The Troubleshooter 05-14-26

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Y'all ripped of news, needed who you don't have? Come
running just as nas as we can shoot is gonna
help com.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
Man Dix is the Trouble Shooter Show. No Tom Martino.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
Hello, I'm Tom Martino, your trouble Shooter, fighting for you
each and every day. I've I've been doing for forty
five years in Denver, more than fifty years elsewhere. If
you count all of the stuff radio, TV, the internet, Man,
we do, we do a hell of a job, if
I must say, because of all the help I've gotten
over the years, and I got Major Mark Major, he's

(00:48):
going to be on soon, and basically retired executives, attorneys, lawyers, doctors,
people to help you. It's really it's really nothing else
like it I invented, Okay, I invented it where we
go out and solve problems for people. And I'm so
thankful that you're listening to the show. I want to

(01:09):
talk to Marlene who called us. By the way, you
can call us at any time, twenty four seven at
three oh three Martino three oh three, six, two seven,
eight four sixty six. Okay, that number, pass it around
called twenty four seven. That number literally comes right to
my cell phone. You can text it or or excuse me,
three h three Martino, you can't text. You got a call.

(01:29):
But I do have a text number that comes twenty
four to seven. That's seven four seven nine nine nine
fifty two eighty seven four seven, nine nine nine fifty
two eighty. Let's start out with Marlene. Welcome to the show.
What's going on, Marlene? What's happening?

Speaker 3 (01:45):
Hi? I hear you recommend that car broker person, and
I really would like to get his name and phone number.

Speaker 1 (01:53):
Oh, we do have a car broker. He's a car
dealer that they're a car dealer. There's Rodney. His name
is Rodney, and he's over at JFR Cars. Now, I'm
not telling you JFR Cars isn't a good dealer. They're
a great dealer. But Rodney is the guy that we
deal with over at JFR Cars. It's j as in

(02:15):
as in Juliet, j f R Foxtrot Romeo, So jfrcars
dot com and just ask for Rodney. I'm trying to
find his number here. I might have it directly or acts.
You might have that available quicker than I do. Yeah,
what are you looking to do? You're gonna get a car.

Speaker 3 (02:38):
Yes, I'm gonna get a car. And I'm also wanted
your opinion on a turbo on hybrid cars.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
Okay, I'm gonna tell you. Let me explain something, dude, turbos.
There's nothing wrong with a turbo. A lot of people
don't understand what turbos do. It very basically. Turbos basically
condense the air, so the air intake is thicker. You
have thicker, more robust air going into the engine. And

(03:09):
in other words, if you're at sea level, you have
thicker air than if you're here. But if you have
a turbo, it can simulate sea level pressure. So having
a turbo at a higher altitude gives you more power.
Having turbos at sea level gives you more power. But
they do cut down on the life of the engine. Okay,

(03:33):
it cuts down on the overall life. How long do
you normally keep your cars, Marlene?

Speaker 3 (03:39):
Oh, usually five six years?

Speaker 1 (03:43):
Okay, all right? And how many miles do you put
on them in that amount of time?

Speaker 4 (03:48):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (03:49):
Very probably fifty fifty thou Wow, you don't drive a lot?
You know you should? You should consider leasing a car
if you don't put on a lot of mileage. Leasing
is a very good deal, a very good deal for you.
But anyway, I don't like turbos on small engines. To
make a long story short, I personally, now people love hybrids.

(04:11):
I personally would either get an electric car or I'd
get a gasoline car. I don't like the hybrids only
because you have two systems now to worry about. You
have the electrical system and you have the engine, the
reciprocating engine. And I don't like having two different systems.
If I'm gonna go electric, I'm gonna go electric. And

(04:32):
by the way, you may love a complete EV vehicle.
Have you ever considered just buying a complete all EV car?

Speaker 4 (04:42):
No?

Speaker 3 (04:42):
I haven't.

Speaker 1 (04:44):
They're really they're really really good. I'm telling you that
there are some really good small cars. I say small,
but you know you can get bigger cars. But there
are a lot of wonderful cars. Let's see who Kia
make some electric cars. You can find electric cars in
any brand. Are you looking to save money on gas

(05:07):
when you talked about a hybrid? Why were you looking
at a hybrid?

Speaker 3 (05:11):
Well, I test drove one the other day and I
really liked it. And he was telling me that I
would get like forty miles.

Speaker 1 (05:19):
To a GALLUS absolutely would Yep, you will, you will.
It is good for gasoline mileage, There's no doubt about it. Listen,
you don't put on enough mileage to worry about the maintenance.
When I said I don't like hybrids because you have
two different systems to maintain. With the little miles you
put on, you don't have to worry about it, I
think you'll be just fine. Yeah. Because okay, but I

(05:43):
want to Marlene, your strength is low mileage. I'd also
look at at leasing. Let me give you a Rodney's
phone number. It's three oh three, okay, three oh three,
seven six, one eight zero four four or five eight
zero four or five.

Speaker 3 (06:03):
So I would just tell him what I want and
he goes out and try to.

Speaker 1 (06:06):
Yeah, here's what that's what they do. He can source
the car, find the car, give you the price, and
take the trade. They are car dealers. But what I
like about him is they go out and find cars
for people. They do have some cars already on the
lot and stuff, but if you want a specific car,
they can find you a great deal. I've never listened

(06:27):
to this, God's honest truth. Never had a complaint about
them never. I mean, everybody that I send to him
get paid. Okay. Here's how they do it, hey, they
get paid a commission from you know, when you buy
a car, no matter where you buy a car, there
are commissions built in. Okay, they make they do volume.

(06:49):
They go out and let's say they have a number
of different dealers they deal with. Those dealers will subtract
that commission from that car and JFR Car Cars, we'll
buy that car cheaper, okay, and resell it. You're gonna
pay You're gonna pay less at JFR Cars than you

(07:11):
would add a dealer because they don't put all the
profit back in. They mark it up a little, but
they buy right and then they sell it to you.
But here's the great part about it. When I was
using JFR Cars to find a car for me, and
they give you the price and what they can do
in the car, and if you want to go out

(07:31):
and shop around and see if you can do better,
they don't care. They want you to get the best deal.
And if they can't give you the best deal, Rodney
will tell me. He'll say, you know, Tom, I don't
have a good source for that car. You might do
better going here or going there. That's what I love
about them. It's totally different than any atmosphere you've ever had. Now,

(07:53):
the call screener says that you had two questions. Did
we hit both of them?

Speaker 3 (08:00):
What you did about the hybrid and about the car broker.

Speaker 1 (08:03):
Yeah, hybrids are fine. I don't like I don't like
turbos too much with small engines, but you don't put
enough miles on them to worry. So I think with
you any do. But look at those new little all
look at some of those new all electric cars though.
I mean, I swear to you, if you put a
charger in your house listen to this and you have

(08:25):
a little, a little electric car, you can plug that
in every day or every night. You'll never buy gasoline
and you'll you'll hardly notice it on your electric bill.
It's just great. Thank you for calling Marlene. Three oh three,
seven to one three talks seven one three A two
five five. So we talked about Jaffar cars again for
those listening. They are a dealer, but they source cars

(08:47):
like a broker and can help you their numbers three
oh three, seven sixty one eighty forty five. And by
the way, while we're talking about great, great things. Let
me tell you about renew home Home renew Home Innovations
dot com for walkin showers with Italian porcelain. Their direct
porcelain importers direct from Italy, and they do beautiful walking

(09:12):
showers in two or three days. They get them done
and you don't have to pay for a year with
no interest. Unbelievable, but they have great prices anyway, renew
Home Innovations dot Com three oh three And what I
love about him is, like I said, they can get
you on the schedule, get it done in two or
three days. Three oh three nine are a four to
two thousand go with a sure thing Denver's best roofer

(09:41):
Excel Roofing dot com. You don't pay a cent until
you're content. Time for an insurance check up, free, no
obligation comparison call Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage
at dozens of insurance companies find out now three oh
three seven to seven to one help. You'll think you're
his only customer when you choose Frank durand the real

(10:02):
estate Man dot com to list your home with Remax
Alliance three oh three nine two zero sixteen twenty two. Hey,
I'm Tom Martino. Welcome to the show. We have paragonon
Services with us today. That's a public adjuster, Matt Stanford.
I've known Matt for years. He does public adjusting. And
what that is is when you have an insurance claim,

(10:25):
in this case is home or commercial property property claim,
he fights with your insurance company to get you a
fair settlement. Now, you would think that the mere fact
that you have insurance they would give you a fair
adjust settlement, but they don't. I've said this before and

(10:47):
I'll say it again, and it's the god's honest truth.
Insurance is the only industry, the only industry where if
you want to make money, you have to do less.
People most companies, most industries, they do more to make more.
With insurance, it's exactly the opposite. The only way insurance

(11:11):
companies make money is by diminishing or decreasing what they
do for people. So they turn down claims. Basically, now
they invest premiums as well. They make money that way,
So they have premiums that you pay, they invest, and
then they have claims that they pay out. But what
they try to do is pay as little as possible.

(11:33):
That's why they have adjusters. Adjusters go out and look
at your claim, and their job is to try to
pay as little as possible on that claim. That is
their job. I don't care what they say all the
pr crap. That is the nature of insurance. It is
to do less for their policy holders, hold on to
more money, and make better profit for them. Okay, So

(11:57):
that's it is it meant to be that way. Insurance
originally was meant to aggregate or spread out the loss
amongst a large group of people and then have enough
money to pay those losses. It was never meant to
be a profit center. When it became a profit center

(12:18):
with stockholders, you have basically diametrically opposed goals. The stockholders
they want to make as much money as possible. That
means they want to withhold as much money as possible
when it comes to claims. It's a terrible industry. It's
one of the few industries that I've said is predicated

(12:39):
on doing less for people. Think about that. You know
a car company they want to make more money. They
don't come out and tell you we're going to give
you a lesser car. They give you a better car
so you'll pay more money for it. If you're a
home builder and you want to give people, you want
to make more money, you build a bigger or better home.

(13:00):
If you're in an industry, any industry, and you want
to make money, you do better. You do better, that's
what you do. Insurance is exactly the opposite. In order
to make more money, they must put the screws to you. Okay.
It's one of the few businesses I believe should be

(13:21):
government regulated or even done by the government, because profit
flies in the face of what they should be doing. Okay,
they should be helping consumers who pay premiums. That's the
way it is. I'll get off my soft soapbox. Okay.
I'm just so sick and tired of insurance. They make
me sick. Okay, they've actually, they actually have recordings of

(13:45):
people saying at meetings that their first obligation is to
make a profit and to their stockholders and then then
to their insured. So let's talk to Matt Stanford Paragon Services,
and again, Matt, I hate the business. I hate the industry.
I totally hate it, especially health health insurance. Health insurance.

