August 6, 2024 • 11 mins
Newsradio WFLA's Read Shepherd talks with former Tampa police officer Ruben "Butch" Delgado, now head of a Special Investigations Unit for Heritage Property & Casualty Insurance. We're talking about things a homeowner who suffered damage from Debby needs to do---especially if they don't have "flood insurance." We're also talking about the "predators" who scam unsuspecting homeowners out of money and do no repair work.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
I'm Bred Shepherd from news radio WFLA. Welcome to Beyond
the News. Well, now that Debbie has come and gone,
a lot of people are drying out and taking stock
of the damage. And for many it's going to mean
a call to the insurance company. Rubin Delgatto heads up
Heritage Insurance Property and Casualties Special Investigations Unit. You might
(00:21):
also remember Butch del Gato as a member of the
Tampa Police Department for more than twenty years who retired
in July of twenty twenty two. But it's a pleasure
or real pleasure to have you on the program here today.
Let's start first of all if we can. You know,
the storm has gone past now and people are looking
(00:42):
at their homes and saying, oh my god, what do
I do? What do they need to do? First?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Yeah, that's you know, it's a traumatic event, right and
no matter if it's a little bit of damage, a
lot of damage. Going through that experience is you know,
something we don't wish upon anybody. However, that's what insurance
is for, right. So a lot of people get their
insurance through their insurance agents. You know, with Heritage, we've
(01:11):
communicated with our policy holders We've sent out over about
thirty thousand emails and about twenty five thousand texts prior
to the storm, giving them information on what to do
if they incur damage, if they incur something traumatic, to
call us, file the claim with us, and let that
process start. The quicker we can get that process started,
the quicker we can provide the help that they need. Now.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
In most cases, after a hurricane, you might think that
wind damage would be the big thing, but not. In
this case. It's water damage. So the question becomes what
happens if someone doesn't have the necessary flood insurance because
a normal household policy doesn't cover water, doesn't cover flood damage.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
That's correct, and that's an important distinction that a lot
of people unfortunate don't seem to understand right so and now,
and you see it with Debbie, we've seen it with Ian.
A lot of these storms are bringing so much water
that you don't have to be right on the beach,
right or right on the river to experience flood. We're
seeing these inland rivers overflow. We're seeing streets that just
(02:18):
flood on a normal thunderstorm, and houses are taking in water.
So any water that comes into your house from the ground, right,
that is technically under the flood policies, right, Like you said,
wind damage obviously that's your homeowner's policy. The hurricane policy
would cover the wind damage if your roof blew off,
(02:38):
but we're not seeing that in this case with Debbie. Right,
the winds weren't terribly strong at least here in the
local area. So the damage you're seeing here primarily is
going to be flood You know, again, there's a there's
a good website out there, floodsmart dot gov through FEMA
that kind of explains flood insurance. And again I stress
that if they call their insurance agents who help them
(03:00):
get homeowners insurance, they could guide them to the right
policy to have adequate coverage just in the event, right
that you do get some water if that comes into
your front door, your your back patio, because your street
is you know, flooded with water.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
So what options might be out there for someone who
doesn't have flood insurance right now but did experience flood
damage or water damage inside their home. What kind of
options do they have?
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Yeah, So I would, like I said, I would first
I would call my agent to see what they had,
what maybe there is something there that they're not aware of.
You'd be surprised at how many people don't even realize
the type of coverage they have because chances are you
don't use it. Start with your agent. Again. FEMA has
got some programs out there to assist people that have
flood damage that may not have flood insurance. And again,
(03:54):
and I say this, and this is from the law
enforcement background, I caution people that suffer a loss with
water or even in the hurricane situation the roof, you
just have to be careful who comes to your front
door and says that they can help you, right, and
they want money upfront for that.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
You know. I was talking to the state's CFO, Jimmy Patronis,
just the other day Anazon. He told me that very
same thing. He says, right now, the predators are out there,
and his advice was basically, don't sign anything at this
point until you've had a chance to talk to your agent.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Yeah. You know, that's one of the things that I
experienced when I first came when I first retired from
Tampa Police and I came here was the level of
fraud that would happen during a traumatic event. And you've
got companies from all over the country that will flock
to the to the state of Florida and then basically
be predators to people that have encountered this traumatic loss
(04:53):
and at that moment, they don't know what to do
and they're signing things they don't know what they're signing,
or they're paying somebody ten thousand dollars to move trees
when their insurance coverage may have covered that. So those
are the things that we caution at least with our customers.
You know, that's why we over communicate with them. We
send them text messages, we have a preferred vendor list.
(05:13):
There's ways to get you helped fast without you getting
scammed by some company that's here today and then tomorrow
they're going to be in North Carolina or South Carolina
because they're going to go after the next day.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
So let's come back for a moment. What's to the
someone who has experienced damage in their home. The adjuster,
they've made an appointment with the adjuster to come out
and take a look at thanks, what is the adjuster
going to want to see?
