mention things that I'm like, wow, I had no idea, you know, and I know this
stuff fairly well. And so just off the top of your head, let's talk about things that you encounter all the time that homeowners are usually entitled to in their contracts with their insurance company that they don't really realize.
So one of the biggest things that we're noticing right now that is happening is that insurance company are not relocating or providing housing. It's called additional living expenses for those who have been affected.
So doesn't that mean that, you know, they pay for my hotel room.
And that's the problem. You know, they're placing individuals into hotel rooms when they're entitled to more than just a hotel room. Especially for family, to all squeeze into one room, it's quite difficult. So they're entitled to comparable housing to their own home. So if they had a four bedroom house, they're entitled to a four bedroom house within the area, same similar square footage and to be placed comfortably during that time.
But again, you want to be careful.
With exactly where you go and you spend your money for those funds that you have available, because they can deplete quite quickly, and you want to choose your own location because if you go through the carrier themselves, they'll they have these services which they get the housing company to find you a location and they add on as
a management fee. So before you know it, your funds are depleted and your home hasn't even started the process of rebuild, and now you're going out of pocket because they put you in some kind of housing that's at an inflated amount and it depletes your funds.
So you want to be careful for that.
So is there like a fixed in most contracts? Is there like a fixed allotment for housing?
Yes, so there's certain amounts.
Some people have coverage up to eighty thousands, some people have two hundred thousand, So it depends on what you paid for. But there's an available fund which will cover for your living expenses while you're out of the home. So if you had any out of pocket expenses. Let's say you're in a hotel and now you have to go purchase food outside because you don't have a kitchen to cook, so they should cover those costs for you.
It's really important that they insured is the one that's making these purchases, not anyone else, because the policy holder can only get reimbursed. So if your wife is not on that policy or your kids and they're the ones making those purchases, they're going to have a difficult time getting reimbursement.
Gotcha. So whoever is on the policy needs to be the one who's at the tip of the spear for those expenses. So now it does I if I want to exercise more control and stretch my coverage further, is that me decide in other words. What you said is I'm entitled to like one to one, like a three bedroom, two bath house. They should put me in a three
bedroom to bath house. But if I've only got a certain amount of expense and that rolls off and clicks off, like what if I decide no, no, I'll just put me in a studio apartment right now because I need this to go twelve months instead of sex. We can do that, Okay, but those are my decisions. That's not the decision that the insurance company should be making on my behalf.
So the biggest key is making sure that you don't deplete your funds too quickly, right, And what I like to do the most conservative route is you provide the location that you're interested in to your insurance company and have them approve it before you go and bind yourself to that contract or to that at booking because you want to be guaranteed that you're getting reimbursed.
Okay, great? What else is out there that most homeowners aren't aware of?
When you're conducting your remediation portion to fix the damages to your home, you're also allotted what's called pack out and pack back expenses in order to move the items that are in your home out and they have to pay for that along with the storage for those items.
It really just depends on the situation. If you have tenants who are at the property and they were displaced because of the fires or whatever the loss was, you can get that loss of income as long as you have a landlord policy in place and there's a policy limit provision for the loss of income.
Okay, now this is something really important that you just touched on. Yeah, because as we all know here in southern California, in California in general, in the last five to ten years, eighty us have become a massive thing, right acessory dwelling in its guesthouses, granny flat whatever you want to call them, the idea that be in order
to curb the housing crisis. Right the state has said, hey, we're going to make it really easy and basically have strong armed every county into building in safety like you will allow ADUs to be made. That means a lot of homeowners are now landlords. Yes, okay, what if I've got an ADU and I've got people renting it from me legally, I've got a lease agreement, but I never thought to turn to my insurance company and say I need a specialized policy for that.
That's and that's the problem. If you never informed the insurance carrier that you now have tenants in an ADU and it's not covered under the policy, meaning they didn't update the policy to provide a specific endorsement for that, it's unlikely that you're going to get coverage for them.
You're gonna have a hard time.
All right. So everybody who has put an ADU in needs to turn around. I mean, if it's if it's for a family member, that's one thing. But if you are actually if it's a source of income for you, which it is for so many people, you got to make sure that your insurance company is accounting for that as well.