(14:08):
They call it managed care. What is managed care means?
You know, they would have you believe that they have
to manage care to keep prices down because doctors and
hospitals are ripping you off. And they'll they'll point to
a fifty dollars aspirin, or they'll point to, you know,

(14:28):
a two thousand dollars a day stay in a hospital
room plus meds and all that. But what they are
not telling you is this is that healthcare workers, hospitals,
and doctors are not making substantially more than they did
twenty years ago. The reason prices are going off is
because the health insurance company put themselves in the middle

(14:49):
between you and the healthcare provider. They are actually upping
the cost to pay their profits. So that's really think
about it. They are in the middle and they charge
out the nose. And that's why people charge so much.
It's because of insurance. I mean, if you ask deputy

(15:11):
doc for example, he had to have a full time
person in his office just to deal with insurance and
try to get paid. And then they delay, by the way,
they don't just deny, they delay claims because a day
delayed is day more they make in interest. And then
managed care is where they give you less, okay, So

(15:32):
they decide is something needed or not not your doctor.
You know your doctor recommends it, but if they don't
preapprove something, you'll have to pay for it. And there
are many times people they need a surgery, a surgery
will help them, and the insurance company says, no, you
don't need it. What the insurance company really means is
we're not going to pay for it. We want to

(15:53):
make more profit. Okay. So, by the way, I welcome,
and I truly mean this, no one ever takes me
up on it. I welcome anyone in the insurance industry
to call me and tell me why why they're a
good industry. Okay. Now, it's true we can't live without
insurance right now because things are so expensive. But what

(16:13):
I'm saying is is that their job is to do
as little as possible for us, and insurance has become
necessary partly because of insurance itself. If you think about that,
the part of the reason we need insurance is because
of the insurance overlay. Because of the cost of insurance.
It has become a game. Anyway, Matt, I'm on claims. Matt,

(16:38):
I want to ask you something percentage wise, I'm serious. Now,
I want you to give me from your experience when
you go and look at a claim at a house,
how many times have you seen percentage wise would you
say in your career it was a fair and just
settlement out of the gate. Very rarely, I mean I

(17:00):
have seen it. Yeah, yeah, most of the time.

Speaker 5 (17:03):
That's an independent adjuster from out of state who gets
paid more to approve.

Speaker 1 (17:09):
Okay, I want to talk about that real quick. When
we talk about insurance adjusters, you have insurance adjust work
insurance company, and then they go out and they adjust
the claim up or down. It's always it's always down.
They what they do is they say, okay, here's what
you need, and they try to make they do try
to make sure the company isn't getting ripped off. That's legit.

(17:32):
They also truly try to make sure that the insured
person is not cheating them and okay, so that's for real.
But then they look at the claim and they may say,
you don't need this, you don't need that, We're going
to do this, We're going to do that. And they
are called an insurance adjuster and they work for the
insurance company. Now, when the insurance company is busy and

(17:55):
they don't have enough adjusters to go around, like when
a hailstorm comes through, they hire something called an independent adjuster.
But this is a wrong name because they're not independent.
They work for the insurance company. They work as a
contractor to the insurance company. Their goal and their object

(18:18):
is to help the insurance company, so they are called
independent adjusters. Then you have Matt, who is a public adjuster.
He works for the public, He works for those who
are insured. Now, when Matt said, the real dichotomy here
is independent adjusters actually get paid on their dollar volume.

(18:43):
That is strange, Matt, It.

Speaker 5 (18:45):
Is how does that incentivize you know, No, I mean
I think.

Speaker 1 (18:51):
It's good for the consumer. So what you're saying is
when an independent let's say a big hailstorm comes in,
they call it a catastrophic advice or a hurricane or something. Okay,
the insurance company sends out all of their adjusters. Right,
have enough to go around, so they independent guys to
go out and do it. These independents are paid based

(19:11):
on what they settle. It's a tiered structured settle.

Speaker 5 (19:15):
So if they get above twenty grand, they get you know,
another couple hundred bucks, or they go about thirty grand.

Speaker 1 (19:21):
Then that is exactly the opposite of what I was saying,
most insurance adjusters that work for the insurance companies, their
job is to keep the claims as small as possible. Right,
But you're saying an independent adjuster is actually incentivized to
pay out more.

Speaker 5 (19:39):
Yeah, and only only in a catastrophe though, only like
a hurricane, a big hurricane or a big hailstorm. And
it's quick and down and dirty. So after a few
weeks that goes away. Okay, But I think the reason
they do that is because you know, that incentivizes the
people to deploy.

Speaker 1 (19:56):
I mean, who wants to go to a disaster every how? Okay,
So order for them to get these claims done, they
need to get them done quickly, and they need to
hire independence and an independent adjuster. You're saying, it's not
going to move temporarily to a state or a city
to live for for pennies that you got to pay them.
You got to pay them.

Speaker 5 (20:16):
Well, yeah, and so they could be there for two
three months, you know, and especially like in a hurricane.

Speaker 1 (20:22):
Is that our catastrophes the only time they hire independent adjusters.

Speaker 5 (20:27):
Yeah, they call it a cat cat team. Okay, So
they deploy and and that you're right, they do actually
get paid by the insurance company. So they're not working
for the public, but they are a third party, are
they Are they easier to deal with than than the
ones that work directly for insurance in my experience, I mean,
I can't speak for if a homeowner is there without me,

(20:49):
I don't know. But if I'm there, it's hey, let's
let's get the check book out, you know, let's let's
let's figure this out.

Speaker 1 (20:55):
And that's when I really hone in.

Speaker 5 (20:57):
On all right, let's look at every single thing, citing windows,
all of the components, paint everything other than just if
we're talking about hail damage, other than just the roof.

Speaker 1 (21:07):
I mean, there's so much more, by the way. So
the point I'm making is this, Okay, if you are
in the middle of an insurance claim, you may need help,
and that's where you call a public adjuster and they
get paid a small percent on what they get for you.
And I would say they'll almost always get more than
you can get on your own, Okay, almost always, And

(21:30):
you deserve a fair claim. And there are many things
that an insurance adjuster will not pay unless you get help.
And we have some cases and Demetrio gave me permission
to talk about this. We have some cases that are
just out and out wrong. I mean, Matt, it doesn't
take much for a contractor to say, Okay, it's going

(21:56):
to take X amount of dollars to fix Dimitri's damn
image from the water right.

Speaker 5 (22:01):
Right, and then his contractors Shamansky, Right, Genesis.

Speaker 1 (22:05):
Genesis, Genesis Total Exteriors, they're going to give him a
fair and just price. And then for the insurance company
to say, what Dimitri just arbitrarily saying we're not going
to pay it?

Speaker 6 (22:16):
Yeah, you know, it.

Speaker 7 (22:17):
Definitely feels arbitrary, you know, especially since their deny letters
really don't go into any great details.

Speaker 1 (22:23):
They just say no, yeah, there's a little more to
it than no.

Speaker 7 (22:26):
So I don't want to smear them like that, but
there was no satisfactory explanation.

Speaker 1 (22:30):
For why turn is my gun?

Speaker 7 (22:32):
And Tom, we're talking a huge, huge, we're talking about
a really huge golf Mark. Schamansky's bid was at least
fifty thousand, approximately fifty two thousand dollars. The insurance company
offered me seventeen thousand and change, and so we have
this delta of over thirty thousand dollars and we're fighting
over this. When I hired Matt, I'm not getting any

(22:53):
discounts or anything. I hired Matt to even file the
claim for me because I expected American Family Insurance to
be told douchebags when it comes to covering the damage
to my loft and so and that, and that came true.

Speaker 1 (23:07):
And Matt's been managing it for you, right. So so basically,
if you're in the middle of a dispute like that,
give us a call. Mark used Matt. I'm you know,
and he's done. You know, listen it look miracle what
Matt has done. Let me jump in.

Speaker 8 (23:22):
Both times, freaking Safecoa said, I, oh, you don't have
any claim.

Speaker 1 (23:26):
One was on a roof.

Speaker 8 (23:27):
I saw all my neighbors getting a new roof, and
SAFECode told me to pound sand.

Speaker 1 (23:32):
Matt got involved.

Speaker 8 (23:33):
I got to check for eighty thousand dollars not only
the roof, but the other hail damage that Genesis found,
like on the deck, in the siding and other places.
Got a full paint job, a new roof on my barn,
on our house. It was incredible, all because of Matt.
And then not even a year ago, we had water
come in from a hailstorm and basically it flooded out

(23:55):
our hardwood and I actually had flood insurance, thank god,
to Compass Insurance, but they denied the claim. Matt got
involved in that and it went from zero to fifty
thousand dollars.

Speaker 1 (24:08):
He is a godsend. Yeah he is. And we'll be
talking about that and more. Okay, I want to tell
you about Appleair. That's air with an E on the
end of it. Appleair dot com a family owned and
operated company for forty some years. Let me tell you something.
They're wonderful people. I've known them from the beginning. They've

(24:28):
been on my referral list the whole time. If you
want a great company for heating and air, call because
this is a company you can trust for great prices,
great warranties, and great products appleair dot com. Go with
a sure thing Denver's Best roofer Excel Roofing dot com.

(24:50):
You don't pay a cent until you're content. Time for
an insurance check up free, no obligation. In comparison, call
Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage at dozens of
insurance companies find out now three all three seven seven
to one help You'll think you're his only customer when
you choose Frank durand the real estate man dot Com

(25:11):
to list your home with Remax Alliance three all three
nine two zero sixteen twenty two. All right, I want
to talk to Steve Moss and he has the Rock
and Roll Brewery and free pizza Saturdays. If you've never
seen a beer garden, it's a cool thing, man, really

(25:34):
cool where you gather out on an outdoor patio and
you enjoy the day. Explain the beer garden and how
it's limited occupation here, so if you want to get in,
you gotta call. You gotta reserve your spot. Steve Heny, Tom,
how are you doing doing good man? Tell us about

(25:55):
your garden.

Speaker 9 (25:57):
Well, you know, it's it's kind of a really unusual thing.
I've been brewing since the middle eighties and I'm only
twenty seven years old. That work right, you know.

Speaker 1 (26:06):
But I've been brewing a long time.

Speaker 9 (26:08):
I've published in books and everything. I've kind of a pioneer.
I've never really wanted to do it for a living
where I'm just I have to sell so much and
have that pressure, so I just we just try to
sell enough to help pay some bills.

Speaker 10 (26:21):
It's eight eighteen.

Speaker 9 (26:23):
Different beers, some on top, some in cans, are both,
and we have you know, specials all the time. Every Saturday,
we have free pizza about four thirty from Dominos and
Firestone thanks to them. They've you know, just a great sponsor.
And you know, I take care of them and they
they take care of us. And no, no purchase necessary.

Speaker 1 (26:46):
How do people sign up to go there on Saturday?

Speaker 9 (26:50):
Well, rock and Roll dot Beer is the website, and
some people get confused. They put dot com that won't work.
So it's a rock and Roll either the letter in
or a Rocknroll dot Beer, and there is free reservations
or you can just walk in. You we only have
twenty five at a time limitation, so it's a good

(27:10):
idea to you know, schedule it first.

Speaker 1 (27:13):
Steve Lean, you.

Speaker 9 (27:14):
Know fun things like bingo.

Speaker 8 (27:16):
Go ahead, let me jump in here. Guys, So Saturday,
listen to this. You want a great time, you bring
out your significant other, You get signed up, get the
reservation done. Eighteen different handcraft beers, and I can vouch
for him. The beers are incredible. IPA's the light beers
and everything in between.

Speaker 1 (27:35):
Check this out.

