House fire in Turlock. Any public adjuster advocates in the house

My wife's best friend and her family lost their house to a fire on Thanksgiving in the Turlock area. They are insured through State Farm. I seem to recall some one here has been through this before. Any guidance is appreciated.

News article:

https://www.turlockcitynews.com/life-social/item/4255-young-family-loses-home-on-thanksgiving-eve-community-rallies-to-help

They have four young children. They have received an outpouring of support and there have already been thousands of dollars raised to help them. The children have received clothing and toy donations and should be ok for material items but of course there is a lot of trauma associated. Thankfully they were out of town and no one was home and the pets were being cared for at a relatives house so they are ok too.


Jeff fishes the tournament bass events and lost all of his gear and tackle. I'll talk with him later to see if he has any immediate needs but some OTW therapy will be mandatory of course. I'm not heading down there until Christmas. Any ideas for replacing gear or any ideas for support for helping him are appreciated, but mostly they need someone that can help navigate the insurance claims process and getting their lives back together are appreciated.

Doug

I'd advise to have them immediately contact the area's top restoration contractors who will respond by contacting the insurer for them, determining coverage limits, making a gameplan based on those limits and the losses associated, starting any mitigation and emergency cleaning that may be possible, and generally advocating for their client. 

Critical points:

- do they have "replacement value" or "actual cash value" coverage?  The former means they'll get new stuff/structure, and the latter means they'll get depreciated stuff/structure.
- do they have enough coverage to replace all that was lost?  If not then watch out for a contractor who would start work that may be covered but will eat up funds that could do much more good for the family later in the process.
- how much coverage do they have for loss of use?  Will they be able to stay in a hotel until the their house is ready?  Can they rent a house during rebuilding/restoration?

A good contractor will address all of this, know their stuff, and they'll advocate for the client using the Golden Rule - they'll treat them like they'd want to be treated in such a situation.

Look into companies that are associated with DKI - that's Disaster Kleenup International.  Sounds cheesy, but they're the top restoration contractors in their markets.

Getting a public adjuster (PA) involved early will create an atmosphere of hostility which could certainly cause the insurer and their adjuster to take a defensive stance that could hinder the flow of restoration work.

Thanks Eric.  Do you have any industry contact in the area (Modesto is the closest big city)?  I'll pass this information along.

I talked with them a bit more today.  They are getting a lot of conflicting information, so anything you can do to provide information without having a dog in the fight will be greatly appreciated.

I don't have any contacts down there, Doug.  An internet search for restoration contractors is a good start.

The coverage limits and replacement value vs actual cash value are the biggest issues to learn about immediately, IMO.

Contact Ski Pro 3--Jerry.

PM received and PM sent. 
Best wishes to you all!
Jerry