And I just want to take the time now to just let everybody know, you know, I think it's incredibly important to review your insurance policies now, to go through your coverages, your limitations, your endorsements, and everything that's excluded or included in your policy, just to make sure that you have adequate coverage in case of an event like
the wildfires that have happened. Without doing so, you don't know what coverage you may or may not have at a time of loss, and you may want to bolster your coverages at this point.
All right, excellent, excellent stuff. All right, I still get some calls on the board. I want to try and come back and hit a couple of these calls and then we'll come back with you guys and wrap it all up. So go know where we are in the thick of it with your insurance company right now. They are quaking in their boots because you are learning all the things you need to know about what to do once a claim is filed. So stay with us.
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from KFI AM six forty.
KFI AM six forty live streaming and HD everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. You are Home with Dean Sharp, the house Whisper. We are talking insurance claims and damage to your home and what do you do. And I'm doing it with my very special in studio guests, the founding partners of Damage Law here in Southern California, here in LA And we're going to get back to that conversation.
But I also want to get back to the phone see what we can do with a couple of these calls if at all possible, Henderson, you have been on the line for a long time. I want to talk to Henderson. Is Richie there? Can we activate? Can I Henderson? Welcome home? Nope, I'm not here in Henderson.
Can you hear me?
There you are, sir?
How are you?
I'm doing well. I have two questions. One is in remondling or building a home, and you have your doing. You're reminding with the h fact. Should return vents be in the upper portions of the wall or the lower portions of the wall?
Oh? The returns, the return vents? You know what either, I'm not so concerned about. Here's the thing about return vents and everybody you know, and an HVAC. HVAC system is based on the flow of air through the house, and flow is created and a lot of some people haven't really conceptualized this. The flow of a house is a current. It's a circuit. Okay. All of the smaller ducks.
The vents that are going into every room, in every space, whether they're on the floor or on the ceiling, or up above a door or wherever, those are output vents. That's what's blowing in hot air when you're heating your home. It's blowing in cool air when you're trying to cool your home. If that's all that an air conditioning and heating system did, then what would happen to a house that has all of its doors and windows closed up is that we would just build up what we call
static air pressure in a room. In other words, we keep pumping air into a room and it's not going anywhere, and it builds up, and at some point the whole efficiency of the system shuts down because the fan isn't strong enough to pump any more air into the room and it's just sitting there. Okay, So that's not how an HVAC system is designed. It's designed to have also a return air vent. And if you don't know what
that vent is, it's the biggest one. It's that big one, and it's either in the ceiling in the hallway, or it's down by the bottom of the of a wall, or maybe if your unit, if your air handler and your furnace is inside your house, inside that closet, the retair and air vent is often right down at the bottom underneath it. It's where the filter goes to protect your system that you have easy access to and while the system is running. I'm shocked that a lot of people.
I'm not saying you, Henderson, I know you know all of this, but a lot of people are like, really, that thing sucks, it doesn't blow. And so yeah, take a piece of paper when your system is running and just put it over that vent and it'll right up to the retair and air vent. It is taking the air out of the house running it back through the system.
So the reason why I went into that whole explanation is because I want everybody to understand the fundamental principle and that is in new construction, like what you're doing, Henderson. What we want is we want the relationship. It's not a magic answer. The return airvent should be low or high, doesn't matter as much as the relationship of where the
return is to the ducts that it is dealing with. Okay, So for instance, let's say you've got a let's say we have this a typical scenario and I hate when I see it. The return air vent is on a ceiling in a hallway, okay, right outside a bedroom door. Okay, So there's a door out of the hallway into a bedroom and the return air vent is right up there in the hallway on the ceiling. Okay. Now the question is where is the duct that the supply duct in
that bedroom. If the supply duct in the bedroom is coming out on the door wall right above the door, like so many do and so many tracked homes, then if I was to like if I could magically make fog run through your system and colorize it so we could see what was happening. Here's what's going to happen.
The duct is blowing air out into the bedroom, okay, and the return air vent is sucking it back out into the hallway, which means that the venting of the room, the air is not getting all the way over to the other side of the bedroom. Okay. The cold air isn't making it over there, the hot air isn't making it over there because the vacuum is right behind it, okay, literally like four feet away, sucking the air back. So
that's a very very inefficient system. It's not about the fact that it's not about the fact that the return air is in the hallway in that situation, I want to put the supply duct in the bedroom on the far wall as far away as possible so that as the return air is sucking the air through the room, all of that cool or warm air travels all the way across the whole room and heats or cools the room the way it needs to before it goes back into the system. Again, does that make it vs?