Speaker 8 (27:36):
Cornhole Tournament every Saturday. It's like five bucks. You can
win over one hundred free bingo for beer. The guy
keeps stuff going constantly. There's live music. Sometimes there's a
big tent. The brewery is literally right there. Everything you're
drinking is right there, Beer to go, beer to on tap.

(27:56):
But you got to get signed up, man, if you've
never done it. Susan and I have been out there
a couple times. We'll be out a couple more. It
is absolutely fantastic. If you're brewery people. You got to
check out rock and roll Dot Beer.

Speaker 1 (28:11):
Yeah, that's the website and they can sign up. So yeah,
we'll be reminding you through the week. But how long
do you do these? How many can people make? For example,
if they have a Saturday coming up where they have
an anniversary or a party or something, then can they
call ahead of time or do you only take reservations
for the immediate one coming up? How does that work?

Speaker 9 (28:33):
We can do these special events and a couple different ways.
If they do it at the beer garden, yeah, they'd
have to reserve twenty five people at a time, or
there's one time a year I can have seventy five
at one time. So if somebody had a really big,
you know, a bigger wedding reception or a corporate event
or something. I could do it, but we'd have.

Speaker 1 (28:53):
To book it.

Speaker 9 (28:54):
And then we just have to block out that time
that Saturday and say, you know, close to the public
and tell that events over and you know, just say,
you know, Tom, remember that snowstorm we had not too
long ago, right, well, that that destroyed our time. I
just I did not think it was going to be
that much snow and that heavy, you.

Speaker 1 (29:15):
Know, a couple thousand bucks.

Speaker 9 (29:17):
So we just replaced that. Yeah, we just replaced it.
So I could, I could, you know, sell a couple
of beers this weekend and feel better about it, just
to pay the bills.

Speaker 1 (29:26):
For sure, Man eighteen handcrafted beers and beer Lover's Paradise.
There plus a bunch of games and fun and it's
a it's a it's a wonderful time rock and roll
dot Beer. Thanks for being on and we appreciate it. Bro.
Three pizza, Okay, three pizza, thank you, compliments of of
you said dominos in fire, Domino dominoes and fires, all right,

(29:47):
thank you very much. Three oh three seven one three
Talkers are number seven one three A two five five.
I have a real quick question from for Paragon. They're
texting us, by the way, our text number seven four
seven nine nine nine fifty. Someone wants to know when
you do an adjustment for and you get more money,
does the insurance company want to see what you're doing

(30:09):
with the money? Do they like what like? What if?
What if you get the more? Does the insurance company
expect these people to spend every dime on the on
the claim. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (30:19):
Their way of doing that is recoverable depreciation, right, so
they hold let's say your payout is fifty k. Yeah,
they're gonna give you thirty upfront and hold twenty minus
you're deductible. The twenty is released when either myself or
the homeowner submits invoices for the work completed, or I
can send a certificate of completion saying, hey, the work

(30:42):
was done.

Speaker 1 (30:43):
Please release the money that you're holding.

Speaker 5 (30:46):
Now, whether or not you do the work, you know,
that's that's a gray area. If some people say, look,
let's say a hailstorm, right, it hits your fence, and
the insurance company pays you to power wash and restain
your fence. They give you five grand for that some
people don't care. I don't care about my fence. It's fine.
They put that five grand in their pocket. Now, the
problem with that is if you have another hailstorm and

(31:08):
file acclaim again, right, they're not gonna pay you again
for that threat because gotcha.

Speaker 1 (31:12):
Yeah, it's at your own risk. Yeah, people to put
money in their pocket. A lot of people put money
in their pocket. Sure, we have more coming right up,
right after this. Go with a sure thing Denver's Best
roofer Excel Roofing dot com. You don't pay a cent
until you're content. Time for an insurance check up free,

(31:36):
no obligation. In comparison, call Compass Insurance paying too much
your coverage at dozens of insurance companies find out now
three O three seven to seven to one help. You'll
think you're his only customer when you choose Frank durand
the real estate Man dot com to list your home
with Remax Alliance three oh three nine two zero sixteen
twenty two. Hey, I'm Tom Martino, Denverregen dot com. Stem

(32:00):
Cell Therapy. I've had it done, I can attest to it.
They do a great job. Good people, Denverregen dot com. Hey,
let's talk what's on your mind today. I do have
some consumer stuff. I want to get to pretty important stuff.
But by the way, do you know that the UH

(32:20):
that there is a website that every year they're they're
a PR website and they help companies with branding, They
help companies with press releases, news really so all that,
and they do an extensive survey every year of trusted
brands and UH it's called PR Newswire, and they're very
credible as far as their research, and they want to see,

(32:44):
you know, the impact that advertising and promotions and things have,
even packaging on brands. And what do people consider to
be a trusted brand? And it really it depends on
the category. Right, If you take a category, just pick
one like food and beverage. What's amazing is some of

(33:08):
these brands you may not heard of, but they sell
like crazy and they're like way up there. Well, Hormel
we've heard of, they're in the they're like in one
of the top five. And Silk that is an almond
plant based milk silk. And for example, with with baby products,
I've never heard of this brand called Dreft dref You've

(33:31):
never heard of them, whereas Gerber is way down on
the list, Johnson's Baby. But what they do is they
look at the sales and they look at the brand
recognition and when people are at the supermarket. It's amazing,
is many they did the survey and many of these
trusted brands that people buy, they only recognize that when
they're at the store and they pick it up. In

(33:53):
other words, they don't really even know necessarily the name
of the brand, but they're they're they go and buy
the same thing all the time. But like they can
name for example, Craft for example, right, but they don't
necessarily buy Craft. They buy this one. Oh it's that
one with the little girl on the front, or it's
the one with the daisy or whatever, and that's how

(34:13):
they do it. So brand recognition has gotten a lot
different over the years. It's not just it's you know,
it's not just knowing the brand name, it's buying it.
And here's what we found that or what PR found
is that people know a lot of brands, but they
don't necessarily buy them or use them. They go and
buy something else. With some brands, they have both recognition

(34:38):
and sales. Like you've heard of Ola for beauty products.
Revlon Shic Maybeline, those are all off their Nutrigena cover Girl.
Those are both recognized and patronized, whereas are patronized. Whereas
there are some brands that are you've probably never even

(35:00):
and heard of, but they sell like crazy and people
buy it based on the logo or where it is
actually in the supermarket itself. They actually used to going
to a certain section and the bottom left corners where
they always get their margarine or their butter or something
like that. And when it comes to general groceries, the

(35:22):
number one name is Kroger. Kroger out sells them all
and coming up right behind them Shopright and Walmart. Walmart
has made the most progress when it comes to groceries
as far as growth. When they first got into it,
they were way down on the list. They are really strong,
really really strong. When it comes to groceries. The top

(35:45):
three Kroger, Shop Right and Walmart. Safeway is number four
and then Aldi I've never heard of, but we have
more coming up. Go with a sure thing Denver's Best
roofer Excel roofing dot com. You don't pay a cent
until you're content. Time for an insurance check up free,

(36:06):
no obligation in comparison. Call Compass Insurance paying too much
your coverage at dozens of insurance companies find out now
three all three seven seven to one help. You'll think
you're his only customer when you choose Frank durand the
real estate Man dot com to list your home with
Remax Alliance three all three nine two zero sixteen twenty two.

Speaker 11 (36:26):
Yeah, ripped, you need advice so you don't have to
run inoussas as we can show Shooter's gonna help.

Speaker 5 (36:43):
Come.

Speaker 2 (36:45):
This is the Troubleshooter Show. No Tom Martine.

Speaker 1 (36:50):
Hello, I'm Tom Martino. We got Major Mark Major and
we got a guest to say, Matt Stanford from Paragon Services.
This hour brought to you by Frank Duran, the real
Estateman dot com. Call him for an analysis of your home.
He'll tell you what it will sell for on the
market based on the comps, the neighborhoods, supply and demand,

(37:11):
interest rates, all of the factors. It's a very detailed report,
free of charge, absolutely no obligation. But if you are
going to sell, you'll never find anyone better. So call
Frank for your analysis. Three oh three nine two zero
sixteen twenty two. Frank durand the real estate man dot com.
So we're talking about insurance insurance claims. We're also talking
right before the break about brand loyalty and the point

(37:33):
I was trying to make. Okay, here's the deal. Here's
what's strange about brands. People know brands and can spout
them off. But the ones they spell, the ones that
they can just name right off the bat, are not
necessarily the ones they buy. But the brands they know
takes them to the store and to the shelf, and
they might buy something right next to it because that's

(37:54):
the one they like. They save a little money and
that is their brand. But some people can't eat and
name the brand that they use. They just know where
it is on the shelf based on the other brand names.
So branding is important, but sometimes brands don't necessarily drive sales.
That's what's really strange about it. It just it drives recognition.

(38:18):
And then a lot of companies literally make money off
of the other brands advertising. They even mimic the colors,
and a lot of the stores have their own brands.
And this is what's really weird. You know, you have
your product as a vendor for sale at Walgreens right
and right next to it is Walgreens competing with you

(38:40):
with a similar colored box and it even says the
same ingredients as such and such. So branding is really
weird nowadays. Okay, people do know brands because brands do
a lot to get their name out there, and social
media is one big way they do it, but they
don't necessarily buy the brands that they know, and they

(39:02):
don't even know the brands that they buy, so it's
really strange. Go ahead, Mark, listen to this man.

Speaker 8 (39:09):
So Walmart, they've got better Goods, which is absolutely high end, delicious,
private label. But let's just talk about great value, which,
by the way, they're doing a full refresh on which
is unbelievable. And Walmart's also refreshing all their stores. They're
going to look totally different than anything you've ever seen.

Speaker 1 (39:28):
But check this out.

Speaker 8 (39:30):
Nine out of ten or eighty seven percent of households
in the United States in the United States have some
great value in their house.

Speaker 1 (39:42):
Think about that.

Speaker 8 (39:43):
Nine out of ten people have something right now in
their house that is private labeled Walmart.

Speaker 1 (39:49):
Wow, that's incredible. Is Walmart the largest retailer in the
world based God?

Speaker 8 (39:54):
Yeah, I think they might be close to the largest employer.
And they're a hell of a good employer, man, Honest
to god, they take care of their people. You know,
the old days are completely different. I don't know what
they did twenty years ago, but it's incredible. A store
manager can easily make a quarter of a million dollars.

(40:15):
I mean easily now, I mean you work your ass
off and make sure everything's going good. But it's it's
ridiculous how well they pay their employees. Their healthcare is great, everything.
Anybody out there looking for a job that thinks, oh,
I don't want to go work at Walmart, let me
tell you the chances of starting there and ten years
later and making seventy to one hundred thousand a year

(40:37):
are pretty damn good.

Speaker 1 (40:40):
Wow, that is that's pretty cool. Now, listen, outdoor grills.
What do you think is the number one name in
outdoor grills gas grills? Coleman, It's Weber Webber Weber. And
by the way, it's it's Weber as far as overall
sales as well, Weber takes best gas overall and then

(41:02):
also they take premium gas ones. Weber Weber has the
top three slots and then there's something called I'd never
even heard of Napoleon. Have you heard of Napoleon? No,
I've heard of Trager. Trager is on there. Trager's pretty
high end. Now. I'm a pellet smoker.