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Yeah, so you know they're going to get a phone call.
We like to make phone calls within twenty four hours
of them reporting the call. So when they call us
and report a loss, that's exactly right. We will immediately
assign an adjuster to go out to the house right
and then start doing an inspection of the house to
see the damage, to see what was lost. Any documents
(06:01):
that they have will be helpful. Anything any pictures that
they've taken prior to us getting out there will be
very helpful. Any video they had would be very helpful.
And again, you know, when you take a storm like Debbie.
Debbie didn't create a ton of claims per se, because
the winds just weren't that high. But if you can
imagine you get an event like Ian that had, you know,
(06:23):
hundreds of thousands of claims, there's a lot of work
that has to be done. So we try to keep
in communication with them to let them know what's along
the steps, what's going to happen along the way. But again,
it's it's going to be a day where an inspector
spends a day or two out there looking at the
house to see what exactly we need to fix.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
I think one of the most interesting things that I've
seen about this the aftermath of this storm is that
a lot of people are saying, Hey, we weren't even
in a feme of flood zone and look at the
inside of our house right now. That's how that's how
much rain Debbie dumped on us. So you know what
if somebody like that do that, you know they weren't
even in a female flood zone to begin with.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Yeah, yeah, no, and that and I and that's what
I was alluded to that earlier. You're starting to see
these storms generate that amount of water where you don't
have to be in a flood zone to experience water
coming into your house. Uh. You know, the grounds are
saturated as it is in rainy season, and there's not
a whole lot of place where this water to go, unfortunately,
especially in the low lying areas of Florida. So you're right,
(07:26):
you you think you're safe without being in a flood
zone and you don't need flood insurance. However, I would
I would you know again, suggest they call their insurance
agent talk about it. It's a relatively inexpensive plan to
get to cover for flood. But you don't want to
be that house on your street that didn't think they
needed something and all of a sudden you've got two
(07:48):
feet of water, you know, coming in your back patio door.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Now, one of the things, as I understand, that you're
doing with Heritage nowadays, is investigating potentially fraudulent claims. Now,
we talked a moment ago about you know, don't sign anything.
The predators are already out there. But what are some
of the things you look for for a potentially fraudulent claim? Okay,
so let's say that I've decided I'm going to take
(08:13):
the insurance company for a ride by claiming all sorts
of things. What's what's the first red flag that you're
going to look for?
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Yeah, so that we see several trends, right, we see
some of these and again, you know, I'll call them predators,
but they're these licensed contractors, sometimes unlicensed contractors that work
nothing but insurance claim So they'll go to your house
and tell you that we want to inspect your roof
for free. Right, And they'll come back down and say, hey,
you have a leak, and that leak happened because of
(08:42):
the last hurricane. Right. And then they'll go down and
they'll say, well, now that there's a leak in your roof,
now your bathroom is leaking and there's some damage behind
the wall the bathroom, so we need to rip this
wall out. And oftentimes we'll see houses when they call
us that have all that ripped out of their house already. Right,
And there's patterns to some certain companies that you know,
(09:04):
have a that we know have a tendency to do
the same things over and over again. And it's a
shame because they again they're they're telling people what they
want to hear. Uh, it doesn't necessarily rise to the
level of a ballot claim. And at the end of
the day, the person who suffers is the policy holder.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
All right, Well, bottom line, it sounds like, have a
good relationship with your insurance agent, make that first call
if there's damage inside your house, whether it's water or wind.
And that sounds like just about the best thing to do.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Yeah, And and like I said, you know, we try to,
you know, the community, communicate as much as possible to
our policyholder, you know, And no one's ever going to
show up to one of our policyholder's house without the
proper identification, without a business card that tells them who
they are, explains the process, you know, because these these
you could get overwhelmed at times and you don't really
(09:59):
know who you're talking to, and they'll they'll sell you
a good game, and they'll they'll sell you they think
they can fix your house for free. And you know,
there's just a process involved where I say stay, stay
in communication with your agent, stay in communication with the
insurance company. Your adjuster will walk you through the process.
And of course if you have questions after that, there's
obviously ways that we can you know, if you've got
(10:20):
to challenge something, there's ways to do that. But what
I what I suggest to everybody is if you think
it's too good to be true, if you think someone's
telling you they can get you a brand new kitchen
from a water leak, I would question that and call
your insurance company first.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
All right, one of the most popular Tampa police officers
in the city's history, if I may nowadays with Heritage
Property and Casualty Insurance, Rubin Butch Delgatto Butch, A real
pleasure in talking to you, and thank you so much
for coming on. We appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
And happy to happy to help you.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
However I can, okay, thanks Buch And I'm read Shepherd
News Radio w f l A, and this is beyond
the news
I'm Bred Shepherd from news radio WFLA. Welcome to Beyond
the News. Well, now that Debbie has come and gone,
a lot of people are drying out and taking stock
of the damage. And for many it's going to mean
a call to the insurance company. Rubin Delgatto heads up
Heritage Insurance Property and Casualties Special Investigations Unit. You might
(00:21):
also remember Butch del Gato as a member of the
Tampa Police Department for more than twenty years who retired
in July of twenty twenty two. But it's a pleasure
or real pleasure to have you on the program here today.