Yeah? So is it okay to have the output and the return both on the top. What does one need to be up high and one need to be down low?
Higher low really isn't the critical thing. It really isn't.
You know.
I'm here and the problem is. The reason I say that is because you know, we've got most people have a forced air and heating system, heat and air, and it's going to be inefficient for one in order to make the other one work best. That's the point. So for you, the question is what's most important for you? If you live here in southern California, higher vents usually are the better answer. Why, Because we're more dependent on our We really need the air conditioner to work more
than we need the heater to be super efficient. Okay, but remember hot air rises, so the best place for a hot air vent is on the floor, so it rises up through the room and does its job. If you pump hot air out at the top of the ceiling. Most of the heat remains up at the top of the ceiling. It's inefficient, but cold air descends right. So if we really want our air conditioner to be doing its best job, we put air conditioning vents high so that the cool air comes in and drops down on
us and is most efficient. But since we have a heating and air conditioning system that doesn't differentiate, we have to choose which do we want to be the most efficient system. Usually in southern California, it's going to be prioritizing the effectedness of air conditioning. If you lived in South Dakota, I would say put the vents on the floor because we need to prioritize the effect of the heat in the room. And again, the return I'm not
so concerned about high or low. What I am concerned about with the return air is how close it is to the other supply ducts because if it is literally sucking them right back into the system without allowing them to blow all the way across the room, that's when that's when air conditioning and heating star systems go really inefficient.
Okay, then I had another question.
Real quick atte I'm literally out of time, but I'll hear it.
Quarts, cos I am porcelain countertops. Look, I know you covered it at one point and I couldn't find it. But what's your opinions on that in the kitchen on a porcelain countertop porcelain quasi or quart?
Okay, all right, i'll tell you what. I've got to go to a break, uh and when we come back, I'm going to comment on that when I'm when I'm not breaking the rules here, Okay, Henderson, So I just keep listening, I'll hit it. And thanks for your call, buddy, and I appreciate a really really good question. All right, y'all, you're home with Dean Sharp the house Whisper. Kay if I Dean Sharp the house Whisper, Welcome home, Welcome to
the program. Here we are, man. Did we burn through three hours of time this morning talking about insurance and claims when there's been damage to your home with my very special in studio guests, who we will hear from yet again in just a couple of minutes. Some closing thoughts from the guys that damage law who have just been stellar this morning helping us weed through the difficulty of that Henderson, who was just an awesome caller, and I ran out of time to answer his second question.
I know, I know, one question for caller, I get it. But Henderson was a nice guy and he had a real quick question about whether I how I felt about quartz versus quartzite versus any other material on a countertop in a kitchen. And here's what I'm going to say. And I have spent whole shows talking about that. But you know what, everything has its strength, everything has its weakness. Sometimes its visual and esthetic strength and weakness. Sometimes it's
actually a performance strength and weakness. Quartz is the general term we use in the industry to talk about synthetic man made composite countertops. Doesn't sound like it should be, but it is. Quartzite. Quartzite is a specific, very very hard natural stone. I love quartzite. I love it. I love natural stone. I'm a guy who puts hardwood counters into I mean, my own sink countertop in my own home is made out of two inch thick oiled black walnut. Okay, yeah,
around the sink. Yeah. So the point is, I get asked to use a lot of materials, and it's all about the vibe and the look and how they perform. Okay, quartz products are very very high performing products. They're very dense. They they don't have a lot of porosity, which is great. Heat can affect them, but other than that, not much else affects them. My issue with quartz is that it never really fully looks and has the life and the glow of a natural stone. And the reason for that
is that light isn't penetrating as deeply into it. Even though there's real quartz granulars in there, there's also resins that are opaque, the glue essentially that holds it all together, and that shuts the light down. So you're only getting surface light reflected back off of a quartz countertop, whereas a quartzite countertop. We know that light can go all the way down in and through and come back out, and so it's not an illusion or an exaggeration when
somebody says, ooh, doesn't that natural stone just glow? Actually yes, it does. Literally, yes it does. It's refracted light coming back out, which is why natural stone is so beautiful. So it really is a toolbox that you really have options. There's no oh yeah, always use this, never use that. Okay, it's just something where again I'm just going to say, as I always say, open your eyes, educate yourself. We were talking about this yesterday. There are no such thing
as bad ideas, only bad decisions. Right, You're not being asked to make a decision when you just go out and educate yourself and open your eyes and window shop. Window shopping is free. Learn everything you can about what it is you're about to do to your home, so you make an informed choice and you know it's the right one for you. That's the idea. And of course check the podcast and you can find shows where I'm talking about stones and all of that, and we get
into all sorts of crazy detail. But right now I want to get back to my in studio guests. Get some closing thoughts from these young guys here, Aria and a Deer. You guys have been awesome. I'm so grateful that you're on the show today. Any last thoughts that you want to leave with the listeners in regards to where they stand with this whole process of making acclaim. We've covered mitigation, We've covered I mean, we've covered a
bunch of stuff. Is there anything else just floating? Around that you want to make sure gets said.