Speaker 5 (41:23):
One though, I think, well, there are grills.

Speaker 1 (41:25):
These are not smokers. These are grills. As far as smokers,
I don't know about smokers at all. I mean, Mark,
do you do Do you have a smoker?

Speaker 8 (41:34):
I got two smokers. I got two grills. I'm looking
at getting a Blackstone right now.

Speaker 1 (41:41):
Though.

Speaker 8 (41:42):
The highest units sold with griddles is Blackstone.

Speaker 1 (41:49):
Wow, I've got one, and it's awesome.

Speaker 5 (41:53):
Mainly like stir fry or bacon and eggs, you know,
if you don't want to stink up the house.

Speaker 1 (41:58):
Yeah, frying bacon, it's great. Man. It's just a big
flat cast iron. Now in Colorado, I don't do a
lot of outdoor cooking. I mean, once in a while
we'll do some stakes. But can you grill outdoors? Almost
three seasons? Oh yeah, forced to do three. I smoke.

Speaker 8 (42:15):
I smoked three sixty five all year long.

Speaker 1 (42:19):
You can smoke, yeah, because you place the smoker on
the deck.

Speaker 5 (42:22):
Oh, you run it with your phone? I mean there's
an aph for the Tragger. You literally run the smoker
from your phone.

Speaker 8 (42:29):
So Trager, trust me, Trager is probably the best out there.
But right under them as far as top brand sold
and you can save a ton of money, is pit Boss.

Speaker 1 (42:40):
I got a pit Boss. It was half the cost
and just as.

Speaker 8 (42:43):
Good, And like Matt was saying, I can operate it
right from my cell phone. We can keep tabs on
it when we're in a different state for that matter.

Speaker 1 (42:52):
Okay, so Matt, this guy says he hasn't contacted his
insurance company yet on acclaim he wants he didn't say
what the claim was. You just said a claim. He
wants to know. Is it better to talk to you
up front or to see what the insurance company does first?
How do you handle that? By the way, we're talking
to mass Stanford a public adjuster. They work for you,

(43:13):
for the insured, to make sure you're being treated fairly
by your insurance company. So let's talk about that. When
do you contact a public adjuster?

Speaker 5 (43:21):
You can do that at any point, but the cleanest,
smoothest way is just call me first. And that way,
I'm not fighting, I'm just running the claim for you.
So if you call me after there's a problem. I
have a battle now, right, And that's just never.

Speaker 1 (43:36):
So from the beginning you usually can get better results.

Speaker 5 (43:39):
Yes, So if you call me, if you have some
damage to your property, you call me, I file the
claim for you.

Speaker 1 (43:44):
I meet the adjuster and we just.

Speaker 5 (43:47):
Pinpoint exactly what needs to be done get you paid.
And that's the cleanest way to do it. If you
call me after there's an issue, well now I have
to go in and say, hey, mister adjuster, you screwed up,
and that never it's not a fun conversation.

Speaker 1 (44:01):
YEA, right, go ahead, Mark.

Speaker 8 (44:03):
You know something Matt does that he's kind of taught me. Well,
I don't do it, but he does, but he kind
of taught me about it, and I want him to
kind of explain it. When an insurance company with Matt
first gets involved and let's say it's like my claims
that we're being denied altogether. He got in there and
basically talked the adjuster when he met with him after

(44:23):
they told me zero, talks him into just a little
piece of the pie, like maybe five thousand dollars claim
and they're like, okay, whatever, we'll go ahead and take
care of that. But then Matt, that opens the door for.

Speaker 1 (44:37):
What for auxiliary?

Speaker 5 (44:38):
Well, once they acknowledge Hale, if we're talking about Hale,
once they acknowledge it, now okay, we know the floodgates
are open. You know, we can go attack them for
everything under the sun. You know, like you have roof damage,
you probably have gutter damage. If you have gutter damage,
you probably have siding and paint and window damage.

Speaker 1 (45:00):
It just keeps snowballing.

Speaker 5 (45:02):
But you have to get them to admit that there
was a storm and to honor that storm date.

Speaker 1 (45:07):
That's the trick. Someone wants to know, do you represent
the homeowner in the appraisal process? We need to explain
what the appraisal process is. Okay, first and foremost, you're
you got a contractor or someone who says, okay, Tom,
you have damage. I think it's going to cost about
twelve grand to fix that. And then the adjuster says,

(45:28):
no way, we're going to pay twelve grand. We think
it's more like fifty five hundred whatever. So now you
have a disagreement. That's not the appraisal process. When do
you enter into the appraisal process? And by the way,
they call it the appraisal process. That's where you get
a representative and the insurance company puts up their adjuster.
And what do they try to come to? What do

(45:50):
they argue, do they mediate? What do they what? Actually
is it? It's not a sit down, is it?

Speaker 3 (45:55):
No?

Speaker 1 (45:55):
It's well kind of. So the appraisal clause in your policy.

Speaker 5 (45:59):
So if you invote that, you basically hire somebody and
you have to pay them.

Speaker 1 (46:03):
It's not a percentage. You pay a flat rate for
an appraiser.

Speaker 8 (46:06):
I paid two grand to that guy, Matt.

Speaker 1 (46:08):
It was the best deal ever, right, and he got
a lot to pay your appraiser. You got to pay him. Yeah,
And so it's not a percentage like my fees, right,
got it? So you pay them, and what do they
do for you? They quantify them.

Speaker 5 (46:21):
So the insurance company hires an appraiser and then the
two of them meet on site or they negotiate remotely.
Most of the time they meet on site, and they
basically most of.

Speaker 1 (46:32):
The time ninety percent of the time it sides.

Speaker 5 (46:34):
With the policy holder. If they can't agree, then you
hire an umpire. That's even more money. So now it's
almost like a minuture court. Really, the consumers paying their share. Yeah,
during this process. Now does the insurance company have to
go with the result, Yes, and then you lose your
rights to pursue it any further.

Speaker 1 (46:55):
Whatever the verdict is.

Speaker 5 (46:56):
In that you can't for the policyholder.

Speaker 1 (46:59):
Yeah, that's what on policy holder. Which so with appraisal,
the verdict is it's so okay, Well, then let me
ask you this. Then, why does in dmitriy do the
appraisal process or do you have a choice not to
do the appraisal process. They can't say because.

Speaker 8 (47:14):
They're saying, are I covering some stuff?

Speaker 1 (47:16):
Tom?

Speaker 8 (47:16):
It doesn't have to do with that. They're basically saying
it's not covered. There's nothing to argue about.

Speaker 5 (47:22):
Well, and to further your point, Tom, the insurance company
can't force appraisal.

Speaker 1 (47:27):
It's the policy holder. Okay, okay, got it. So but wait, hold,
I want to clarify something.

Speaker 8 (47:33):
If if the insurance company, like on a roof, says
there's no hail damage, there's no appraisal process because they're
saying there's no coverage, right.

Speaker 5 (47:42):
Appraisal is only scope disagreement on Scott, how Tom, on
ours we had they were offering like twenty two thousand,
we wanted like.

Speaker 8 (47:52):
Sixty five thousand, so excuse me, I had to cough.
So I hired the guy Matt told me to high.
He came out the same exact day along with them.
They both met at my house, spend about three hours
going over everything, and then they both disappeared. They came
to an agreement and I got like forty eight thousand.

Speaker 1 (48:15):
Wow, okay, got it. Now, as far as the consumer,
if they there's they're gonna pay some of it for Dimitri,
but they won't pay it all. He could choose to
do the appraisal process, absolutely.

Speaker 5 (48:28):
But we just we just figured, you know, for a
case study almost, let's put this into litigation.

Speaker 1 (48:34):
And you know, Dimitri's he's a bulldog to go so
you don't have to. They can't say, wait a minute,
don't go to court first to the appraisal. They can't
first instead not just.

Speaker 7 (48:46):
First through the appraisal, instead through the appraisal. It sounds
to me like the appraisal process is like binding arbitration.

Speaker 8 (48:53):
But it wasn't binding on the consumer, no, is it, Dimitri?
It's not binding. The next process after that, the umpire
is right, Matt, Right, Well, that's.

Speaker 7 (49:02):
What I mean. The umpire is part of that. You know,
this this arbitration process.

Speaker 1 (49:07):
And why did you choose not to do that way? Dmitri?

Speaker 7 (49:09):
Well, I felt like I'd rather bring the case. So
I don't know anything about the umpire. I don't know
how he or she's going to rule. What I don't
want for them to do is to kind of split
the baby, you know what I mean?

Speaker 1 (49:19):
Because that still doesn't cover my damages.

Speaker 7 (49:21):
Ok So my preference is actually to go to court
and litigate this in front of a jury and then
and then also demand treble damages from American Family Insurance.

Speaker 1 (49:30):
Okay, And that's what you can do. And I wonder
how many times insurance companies actually let it go that far.

Speaker 8 (49:37):
Hey, hey, Matt, if someone does go into court, if
Dmitri did, but let's say the policy limit none of that, okay,
So how does this work If the policy limits one
hundred thousand, I'm just using round numbers and they don't
even want to pay that, And you go to court
and it turns out that really there's four hundred thousand

(49:59):
in damage because they actually dragged it into court. Could
he get four hundred thousand or still? The policy limits
are the limits.

Speaker 1 (50:07):
I don't know, but I don't know that policy.

Speaker 9 (50:12):
No.

Speaker 1 (50:12):
I think the penalty can go above and beyond the damages.

Speaker 7 (50:16):
Yeah, the damage, the statutory damages right, right, like the
treble damages.

Speaker 1 (50:21):
That has nothing to do with policy limit. Right. The
policy limits are only for what's wrong. Okay, we have
more right after this. I'm Tom Martinez three h three
seven to one, three eight two five five. By the way,
Apple Air, I can recommend them highly Appleair dot com.
Get your AC in shape if you need something they
do free second opinions. That's Air with an E Appleair

(50:43):
dot Com. Go with a sure thing Denver's best roofer
Excel Roofing dot com. You don't pay a cent until
you're content. Time for an insurance check up free, no obligation.
In comparison, call Compass Insurance paying too much your coverage
at dozens of insurance companies find out now three O

(51:06):
three seven seven to one. Help. You'll think you're his
only customer when you choose Frank durand the real estate
Man dot com to list your home with Remax Alliance
three oh three nine two zero sixteen twenty two. Hi
Tom Martino, Hey, if you need a will or a
trust or if you're facing probate or you want to

(51:26):
avoid probate. We love Dan McKenzie McKenzie law eight three
three co plans. Everyone needs a will you need something
and he can do it for you with personalized attention.
A great law firm will sit down with you. They're
very efficient. They they don't leave anything uncovered. You will
feel really secure with McKenzie law eight three three co

(51:51):
plans or cooplans dot co. Okay, let's talk Mark. We
got Matt with us from Paragon Services and I have
a couple techts. But basically what most people want to
know is why don't people just call you right off
the bat for everything? Will you tell them, Hey, you
don't need me on this. It's small, it's not that big. Hey,

(52:13):
how you handle that?

Speaker 5 (52:14):
I have done that before where you know, it's just
some kind of leak in somebody's kitchen and it's just
you know, maybe one thousand dollars worth of damage and
it's probably not worth filing acclaim that does happen, or you.

