How It Works - Part 3 Insurance Claim Details That You Must Know
(It's Business, YOU need to Treat It That Way Too)

I remember this Savings Bank they had been denied by the insurance company...

And I had met one of their VPs and they contacted us because they were having a very difficult time with the insurance carrier. And we were able to get a claim that was being denied that actually got paid by the carrier on their behalf. They were really happy about that. Boy, I haven’t looked at this book of past jobs in so long.

John Giordano: This looks like it’s a store, Howard Market in Howard Avenue and it looked like a pipe break that took place Chrome Paint at Whalley Avenue.

Interviewer: So you really see people at their worst if something really terrible happens?

John Giordano: Yes.

Interviewer: And then you come in and you’re really working for them. Like you have said earlier, you are their advocate. So you’re not only looking to get a better settlement, you’re looking to make them whole again. You’re looking to get them back, get their lives back.

John Giordano: Get their lives back.

Huge fire loss...

John Giordano: Yeah, this is Harry Consesus, it’s a big shopping center building in East Haven and it’s still there. And they had a huge fire loss. It was 424 to 432 Main Street in East Haven and there were so many things in this building that had to be put back that that had to be rebuilt up because of building codes.

The insurance company policies, they owe you for what you had. Even if you can’t put it back that way, because now the codes have deemed that building program...

The building has to be rebuilt under a different method and different means of construction and material

(current regs, not regs that are 20 years old)

So we were able to under the policy, find that they had a building code endorsement there which meant we had two write two building claims. One, for what was there. And then one, when they put the building back, what it was going to cost them due to code enforcement.

Now, the insurance company doesn’t owe you that money unless you put the building back. However, most people do. But you still have to, you still have to present a claim even though you’re not going to get paid unless you actually on that portion of the claim, unless you actually make those repairs.

So we were able to, to work that out for Harry. And the code upgrades ended up being as much as the damage to the structure because once we calculated how much the structure that was there was going to cost to put back. Now even though they paid that, he was not going to be allowed to rebuild it with what he had just got and paid for. They needed like 2x6 framing construction, NABX cable electrical now had to be Romex. There were so many different things this was an older shopping center and now it had to be up to the standards to that we’re back in when this fire took place.

I don’t see the date here but it was quite some time ago. So, we were able to do that for Harry, that’s how he was able to rebuild and get this put back. It was sometime back on November 16^th but I don’t remember what year.

The average person going through this really wouldn’t even know what questions to ask...

John Giordano: Well, I remember… There was a very large fire in Marlborough, Connecticut to a well-known furniture store, the Marlborough Country Barn. This facility is just beautiful and I was called in to come out and speak to the owner, Carl Zirkenbach. When I got there, I mean this is a massive facility. They have a restaurant. They were completely shut down.

There was smoke damage and buildings damaged and the buildings were historical structures and it was really beautiful furniture store to go shopping and he hired us. We were able to get him quite a few million dollars too. But the big thing was we were able to get them started going quickly.

I explained to him, even though you have business interruption insurance; That’s an insurance that is an area where you want to profit from or try to even recoup because I believe that when you have a business, you need to be open. As long as you’re not open that means someone is going to look for furniture elsewhere. And they get to shop elsewhere. And you know those are customers that you don’t just necessarily feel they’re going to come back.

So you want to use that to compensate yourself for the amount of time that you are closed and not operating. But you definitely want to get going and open up and use the policy, a business interruption policy to your advantage.

And that’s one case if you can show the insurance companies that following your lead and allowing you to spend extra money in other areas that will mitigate the loss by spending money possibly getting a secondary location on a temporary basis so that you can temporarily keep your business going instead of you know keeps the revenue stream flowing.

Restaurants and business interruption 

It’s a good thing to do especially with restaurants. I’ve been involved with so many restaurants and they said well, we have business interruption you know. You want to open. You know, you’re losing customers, you’re losing revenue. It’s not a good thing to do. So, my philosophy has always been if you have a business, use the policy to assist you in keeping your revenue stream going during this process and your sales, if possible going so that when you have your new grand opening, it’s a flow. It’s not an interruption of business. If at all possible, you do not want an interruption of business. If you have to have that, then you calculate to the best that you can what those losses might be.

Interviewer: So what did you do to help him in that particular case?

John Giordano: We were able to show the insurance company that by hiring mitigation contractors and restorations contractors to work around the clock, even though the construction cost would be more. The downtime would be less.

So by spending more for the reconstruction so that Marlborough Country barn could reopen by spending more money on labor and on ways of speeding up that process so they could reopen restock by spending more than what it would normally cost. So wait a second, there’s no rush here, we just going to fix this. And we showed the, that that amount of money would reduce their business in our income loss by getting them up and running again. The insurance companies agree and we were able to do it very quickly. And he was able to reopen.

He was able to reuse different areas in his store to setup different displays that we’re going to have to be taken down but we needed money to setup these displays even though they were going to be taken down but he was able to market. So, it worked out well. He was very happy. We were able to settle this claim, reopen the Marlborough Country Barn quickly. And it was very good.

So there were so many different things that I’ve seen and experienced and that is why I feel that if you have a loss, I’m there to help you. And I will I will help you. My firm is the best. The people that we have are and they understand what’s going on. And as far as cost, it won’t cost you anything. We’ll make you money. It won’t cost you money.

Interviewer: I can hear the emotion in your voice when you talk about people that you helped. It’s very powerful.

John Giordano: Yeah.

Interviewer: Very heartfelt.

John Giordano: I don’t get to think of these things, but I like going back and there’s so much more. This is a fraction, a small fraction of a fraction of the things that I’ve done.