I think the most important thing right now is making sure that your insurance company is allowing you to come back to a safe and habitable home, and that everything has been tested and cleaned and abated through protocol, and making sure that they don't skip any steps because certain things need to go into play before other remediations go into place. For instance, let them asfess, this need to get remediated before smoke remediation is conducted.
So don't let them skip that step.
Okay, So now I'm again I'm gonna I'm gonna apply this to the to the recent fire situation here, because I know somebody right now is saying, well, I already know I abated that stuff from my house fifteen years ago. We're not even talking about stuff coming from your home. If an entire neighborhood is burnt down, the lead and asbestos and even arsenic that you may find on your property and your stuff didn't come from your property exactly. So these are steps that have to be taken no
matter what. If we're going to do our due diligence.
And even if your insurance company is not covering for the testing, it's worth getting that testing done for yourself so you know that you're safe and clear to move back into your home.
Anything else, my friend, Just if you have any issues with your carrier, give us a call and we'll provide you with free consultation, free policy review, and just you know, we're here to help you. We want to make sure that you get to the finish line. It's unfortunate the situations occurred and transpired to date, but there is the light at the end of the tunnel, and we're here to help you get.
There, get you all the free guidance you guys need to get back home safe.
All right. These guys are the founding partners of Damage Law. They are a specialized law firm right here in southern California dealing with exactly the kind of stuff that we've been talking about this morning. They are full disclosure, not sponsors of this show. I hope they become sponsors of
this show. But I can tell you right now there's one reason and one reason only they are sitting with me here today because I wanted to bring you the very best voices and minds to help you through this situation. And these are the guys. So if You're going to call me or email me and say, Dean, who is going to help me sort all of this out? Because I'm still confused and I'm not sure that I'm being treated the right way by my insurance company. Should I
call another adjuster? Should I call a public Who should I call? And I'm telling you right now that you need to call these guys. They will work with you. They'll evaluate your claim for free. They'll tell you what you need. They'll tell you whether you need them or somebody else. But they are going to the same reason people love to call in to this show so I can help you kind of get your head on straight
and point it in the right direction. This is exactly of what Aria and and Deer are going to do for you in regards to your claim. So, guys, here's your shot one more time. Tell everybody where they're going to find you.
You can find us at damage law dot com or you can give us a call at eight sixty six Damage Law and we're here to provide you, guys, all the free services and consultation that we can provide at this time.
Guys, thanks for being on the show Damage Law dot Com or eight sixty six Damage Law.
Thank you so much for having us. Dean really had a great time.
You guys are awesome. We'll do it again.
Oh, we appreciate you. And Michelle, thank you guys, Thank you both.
All Right, y'all, I just wanted to make sure we covered all that infro, So I do not have a lengthy closing thought for you today. I'm just going to tell you this. You know, due diligence in life in general, it's all about the little things. Life is about the little things. You cannot build a home without obsessing on the little things, and rightly so, you can't build a great life obs without obsessing on the little things that I mean, stuff that just is easy to overlook. Kind words,
kind glances, gentle acts of kindness and appreciation. This is what a life is built from. And today it's a perfect day to get started doing exactly that. Get out there in this gorgeous Southern California, cool sunny day and get busy building yourself a beautiful life, and we will see you right back here next weekend.
This has been Home with Dean Sharp the House Whisper. Tune into the live broadcast on KFI AM six forty every Saturday morning from six to eight Pacific time, and every Sunday morning from nine to noon Pacific time, or anytime on demand on the iHeartRadio app