Speaker 1 (52:26):
Can do it on your own. In other words, you
don't need me.

Speaker 5 (52:29):
I actually had a I do get calls now and
then for auto coverage and I always direct them to
petty petty details, petty details, right. So yeah, I don't
do auto coverage. I just do property.

Speaker 8 (52:42):
You know, I'm glad you invoked that word. Those guys
are phenomenal. Talk about free advice. If you want to
know the value of your car one hundred percent for free,
If your insurance company's playing games and doesn't want to
give you the proper value for five hundred bucks, I
think he. I think he bats five hundred. Man, it's incredible.

(53:05):
So what is the right term?

Speaker 1 (53:06):
Bats? Five hundred? Is that high? Is that good? I
think five hundred that's half. That means you get no, no, no,
that's considered good. If you get a hit half the time,
that's batting. Yeah. But I think he bats like nine
hundred then oh wow, Okay, what does he do mark
for the five hundred.

Speaker 8 (53:25):
Five hundred bucks? It's kind of close to like the
appraisal clause. He will go out there and find real
comps of that vehicle that got totaled, and he will
basically figure out what your insurance company should be giving you. Now,
if someone else hit you and their insurance company basically

(53:46):
doesn't want to pay you diminished value he will argue
that as well. You know, we were talking about this
and this kind of ties into Matt. Think about this, Tom,
how many people in Colorado let's just take our home
our home rule. How many people have been hit by
somebody else? Have their car fixed? Life goes on, never

(54:06):
realize they left anywhere from three to twenty thousand dollars
on the table for diminished value. They simply never ask
for it. And that goes to Matt. Matt, how many
people have hail damage, turn it in, get a new roof.
Life goes on, and they left siding, painting, everything else.

(54:27):
They left thirty to one hundred thousand dollars on the table.

Speaker 1 (54:31):
Yeah, happens all the time. You know. People get a
new roof, they think they're good, and they move on.

Speaker 5 (54:35):
Then they don't have an eye for it, right, So
they're not walking around their house looking for hail damage
because they don't know what they're looking at.

Speaker 1 (54:42):
You know.

Speaker 5 (54:42):
Yeah, I can look at any kind of siding product,
whether it's Vinyl or Hardy or smart side, and if
there are little chips, little divots, that's covered under the policy.

Speaker 1 (54:53):
But that adjuster is not going to make you aware
of that.

Speaker 8 (54:55):
Talk about windows, Matt, and if the little if they fail,
because not.

Speaker 1 (55:00):
This seems what are they called.

Speaker 5 (55:02):
Yeah, the sashes or the beating. So if you'll start
to see kind of a milky haze, you'll devellop it
between the pain, between the pains that windows failing.

Speaker 1 (55:13):
You know, now you're.

Speaker 8 (55:13):
Talking, you're talking big dollars. You got one side of
your house that's got decent windows. I mean even builder
grade is what forty grand in windows?

Speaker 5 (55:23):
Oh, the windows are outrageous and they just keep going up.

Speaker 1 (55:26):
I mean, it's it's it's unbelievable. Okay, I got a
text here about doing your own work? Are they allowed
any kind of profit if they want to do their
own work? Yeah?

Speaker 5 (55:36):
So overhead and profit is designed for like basically a
project manager, you know, or like a contractor that baby
sits all the trades. So if you decide, as a homeowner,
well I'm gonna babysit the trades, I'm gonna hire my
own painter, I'm gonna hire my own you know, roofer
and do that. You know, you can be your own
general contractor. You're entitled to overhead and profit. The insurance

(55:58):
company doesn't necessarily need to know who's doing the work,
so you can orchestrate it yourself. But the goal is
to Hey, if you have more than like three trades.
Let's say it's roof and gutters, right, there's three trades,
then you in most cases can request overhead and profit,
which adds twenty percent to the claim.

Speaker 8 (56:17):
Yeah, and a lot of people think, hey, why would
I pay Matt ten percent of my claim? And I
mean not just you, but any public adjusters. So think
of this. You got three different things needed on your claim,
just like Matt said, roof, gutter, siding, painting, whatever it
happens to be. You got three different things. You're paying
Matt ten percent. He's going to go out there and

(56:37):
find stuff you never even thought of. He's personally done
it for me. I would have never thought of some
of this stuff I got paid on. And if you're
getting twenty percent overhead and profit in that check from
the insurance company, you only owe Matt ten So think
about that. You're getting an extra ten percent in your
pocket for basically playing general contractor am I correct, Matt?

Speaker 1 (57:00):
That's exactly right. Okay, So what are some of the
big mistakes do you think people make when it comes
to filing a claim is that they don't do anything wrong.
It's just the insurance company, right, I mean, what can
you do wrong as a homeowner.

Speaker 5 (57:13):
One of the biggest things I see people do is
they call their insurance company and say, yeah, we had
a hailstorm, and they say when was it, Oh, I don't.

Speaker 1 (57:19):
Know, two three years ago. Don't do that, all right.

Speaker 5 (57:22):
You need to have a firm date within a year
of filing the claim.

Speaker 1 (57:27):
So if you tell them, well, hail hit a couple
of years ago, I guarantee you.

Speaker 5 (57:32):
They're going to try to say, well, that's old hail
and it's not covered because you didn't file the claim
in time.

Speaker 1 (57:36):
That's the number one mistake that I see people make,
all right. Three zero three seven one three talk seven
to one three eight two five five One clear Choice
garage doors. When you're talking about garage doors, you're talking
about the door, the opener, and all the components. One
clear Choice Doors can handle all of it. Seven two

(57:57):
zero three seven zero thirty nine eighty seven. No one
comes close to these guys. They have twenty four to
seven service as well. In case you can't get your
door closed and secure your home, it's one clear choice
doors dot com. Go with a sure thing Denver's best

(58:17):
roofer Excel Roofing dot com. You don't pay a cent
until you're content. Wait time for an insurance checkup free,
no obligation. In comparison, call Compass Insurance paying too much
your coverage at dozens of insurance companies find out now
three oh three seven seven to one. Help. You'll think
you're his only customer when you choose Frank durand the

(58:38):
real estate Man dot com to list your home with
Remax Alliance three oh three nine two zero sixteen twenty two. Hey,
Tom Martino here with Major Mark Major, and we have
Matt with us from Paragon Services. Matt, what was the
what would you mark as the big biggest success in

(59:01):
your history? What would give me an exact stoo? You
know what it is? Mark, Yeah, what is it? It's this?

Speaker 4 (59:09):
Uh.

Speaker 5 (59:10):
It was a big commercial property up in the what
they call that Lewisville fire, Okay, Boulder.

Speaker 1 (59:17):
Camp, Yeah, I know where, Yeah, we know. Yeah.

Speaker 5 (59:20):
So it was this giant laboratory and it got smoke damage,
not direct flame damage, it was just smoke.

Speaker 1 (59:25):
Okay. It was Liberty.

Speaker 5 (59:28):
Mutual came out and they said we'll give you sixty
grand to basically clean the building like Molly made. Come
in and vacuum the floor and wipe down the wall.

Speaker 10 (59:37):
Right.

Speaker 5 (59:38):
Well, I get in there, and I hired an environmental
hygienist to come in and do some sampling and testing
to see how bad the smoke damage was. Came back
with his report, submitted that to Liberty Mutual ended up
getting almost six million dollars.

Speaker 10 (59:55):
Oh no, you.

Speaker 1 (59:55):
Didn't say that. Yeah, yeah, wait a minute, six million bucks. Yeah.
Went from holy, I mean imagine that.

Speaker 8 (01:00:01):
You know, boy, Matt, that must have been. That had
to be your biggest payday on a single job as well.

Speaker 5 (01:00:08):
It was, man, And I wish I could have charged
the full ten percent on that one, but I didn't.
But yeah, that was If I could do just one
of those every month, oh my.

Speaker 8 (01:00:18):
God, I wouldn't be calling in here, you'd be you'd
be hanging out with Elon.

Speaker 5 (01:00:21):
Musk and Bill Gates exactly. But in the Endodean Island, Oh,
that was just such a good win for me. Not
only the the you know, the the amount of money, yes,
that I got for them was great, but just the
fact that they dangled that for them.

Speaker 1 (01:00:38):
Mark didn't we have a woman that we sent to
him that was offered. Yes, so this one was pretty
cool too.

Speaker 8 (01:00:43):
They offered her so, first of all, her deductible was
over a grand, it might have been two grand, and
her skylight was dripping or leaking, so they said, okay,
we'll give you. Like it wasn't much, man, it was
like three or four grand, and after deductible, she's lucky
to have two grand. So Matt went out and got
her seven hundred thousand dollars.

Speaker 1 (01:01:05):
Oh my god, I remember that. I thought it was
eight thousand they offered her at first. Was it eight grand?

Speaker 5 (01:01:10):
Oh?

Speaker 8 (01:01:11):
And I'm sorry, it was like eighty thousand, not eight
hundred thousand.

Speaker 1 (01:01:16):
Yeah, it went from eight hundred to eighty thousand. Yeah,
I remember eights in it a lot. Yeah, and that
was a long time ago, man, that was probably ten
years ago, now, yeah, was it that long? Okay? So
this is really crazy. Do you know. One hospital was
trying to figure out their outbreaks and people from the
people related to the hospital workers. And I'm bringing this

(01:01:39):
up because of the hantavirus. People related to the hospital
workers were getting sick. Okay, but they had great operation.
They did not they were not reckless, but they found
that the scrubs themselves. When they came home and took
off their scrub, the scrubs were contaminated. I didn't know that.

(01:02:03):
I mean, don't you think they'd have enough common sense
to take them off? I mean, but I didn't know
clothes could get contaminated. Oh yeah, Anyway, the hospital said,
you know, so they they changed. What's going on? So
the handa virus. Every day we're hearing about the hand
to virus. There's actually only I think eight cases of

(01:02:25):
person to person spread that they can document. Eight cases
every do you hear do you watch the news in
the morning, you're hearing about hand to virus, handa virus,
hand virus. And I don't know what's going on. I
have no idea what is causing all the panic, But
it's almost like they're getting us ready for another pandemic scare.

Speaker 5 (01:02:46):
I think we're too smart for it now, honestly, I
don't think, but.

Speaker 1 (01:02:49):
Especially something so rare. I mean, there have not been
that many cases in the entire world, and it's not
really spread through person to person contact. I mean it
can be, but they say you have to have very
close contact and you have to come in contact with fluids.
I mean, it's not something that's airborne. It is airborne.

(01:03:10):
For example, at the source. They do say that the dust,
if the dust contains contaminants from the mice, like the
urine or the feces or stuff like that, the dander
you could ingest it if you're sweeping up the barn.
There are a lot of people who come in contact
with UH with that and that is the hintavirus. That's

(01:03:32):
the main spreader right there. So the bottom line is
this is that they are they are getting us ready,
I swear to God when I hear it, they're saying
that these people are on They're not. It's a lockdown.
They have to be on lockdown for forty days. That
people don't even hear that kind of cruise. I don't
even hear that stuff. Like on the nightly news. I

(01:03:52):
know there's wacko circles now every morning regular I'm talking
about the Today Show and a Today nothing nor more
about the Today's Show so that they talk about it
all the time.