Let's start first of all if we can. You know,
the storm has gone past now and people are looking
(00:42):
at their homes and saying, oh my god, what do
I do? What do they need to do? First?
Speaker 2 (00:49):
Yeah, that's you know, it's a traumatic event, right and
no matter if it's a little bit of damage, a
lot of damage. Going through that experience is you know,
something we don't wish upon anybody. However, that's what insurance
is for, right. So a lot of people get their
insurance through their insurance agents. You know, with Heritage, we've
(01:11):
communicated with our policy holders We've sent out over about
thirty thousand emails and about twenty five thousand texts prior
to the storm, giving them information on what to do
if they incur damage, if they incur something traumatic, to
call us, file the claim with us, and let that
process start. The quicker we can get that process started,
the quicker we can provide the help that they need. Now.
Speaker 1 (01:35):
In most cases, after a hurricane, you might think that
wind damage would be the big thing, but not. In
this case. It's water damage. So the question becomes what
happens if someone doesn't have the necessary flood insurance because
a normal household policy doesn't cover water, doesn't cover flood damage.
Speaker 2 (01:55):
That's correct, and that's an important distinction that a lot
of people unfortunate don't seem to understand right so and now,
and you see it with Debbie, we've seen it with Ian.
A lot of these storms are bringing so much water
that you don't have to be right on the beach,
right or right on the river to experience flood. We're
seeing these inland rivers overflow. We're seeing streets that just
(02:18):
flood on a normal thunderstorm, and houses are taking in water.
So any water that comes into your house from the ground, right,
that is technically under the flood policies, right, Like you said,
wind damage obviously that's your homeowner's policy. The hurricane policy
would cover the wind damage if your roof blew off,
(02:38):
but we're not seeing that in this case with Debbie. Right,
the winds weren't terribly strong at least here in the
local area. So the damage you're seeing here primarily is
going to be flood You know, again, there's a there's
a good website out there, floodsmart dot gov through FEMA
that kind of explains flood insurance. And again I stress
that if they call their insurance agents who help them
(03:00):
get homeowners insurance, they could guide them to the right
policy to have adequate coverage just in the event, right
that you do get some water if that comes into
your front door, your your back patio, because your street
is you know, flooded with water.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
So what options might be out there for someone who
doesn't have flood insurance right now but did experience flood
damage or water damage inside their home. What kind of
options do they have?
Speaker 2 (03:30):
Yeah, So I would, like I said, I would first
I would call my agent to see what they had,
what maybe there is something there that they're not aware of.
You'd be surprised at how many people don't even realize
the type of coverage they have because chances are you
don't use it. Start with your agent. Again. FEMA has
got some programs out there to assist people that have
flood damage that may not have flood insurance. And again,
(03:54):
and I say this, and this is from the law
enforcement background, I caution people that suffer a loss with
water or even in the hurricane situation the roof, you
just have to be careful who comes to your front
door and says that they can help you, right, and
they want money upfront for that.
Speaker 1 (04:12):
You know. I was talking to the state's CFO, Jimmy Patronis,
just the other day Anazon. He told me that very
same thing. He says, right now, the predators are out there,
and his advice was basically, don't sign anything at this
point until you've had a chance to talk to your agent.
Speaker 2 (04:31):
Yeah. You know, that's one of the things that I
experienced when I first came when I first retired from
Tampa Police and I came here was the level of
fraud that would happen during a traumatic event. And you've
got companies from all over the country that will flock
to the to the state of Florida and then basically
be predators to people that have encountered this traumatic loss
(04:53):
and at that moment, they don't know what to do
and they're signing things they don't know what they're signing,
or they're paying somebody ten thousand dollars to move trees
when their insurance coverage may have covered that. So those
are the things that we caution at least with our customers.
You know, that's why we over communicate with them. We
send them text messages, we have a preferred vendor list.
(05:13):
There's ways to get you helped fast without you getting
scammed by some company that's here today and then tomorrow
they're going to be in North Carolina or South Carolina
because they're going to go after the next day.
Speaker 1 (05:24):
So let's come back for a moment. What's to the
someone who has experienced damage in their home. The adjuster,
they've made an appointment with the adjuster to come out
and take a look at thanks, what is the adjuster
going to want to see?
Speaker 2 (05:40):
Yeah, so you know they're going to get a phone call.
