Standard homeowners insurance policies often include provisions specifying that you only have one year to appeal a claim denial.
Seeing your homeowners insurance claim wrongfully denied is a very stressful situation. When you need money to fix the house such a denial puts your family in jeopardy. You will feel confused and demoralized, but you should not give up. If you know that your claim was legitimate, all you have to do is look up the best homeowners insurance claim denial lawyers in Nevada and have them file an appeal,
How much time do I have to file an insurance claim denial appeal in Nevada?
Not much. An insurance policy is a contract between the insurer and the homeowner. You, as the homeowner, agree to pay a certain premium, and the insurance company agrees to pay you damages in certain situations. If the insurer wrongfully denies your claim that is a breach of contract.
Under Nevada law, the statute of limitations for breach of contract is six years. However, this might not apply to your policy. Standard homeowners insurance policies often include provisions specifying that you only have one year to appeal a claim denial.
The bad thing is that, most often, you only have one year from the date of your loss and you may have already wasted a few months submitting documents and negotiating with the insurance adjuster. In this case, you probably only have a few months left to file an appeal so you’ll need a good Las Vegas insurance claims denial lawyer on your case as soon as possible.
How can a Nevada homeowners insurance claim denial lawyer help me?
When you schedule the initial free consultation with an insurance claims denial lawyer, they will start by closely examining your policy to understand whether the company had any legal grounds to turn your claim down. Reading all the pages of an insurance policy is a major headache for most people. The language is purposefully confusing and if you don’t speak legalese you have little chance of understanding if the insurer had the right to deny your claim or if they acted in bad faith. However, for an attorney specializing in this area of the law this is not a problem. They’ve read through hundreds, if not thousands of insurance policies just like yours. Moreover, they know all the tricks insurance companies routinely use to minimize the value of a claim or to deny it altogether.
Once your lawyer decides you have a case to present an appeal, they will let the insurer know that you’re going after them. In many cases, the threat of a legal action is enough to make the insurance agent change his mind. If they know they purposefully misinterpreted the terms of your policy to deny your claim, a public lawsuit is not in their best interests. If the case goes to trial and they are convicted for acting in bad faith, there’s the risk the judge will impose punitive damages, which can be up to three times the value of your damages. And, on top of that, the insurer will probably be ordered to cover your legal fees as well. That’s a lot of money so your insurer will probably prefer to settle out of court.