Speaker 8 (01:04:06):
How about how about uh, what's the one where the
five girls just bitch about Trump all the time?

Speaker 1 (01:04:11):
The view? The view? What do they have to say,
I don't know what they're I don't think they're talking.

Speaker 8 (01:04:16):
Hey, we got this guy. David's got a great question
on renters. But let's take the break and then come
back and David, you'll be right up after this.

Speaker 1 (01:04:24):
Yeah, we'll do it right after this. Thank you very
much more. Right after this, go with a sure thing
Denver's Best roofer Excel Roofing dot com. You don't pay
a cent until you're content. Time for an insurance check
up free no obligation comparison call Compass Insurance paying too

(01:04:47):
much your coverage at dozens of insurance companies find out
now three O three seven seven to one help. You'll
think you're his only customer when you choose Frank durand
the real estate Man dot com to list your home
with Remax Alliance three oh three nine two zero sixteen
twenty two. Hi Tom Martino here, welcome, hey Mark. Listen

(01:05:08):
to this one. They moved into a They moved into
a community with an hoa, no, with no hoa, and
they loved it that way. But some of these people
noticed that when when the community was first developed, there
was an hoa and it went dormant. So they looked
at the bylaws and they followed the procedure to take

(01:05:31):
it out of dormancy and to make it active. And
they put out a vote and they are voting for
an hoa. And this person said, I never wanted an hoa.
Not only that they're voting on the dues, they're going
to start charging. Well they do.

Speaker 8 (01:05:45):
That person did agree to an HOA when he bought
the property, I know, even though it was inactive.

Speaker 1 (01:05:51):
I know though it was inactive.

Speaker 8 (01:05:53):
So now this person still means there was an hoa.

Speaker 1 (01:05:57):
Right, that's right. And this is something I want to
warn people about. This person is calling it a zombie hoa.
They literally bought it there because no one bothered anyone.
Now they're going to have all kinds of covenance. In fact,
it's not that they're going to have them. They were there,
they just weren't being enforced. So this person wants to know,

(01:06:19):
is the fact that it wasn't enforced does that make
it okay? Not worth everybody voted? Yeah, I don't know
where the vote is right now. They said they are
voting on texture. Probably doesn't want to get rid of
that couch in his front yard. Yeah, but man can
you imagine moving into a place and then having a
committee come over saying, by the way, you know, we're

(01:06:41):
forming this HOA, and I don't know what they have
to do. See, I don't know what they would have
to do to get a zombie HOA back.

Speaker 8 (01:06:49):
In action, what we could do with Bred O'Brien. But
it is, if you.

Speaker 1 (01:06:53):
Think about it, it's a corporation. That's what an HOA is.
Many times it's a nonprofit, but it's a corporation or
an LLC. Right, So somebody finds the bylaws and says
the sheer fact that I own property here makes me
a member. And then it takes a certain number of
members to get a committee together. And they're doing it
according to the bylaws. So even though there was nothing there,

(01:07:16):
they are literally recreating it. And this person is going
to be stuck with it. And think about it. I mean,
you know, they're going to have at least what one
hundred dollars a month in dues at.

Speaker 8 (01:07:27):
Least I don't know what dho is going to pay for,
but it would be a curious question for Brad O'Brien
just in general.

Speaker 1 (01:07:35):
And then maybe David.

Speaker 8 (01:07:36):
Let's pull David up he's got a question on renters
that could tie in with Brad as well.

Speaker 1 (01:07:41):
Thank you very much for reminding me about that. Go ahead, David,
you're on with Mark and Tom. What's happening?

Speaker 12 (01:07:47):
Sure, that rented out of place for six years to
a Section eight family and they trashed it and now
he's going to have his insurance adjuster coming today. But
I wanted to ask Matt if that's something he can
do also, okay.

Speaker 1 (01:08:04):
That I want to get this straight first and all
of that go. This is something I don't understand. You
were renting it out and they trashed it, and who's.

Speaker 12 (01:08:12):
A No, I'm working for a guy that rented his
home out okay. God, that's an eight family for six
years okay, and they crashed it and they finally got
him out of there. Okay, now it's it's trashed.

Speaker 1 (01:08:26):
Okay. So you're wondering, is his homeowner's insurance going to
give him trouble? First of all, I take I want
to assume he had a landlord policy.

Speaker 12 (01:08:36):
Yes, yeah, and he had the renners insurance thing. Does
Matt do the wait?

Speaker 8 (01:08:41):
I'm sorry, I just want clarification to what insurance company
are you going to be dealing with the tenants renters
insurance or the landlord's landlord insurance.

Speaker 12 (01:08:54):
Landlord's insurance got it?

Speaker 10 (01:08:57):
Yeah, what do you think, man?

Speaker 1 (01:08:59):
I mean it's really within the policy right whatever that
covered or vandalism, Yeah, and even though they're a tenant. Yeah,
uh what you say trashed?

Speaker 5 (01:09:09):
I mean were they ripping fixtures out of the wall
and what what?

Speaker 9 (01:09:13):
Oh?

Speaker 12 (01:09:13):
Yeah, we're seeing fans are missing parts, doors are busted
up holes?

Speaker 1 (01:09:19):
Did they do it maliciously? Did they do it? David?
Do you know the circumstances? Were they like mad or angry?
Was it on their way out? What was probably selling
this stuff?

Speaker 12 (01:09:30):
Yeah?

Speaker 10 (01:09:31):
We don't know.

Speaker 12 (01:09:33):
We just know that they were secually. I just know
that they were Section eight.

Speaker 8 (01:09:36):
There might not be any coverage, just might be a
Brian Burns one after the break.

Speaker 1 (01:09:42):
Yeah, well let's get an insurance personal and.

Speaker 12 (01:09:44):
If he did the insurance or did the helps with
the insurance to take it.

Speaker 8 (01:09:48):
But Matt, regardless if there's insurance or not, is this
something you could get involved in if there is coverage.

Speaker 5 (01:09:57):
Yeah, definitely the problem is going to be that the
was ongoing for years and there was no I mean,
they're they're going to say, well, why why weren't you
monitoring you know, the property property madam?

Speaker 12 (01:10:10):
It was the issue on this one.

Speaker 8 (01:10:13):
Yeah, I mean they're gonna say, oh wait, wait is
there a property manager also?

Speaker 1 (01:10:20):
There was?

Speaker 8 (01:10:21):
I I wonder if they had a policy. We really
need to get Brian burns on. There might be more
one more than one avenue, more than one way to
skin a cat here.

Speaker 1 (01:10:31):
Hey, David, if you have if you can wait, we'll
get the experts on to answer some of these questions.
Is this a friend of yours or just a customer?

Speaker 12 (01:10:41):
Customer?

Speaker 1 (01:10:42):
Okay, but we'll get some answers for your Okay, you
got to get paid and that you know, and most
likely you're going to look to insurance to pay you
for what you're doing. The thing is, I believe a
tenant wrecking a place would be a vandalism claim and
I'm don't see why his insurance wouldn't cover it. But
we'll ask Brian about that, and if we have to,

(01:11:04):
we'll ask Brad O'Brien some questions about it. Get Brian
burns On first from Compass. Okay, somebody wants to know,
and we may have to do this after the break
as well. Matt, what is a delay? They think they
can get paid for a delay, and they can, right.
Aren't there penalties involved with an unreasonable delay of processing

(01:11:29):
a claim? Have you ever dealt with that?

Speaker 5 (01:11:31):
Yeah, that's a question for a lawyer though, okay, ultimately.

Speaker 1 (01:11:36):
Okay, So, but there are there are requirements or there
are penalties for delaying a claim. I'd like to know
what that means. In delaying a claim, go with a
sure thing Denver's Best roofer Excel Roofing dot com. You
don't pay a cent until you're content. Time for an
insurance checkup free, no obligation. In comparison, call Compass Inurance

(01:12:00):
pain too much your coverage at dozens of insurance companies
find out now three O three seven to seven to
one help. You'll think you're his only customer when you
choose Frank durand the real estate Man dot com to
list your home with Remax Alliance three all three nine
two zero sixteen twenty two. Yeah, ripped off.

Speaker 11 (01:12:23):
That news so you don't have.

Speaker 1 (01:12:29):
Come run anxious astas as we can show, Shooter's gonna
help coming man.

Speaker 2 (01:12:36):
This is the Troubleshooter Show. Now Tom Martinez, all.

Speaker 8 (01:12:45):
Right, welcome, to the show, the only show of It'scain.
We're here to solve problems, answer your questions, take complaints,
if you've been ripped off, or just need some help. Honestly,
we really want to hear from you. In fact, I
got Deputy Dimitri. I'm looking on her YouTube tube channel
right now, sitting there looking for something to do. You
realize he is he has actually been responsible probably for

(01:13:08):
over one hundred thousand dollars in cash, merchandise, refunds, credits
directly due to his efforts as a deputy on the show.
We also have Deputy Bo. Of course, we have numerous
deputies here to help you. Our guest today, our guest
is Matt with Paragon Services. Any insurance questions you have,
we would love to hear from you, but I want

(01:13:29):
to get those lines full. Right now. We got David
up and we're going to go back to him. Ax Man,
did we get Compass up?

Speaker 1 (01:13:36):
I'm telling him now go ahead, Tom, all right, So
David his question. We have his question. Plus we have
the general question on insurance when it comes to these
things on appraisal and all of that, and what is
a delay. We're going to talk about that with an
attorney if we can get one on. Yeah, I texted

(01:13:57):
him to see if we take Yeah, let's see it. Bill,
come on and maybe Brian Burns will have something about that.
But there is something that a lot of people don't
notice in the law. It talks about rejecting claims, but
it also mark talks about an undue delay. And I've
known people who have sued for a delay of a

(01:14:21):
claim and have gotten damages. This was years ago. That
was Black Daily, Black wasn't Daily and Black. Yet do
they still do it? Yeah, they're still around. Are they
still practicing in Colorado? I'm not sure. I haven't dealt
with them in a long time, but I have.

Speaker 5 (01:14:34):
Two or three attorneys that I use specifically, and these
guys only do insurance litigation.

Speaker 1 (01:14:39):
They don't do personal injury. One of the things I
heard is that juries or judges or courts basically excuse
me that bad faith is good in Colorado. It tends
to skew for the consumer. Yeah, it's favored toward the policy.
I mean it's favored toward the consumer the policy holder,

(01:15:01):
and many times insurance companies get slapped for it. So
my question is, why would an insurance company risk going
to court if a general contractor, I know that Genesis
total experience. They're great people. If they're saying to Dmitri, Dmitri,
this is going to be twenty grand. They didn't just
pull that out of there, but they think this is

(01:15:24):
going to be a twenty grand job. And for the
insurance company to come back and say no, no, no,
we're only going to pay what twelve or whatever? You know,
what the hell? And don't they have to justify then?
Did they, for example, go over it with him and
showed him where he was high? Isn't that what an
adjuster sometimes does. Doesn't an adjuster sometimes actually go over

(01:15:46):
it with the contractor.

Speaker 5 (01:15:49):
Yeah, definitely, especially if it's a complex kind of situation.
If it's a you know, Dimitri's case, it was an
interior damage claim, so you got, you know, kind of
a higher end wood floor, and I think the main
dispute there was they want to patch it instead of
replace all of it. And Demitri, you can speak more
to what you've got to where were the discrepancies?