We like to make phone calls within twenty four hours
of them reporting the call. So when they call us
and report a loss, that's exactly right. We will immediately
assign an adjuster to go out to the house right
and then start doing an inspection of the house to
see the damage, to see what was lost. Any documents
(06:01):
that they have will be helpful. Anything any pictures that
they've taken prior to us getting out there will be
very helpful. Any video they had would be very helpful.
And again, you know, when you take a storm like Debbie.
Debbie didn't create a ton of claims per se, because
the winds just weren't that high. But if you can
imagine you get an event like Ian that had, you know,
(06:23):
hundreds of thousands of claims, there's a lot of work
that has to be done. So we try to keep
in communication with them to let them know what's along
the steps, what's going to happen along the way. But again,
it's it's going to be a day where an inspector
spends a day or two out there looking at the
house to see what exactly we need to fix.
Speaker 1 (06:41):
I think one of the most interesting things that I've
seen about this the aftermath of this storm is that
a lot of people are saying, Hey, we weren't even
in a feme of flood zone and look at the
inside of our house right now. That's how that's how
much rain Debbie dumped on us. So you know what
if somebody like that do that, you know they weren't
even in a female flood zone to begin with.
Speaker 2 (07:04):
Yeah, yeah, no, and that and I and that's what
I was alluded to that earlier. You're starting to see
these storms generate that amount of water where you don't
have to be in a flood zone to experience water
coming into your house. Uh. You know, the grounds are
saturated as it is in rainy season, and there's not
a whole lot of place where this water to go, unfortunately,
especially in the low lying areas of Florida. So you're right,
(07:26):
you you think you're safe without being in a flood
zone and you don't need flood insurance. However, I would
I would you know again, suggest they call their insurance
agent talk about it. It's a relatively inexpensive plan to
get to cover for flood. But you don't want to
be that house on your street that didn't think they
needed something and all of a sudden you've got two
(07:48):
feet of water, you know, coming in your back patio door.
Speaker 1 (07:52):
Now, one of the things, as I understand, that you're
doing with Heritage nowadays, is investigating potentially fraudulent claims. Now,
we talked a moment ago about you know, don't sign anything.
The predators are already out there. But what are some
of the things you look for for a potentially fraudulent claim? Okay,
so let's say that I've decided I'm going to take
(08:13):
the insurance company for a ride by claiming all sorts
of things. What's what's the first red flag that you're
going to look for?
Speaker 2 (08:21):
Yeah, so that we see several trends, right, we see
some of these and again, you know, I'll call them predators,
but they're these licensed contractors, sometimes unlicensed contractors that work
nothing but insurance claim So they'll go to your house
and tell you that we want to inspect your roof
for free. Right, And they'll come back down and say, hey,
you have a leak, and that leak happened because of
(08:42):
the last hurricane. Right. And then they'll go down and
they'll say, well, now that there's a leak in your roof,
now your bathroom is leaking and there's some damage behind
the wall the bathroom, so we need to rip this
wall out. And oftentimes we'll see houses when they call
us that have all that ripped out of their house already. Right,
And there's patterns to some certain companies that you know,
(09:04):
have a that we know have a tendency to do
the same things over and over again. And it's a
shame because they again they're they're telling people what they
want to hear. Uh, it doesn't necessarily rise to the
level of a ballot claim. And at the end of
the day, the person who suffers is the policy holder.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
All right, Well, bottom line, it sounds like, have a
good relationship with your insurance agent, make that first call
if there's damage inside your house, whether it's water or wind.
And that sounds like just about the best thing to do.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Yeah, And and like I said, you know, we try to,
you know, the community, communicate as much as possible to
our policyholder, you know, And no one's ever going to
show up to one of our policyholder's house without the
proper identification, without a business card that tells them who
they are, explains the process, you know, because these these
you could get overwhelmed at times and you don't really
(09:59):
know who you're talking to, and they'll they'll sell you
a good game, and they'll they'll sell you they think
they can fix your house for free. And you know,
there's just a process involved where I say stay, stay
in communication with your agent, stay in communication with the
insurance company. Your adjuster will walk you through the process.
And of course if you have questions after that, there's
obviously ways that we can you know, if you've got
(10:20):
to challenge something, there's ways to do that. But what
I what I suggest to everybody is if you think
it's too good to be true, if you think someone's
telling you they can get you a brand new kitchen
from a water leak, I would question that and call
your insurance company first.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
All right, one of the most popular Tampa police officers
in the city's history, if I may nowadays with Heritage
Property and Casualty Insurance, Rubin Butch Delgatto Butch, A real
pleasure in talking to you, and thank you so much
for coming on. We appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (10:51):
And happy to happy to help you.
Speaker 1 (10:52):
However I can, okay, thanks Buch And I'm read Shepherd
News Radio w f l A, and this is beyond
the news
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