Speaker 1 (01:16:10):
Did they tell you where they were the did the
insurance company.

Speaker 7 (01:16:14):
The biggest point of contention is this, so the floor
was partially damaged and it has to be partially replaced
at least. However, it cannot be partially replaced because I'm
now required, there's been a change in the rules, and
I'm now required to put a soundproofing some mitigation under
layment under the floor, and that means that the entire

(01:16:35):
floor has to come out and be redone. Otherwise, if
we just had let's say, a twenty by twenty foot
area where the soundproofing underlayment goes in, that area is
going to be taller than the.

Speaker 1 (01:16:46):
Rest of the floor. That's like and they're saying, tough cookies.
That's like a code upgrade. Almost right, it is building code.
But I mean so when there's a code or ordinance change,
our insurance companies do they have to upgrade? They do.

Speaker 5 (01:17:01):
And the whole thing with Dimitri's case was they didn't
feel that that was the governing document that the HOA,
even though they require it. They're saying, well, that's not
I mean, why would you be grandfathered in the old
way though?

Speaker 1 (01:17:16):
That's what I don't understand. Well, you mean grandfathered by
the HOA. Yeah, grandfathers to do it the way it was. Well,
those rules are very clear.

Speaker 7 (01:17:25):
So those rules changed years ago, and there is no
grandfather in provision in there, otherwise everybody would be grandfather.

Speaker 1 (01:17:31):
No, what I mean is not ground But this is
what I mean. All of the floors that are in
are in. Yeah, so it's not like you're putting in
a new floor. I mean, it's like you're replacing what
was damaged. I don't know why they wouldn't let that
slide since most of your floor doesn't have that sound proofing.
Why would they require it for just the new patch? Well? Why?

(01:17:53):
So the rule is written pretty clearly.

Speaker 7 (01:17:55):
Whenever you put in a floor, any kind of installing,
any kind of flooring material, it does. And it doesn't
differentiate between part partial rebuilding and full rebuilding. It says,
here are the specifications. And I've been paying extra for
what's called law and ordinance coverage with American Family Insurance.
And they say, oh no, this rule, though it is

(01:18:16):
a mandatory rule, it's promulgated not by the city but
by the HOA, so therefore it's not law. And I said, well,
it's ordinance and they said, oh no, the city ordinances
are ordinances. But if you look up the definition of
ordinance in the Dictionary. The very first definition for ordinance
is a rule that's put forth by a governing body.

Speaker 1 (01:18:37):
And is a governing body.

Speaker 7 (01:18:39):
Yeah, they can take my unit if I'm not you know,
if that's how much power they.

Speaker 1 (01:18:43):
So, Brian, let's talk about this case. David is working,
he's a contractor, and he comes across a landlord who
has a lot of damage and the damage was done
by tenants. So if I'm a landlord and I cover
my property properly, am I covered for damages made by

(01:19:03):
the tenant? Uh?

Speaker 13 (01:19:06):
That's a great area you can be covered underneath the
coverage of vandalism. The problem with just normal wear and
tear would not be covered. So if the if the
tenant's in there and just is living in the unit.

Speaker 1 (01:19:20):
Well, the tenants pretty much trashed it. David, explain what
the tenant did to Brian, explain what the how how
he left the place.

Speaker 12 (01:19:31):
So we got broken drawers, missing drawers, cabinet drawers, and
then there's probably seven doors that have been wrecked, holes
put in them, uh, and then flooring that's been scuffed,
and then the walls, you know, but the walls I

(01:19:51):
don't know, you know, there's holes in the walls where
they stay pasted it themselves, and of course a full paint,
but I wouldn't I didn't know it's the full paint.
It would be covered because.

Speaker 1 (01:20:01):
Yeah, Brian, that sounds a lot to me. Like like
when you say holes in the doors, is that where
they kicked the door or where they hung something on
the door. There's a big difference either.

Speaker 10 (01:20:14):
Well, I don't know that.

Speaker 12 (01:20:15):
I can't say that, but there's definitely damage to the
doors where we can't we cannot reuse the doors.

Speaker 1 (01:20:20):
Okay, but what kind of damage, like was did they
kick it? Did they kick the door in or was
it a hammer or can you tell?

Speaker 12 (01:20:30):
Not really, I would say both.

Speaker 1 (01:20:34):
They were just they were just crazy people or.

Speaker 12 (01:20:36):
What ones are probably kicked And Okay, I don't know
him personally, so I can't speak for that, okay, Brian,
in I got about eighteen thousand or eighteen hundred just
a material without the damage. And then of course the blinds,
but I'm not sure what the blinds would be under either.

Speaker 1 (01:20:53):
So do you know who the do you know who
the contract company is? The insurance company?

Speaker 12 (01:21:01):
I think you should stay farm.

Speaker 1 (01:21:03):
Oh man, Yeah, you're going ran in general though in general,
How how are these claims treated if I am a
landlord and I had a bad tenant.

Speaker 13 (01:21:16):
Yeah, if it would have to to get vandalism to
cover it, it would have to rise, and that's why
you're asking the questions, Tom, But it would have to
rise to the point of like malicious destruction. Uh, they're
pretty I mean, if it's just looks like there's holes
because they put pictures up, or they were trying to
fix something and that they tried to pack it, that

(01:21:37):
is not vandalism or.

Speaker 1 (01:21:39):
Just slamming doors because they didn't care.

Speaker 13 (01:21:41):
Yeah, right, yeah, and that is going to just be
part of having a tenant that is not taking care
of the property very well, you're gonna you're not gonna
find coverage under any landlord policy for something like that.

Speaker 12 (01:21:55):
Okay, so that's yeah, I was just wondering my shelf.

Speaker 13 (01:22:00):
You went in there and they ripped the sink outs
and they you know, they put holes in because they're
mad because you're a victim, that that rises to the
point of vandalism.

Speaker 1 (01:22:07):
Now, you said, you said a family, you said some
some ceiling fans were missing. David, What do you mean
by that? They just removed him?

Speaker 12 (01:22:15):
Yeah, like the fan plant, the fan blades themselves were
broken off, you know, stuff like that, like somebody did.

Speaker 1 (01:22:25):
They do this because they did they do this because
they were pissed off?

Speaker 9 (01:22:28):
Or what?

Speaker 1 (01:22:29):
Do you know?

Speaker 12 (01:22:30):
I can't say, Yeah, I know it sounds like, you.

Speaker 5 (01:22:33):
Know, if they're just sloppy housekeepers, they could just be
bad tenants. Brian, they didn't stray paint the walls and
you know, yeah, so it just doesn't really sound like vandalism.

Speaker 12 (01:22:45):
Yeah, yeah, I don't know.

Speaker 13 (01:22:47):
I have the coverage you have, you can get coverage
for if they steal things. Let's say they took the fans,
or they took a refrigerator. If you have the right cover,
you can get coverage for that.

Speaker 12 (01:23:01):
Uh yeah, So they had refrigerators in the garage, but
none of them were his, and then the washer and dryer,
but then the power got shut off, so everything in
refrigerators were you know, pretty nasty. On my own, so
that was one of the worship arts.

Speaker 1 (01:23:23):
It's it sounds to me like they're going to have
to eat that, David, No pun intended. They're going to
have to eat the damages. I mean, I don't think
I don't think any insurance policy is going to ensure
against bad tenants, Like Brian said, it would have to
be malicious in nature, right right, Yeah, So thank you

(01:23:46):
for calling. What was the other question we had. We
were going to ask an attorney, oh, delaying Brian, do
you do you know anything about bad faith as far
as when when a delay of claim is unreasonable?

Speaker 13 (01:24:00):
Well, that's the whole point behind it. The unreasonable is
not a definitive number. You're building a case at that
point to say, hey, they're they're flat out not paying me,
and they're not They're they're handling this this claim and
a bad faith. It's not a set amount of time
because the whole point is that sometimes it gets delayed

(01:24:21):
because they're investigating this or investigating that, and other times
they're just dragging their feet. And that's where you have
to figure out where you know, where that line is.

Speaker 1 (01:24:30):
Yeah, it gets pretty See this is a problem. You
can you can't ensure against everything. Sometimes you just you
just end up having to deal with the loss and
and with real estate. I think that's a lot of
the case. So so as far as the appraisal process,
we had another question for you with the appraisal process, Brian,

(01:24:53):
that you know, does the homeowner have to pay a
fee to go through the appraisal process.

Speaker 13 (01:25:00):
They have to pay for their own expert, and then
they have to pay half the cost of the umpire.
That's the way the policy is written. So yes, they
participate in the cost of it, but it's it's not
usually an exorbitant amount, especially when it's in context to
what the loss is. Depending on what the loss is.
The whole thing with the appraisal process that people have

(01:25:22):
to realize though, is the insurance company. It has to
be based off of a disagreement of help damage there is.
It isn't just whether there's damage or not. In other words, okay,
insurance company does there's no damage.

Speaker 12 (01:25:36):
That's not something you can take.

Speaker 1 (01:25:37):
To appraisal the way, Yeah, it's a scope.

Speaker 12 (01:25:41):
Says yeah, exactly, there's one.

Speaker 1 (01:25:43):
So like it would be what about like in Dimitri's case,
where you have two different amounts one genesis total exterior
says hey, it's going to take this, and the adjuster says,
we're not paying for this or this or this that
that that would be something that appraisal could handle, right.

Speaker 13 (01:26:03):
Yeah, I mean it's depending on the circumstance, it could
be Usually it's a in amount difference. It's like, hey,
we're not paying because this. We say it could be
done for this, and you're saying it should be done
for this. And then that's where an empire comes in
and looks at the damage and yes, that would be
because they've already agreed there's damage in dimitry space. So
now it's just a matter of you can go to

(01:26:24):
appraisal to figure out how much damage there really is.

Speaker 1 (01:26:29):
Okay, thank you very much. Brian does free insurance checkups
for the asking make sure you're not under insured or
you're not paying too much for the coverage you have.
They'll check with twenty five or more companies to get
you the best deals. It's a free insurance checkup three
ZHO three nine nine six nine thousand, Go with a

(01:26:56):
sure thing Denver's Best Roofer, Excel Roofing, dot com cent
until you're content. Time for an insurance check up free,
no obligation in comparison, call Compass insurance paying too much
your coverage at dozens of insurance companies find out now
three all three seven seven to one help. You'll think

(01:27:16):
you're his only customer when you choose Frank durand the
real estate man dot com to list your home with
Remax Alliance three all three nine two zero sixteen twenty two,
Major Mark, Major.

Speaker 14 (01:27:29):
Tom Martino, we're talking to Matt Stanford Paragon Services, but
we'll talk to you about anything on your mind, as
far as not just insurance but homeowner's insurance man.

Speaker 1 (01:27:41):
You know what's really amazing. It's something we pay out
the nose for and then if we use it too much,
even if we inquire about it too much, even if
we inquire about claims and they never even open up
a claim, they can cancel us for too many inquiries. Yep.
They can't cancel you for any reason at any time.

Speaker 5 (01:28:03):
People don't realize that an insurance company can drop you
for any reason.

Speaker 1 (01:28:06):
Yeah, it's terrible, it really is. Okay, So when we're
talking about insurance claims, the reason you get a public
adjuster is frankly, because the insurance company becomes your adversary. Now,
contractually they should not be your adversary. Contractually they are

(01:28:29):
supposed to take care of you. That's why the state
of Colorado, among other states, have had a lot of litigation,
a lot of bad faith lawsuits because the insurance company
who is supposed to protect you, denies you coverage or
delays your coverage. And we have a case right here

(01:28:50):
in our midst where Dimitri had just It was a
plumbing leak from upstairs. He was a victim in it.
Nobody is accusing him of anything. He came home and
his place is flooded because of the guy upstairs. Now
you have two insurance company, the guy upstairs, and then
you have Dmitri's own insurance. Dmitri goes to his own

(01:29:11):
insurance company, as he should. He doesn't have a contractual
arrangement with the guy upstairs. That's for that guy upstairs
to do. But the guy upstairs won't do it. And
the people upstairs say, deal with your own insurance company.
They'll come after us if they want so. Now Dmitri
goes to his own insurance company, which he's had for
years and years and years, paying a premium, and they

(01:29:33):
say no, too much. They don't say complete no, they
say it's too much. Now did they offer you a
check already, Dmitrior?

Speaker 9 (01:29:41):
Are they?

Speaker 1 (01:29:42):
And would your rights be diminished if he took that check?
Do they make you sign a full release? So to
answer both of those questions.

Speaker 7 (01:29:49):
One is, yeah, they automatically mailed me a check for
about ten thousand bucks right at the beginning of the process,
and they did not make me sign a release. And
before I deposited that check, I checked with mad and
he confirmed that I'm not giving up any rights by
depositing that check.

Speaker 1 (01:30:04):
Why do you think they did that, man.

Speaker 5 (01:30:06):
Well, that's basically just their in their opinion, the first
actual cash value payment. Okay, so just like, hey, this
is what we feel needs to be done. Here's the
cost that we feel is appropriate. Here's you for let
us know when you're done. And you know, obviously we
took one look at their estimates. That's that's not going
to cut it. So now now we're in a dispute.

Speaker 1 (01:30:28):
Is the main dispute the hardwood floors in the underlayment?
Is that the main one? Yeah, that's the bulk by
dollar amount, that's the bulk of it.

Speaker 3 (01:30:35):
Right.

Speaker 1 (01:30:35):
That opens up a whole other can of worms.

Speaker 5 (01:30:37):
When you're talking about your kitchen, cabinets and your contents, right,
all the stuff needs to be removed to redo the
floor and put back.

Speaker 1 (01:30:44):
There's a big cost with that.

Speaker 7 (01:30:46):
So the entire kitchen, you know, the cabinets, the countertop
of the appliance is all that has to be torn
out because the wooden floors run wall to wall, so
they're under my kitchen cabinets too, so everything. So that's
I mean, that's why it's such an exp's a component
of the claim because of all the stuff that it precipitates.

Speaker 5 (01:31:04):
And now you see why they want to patch that
floor instead to do the whole thing, because it's a
huge cost difference.

Speaker 1 (01:31:10):
So that's the dispute. Did they say to you there's
no way, or did they tell you to do something
or other or did they just basically stop communicating.

Speaker 7 (01:31:20):
Oh no, they didn't stop communicating. They just keep sending
me denial letters each time. Matt and I tried this
a couple of times. We to get the adjuster to
kind of change his mind. We provided documentation both in
form of the ordinance.

Speaker 1 (01:31:34):
Is it is the denial the same every time? Yes?

Speaker 7 (01:31:38):
Yes, it's a very simple one page letter that doesn't
even take up a third of the page.

Speaker 14 (01:31:43):
You know.

Speaker 5 (01:31:44):
The unfortunate thing about this whole thing is this particular
adjuster is just a son of a gun, right, He's
just he's got an axe to grind.

Speaker 1 (01:31:51):
He loves his position of authority.

Speaker 5 (01:31:53):
And if we would have had somebody completely different than him,
this might have gone our way. And that's the X
factor here. You know, you just never know who you're
dealing with or who you're going to get as an adjuster.
And I've worked with this particular adjuster before and it
was a fight back then too.

Speaker 1 (01:32:10):
I think the areas that we're talking about in property
and casualty are important. We also need this service and automobiles,
of course Matt doesn't do that, but you're going to
get screwed with automobile coverage too. They're going to try
to pay as little as possible on your car. And
cars are never replacement value. Cars are always actual cash value,

(01:32:32):
so you're never going to get replacement. In fact, homeowners
right now, I think is one of the last bastions
of complete replacement. You don't get replacement on any other
kind of insurance anymore.

Speaker 5 (01:32:44):
Well, you do on personal property, but that's that was
part of the homeowners well in coverage, right that's all
part of the under the homeowner's policy though.

Speaker 1 (01:32:53):
That's where you can you can really narrow it down
to people want replacement, and I think in the near
future that that's going to be a thing of the past.
I think homeowner's insurance is going to be like any
other insurance. They're going to pay you for what you're lost,
not for what it takes to replace it. That's what

(01:33:14):
they're going to do, because otherwise they're going to be
out of business. These companies are are want to be out.
They don't want to be in the state of Colorado.
I'm surprised that how many carriers have pulled out of Colorado.
Oh there's been Oh gosh, I can't remember.

Speaker 5 (01:33:30):
There was one when I first set up shop here
twelve ten, twelve years ago, that the jump ship because
of all the hailstorms. I remember the adjuster.

Speaker 1 (01:33:39):
Telling me, yeah, we're bailing.

Speaker 5 (01:33:41):
We want to be over in Delaware where nothing happens,
you know, right all they want their business models, collect
premiums and hopefully not put anything out.

Speaker 1 (01:33:50):
That's exactly right. Three oh three seven one three talk
seven to one three eight two five five waterpros dot
net water Pros for the best water systems at the
best prices bar none. You can get drinking water at
the kitchen sink. Listen to this reverse osmosis at the
kitchen sink for eleven hundred dollars fully installed all the

(01:34:14):
drinking water you want. Never buy bottled water again. Waterpros
dot net. Go with a sure thing Denvers best Roofer,
Excel Roofing dot com. You don't pay a cent until
you're content. Time for an insurance checkup free, no obligation

(01:34:36):
comparison call Compass Insurance. Pay too much your coverage at
dozens of insurance companies find out now three O three
seven to seven to one. Help. You'll think you're his
only customer when you choose Frank durand the real estate
Man dot com to list your home with Remax Alliance
three oh three nine two zero sixteen twenty two. Hello,

(01:35:00):
you know here with Major Mark Major, we have Paragon
services from Compass Insurance Group. We're talking about other things
as well, and we have people texting us about some
property damage. But Matt, when when was the last big
storm we had here? There's not a lot going on.
It has been a relatively slow season, hasn't.

Speaker 5 (01:35:18):
Yeah, we haven't had a major hailstorm in quite actually,
probably two or three years. I mean there are some
I mean every year we get at least a few
here and there, but nothing significant that we've had.

Speaker 1 (01:35:32):
I mean, I think it was twenty.

Speaker 5 (01:35:34):
Seventeen there was a hailstorm down in the springs near
Cheyenne Mountain that had grapefruit size.

Speaker 1 (01:35:43):
Yeah, you know, so we haven't had anything like that.
And you're saying you have to file within a year, right,
or you lose your rights? Right now, if somebody filed
then did not know about a public adjuster, so they
file and take a check, can they reopen a claim?

Speaker 5 (01:35:56):
Sure, yeah you have. I think so you have a
year to file the claim from the storm day, right,
and then if you want to dispute it, you have
two years after that.

Speaker 1 (01:36:06):
So after they let's say I didn't even know a
public adjuster existed, and now I do, Can I go
back and re examine that claim that I just closed
last year? Yeah?

Speaker 5 (01:36:17):
And the only thing that would prevent that is if
you signed anything like a reservation of rights from the
insurance company.

Speaker 1 (01:36:24):
They ever do that? Do they make you signy? They
try to. I always tell people, don't sign. You're not
obligated to sign anything.

Speaker 5 (01:36:30):
No, you're not not to get what you have coming, right,
But if you do sign that, that's basically you accept
their determination and you're done.

Speaker 1 (01:36:38):
Okay. So I would think that most of them do
sign it. I mean, why would an insurance company ever
not make you sign it? I mean why would they
want to leave that open because all they have to
do is hear you advertising and say, wait a minute,
I'm going to reopen this.

Speaker 5 (01:36:55):
Claim, right, Yeah, I would think that they would look
at it as a financial liability to not have the
claim completely officially closed up.

Speaker 1 (01:37:02):
Have you ever seen anybody who wanted to have opened
to claim that had already been settled?

Speaker 10 (01:37:07):
Oh?

Speaker 1 (01:37:07):
Yeah, all the time. Okay, So what is a typical
scenario like that? They they found out about you and
they didn't know about you before.

Speaker 5 (01:37:15):
Yeah, and then I just send my letter of rep
over to the insurance. Come even though this person's been
paid out, right yeah?

Speaker 1 (01:37:21):
And what do they do? They re look at it.

Speaker 5 (01:37:23):
Yeah, I say, I'd like to see this reassigned to
another adjuster to have a fresh look at it. And
I think that you guys missed a lot on this claim,
and I'd like a reinspection so I can meet you
on site and go over the damages that we feel
were overlooked. And in most cases they're willing to at least.

Speaker 1 (01:37:40):
Come out and meet me.

Speaker 5 (01:37:42):
Now, whether or not they agreed to everything that I've
put forward, now that's another story. But yeah, it's very
easy to reopen a claim that's been closed.

Speaker 1 (01:37:50):
Okay, So do they ever do they ever dispute having
a public adjuster involved at all? Or are they smarter
than that?

Speaker 9 (01:37:58):
Now?

Speaker 1 (01:37:58):
I mean, do they say, well, you know, you're not
an attorney, you're not representing them, or are they do
Most insurance companies know they.

Speaker 5 (01:38:07):
Have to deal with They they're pretty good about acknowledging
my involvement.

Speaker 1 (01:38:11):
Okay. I never really see them say well, we're just
not going to talk to you. Are there companies that
are harder to deal with than others?

Speaker 5 (01:38:17):
Somebody asks like, I'm yeah, really, I you know, apologies
to Dimitri, but American family is probably the worst, one
of the worst. Yeah, any of the any of the
big boys, like any state farm, all state nationwide. You
said farmers, farmers, any of the ones that you see
regularly on TV and on the commercials.

Speaker 1 (01:38:37):
They're not good.

Speaker 5 (01:38:39):
You know, I know they're not They're not necessarily so
I would say all states probably one of the worst
state farms.

Speaker 1 (01:38:46):
Okay, depending on who you get.

Speaker 5 (01:38:48):
But some of the more boutique insurance companies like the
Hartford Auto Owners, Amiica Acuity, they're great, they're really great
to work with, but you don't see advertising on TV.
And there's a reason for that. I think, you know
the big boys like All State and State Farm. Yes,
there's the States, State Farm and Farmers. Well, they're denying

(01:39:10):
coverage so they can afford commercials, right, you know, right.

Speaker 1 (01:39:14):
And so those companies, uh, people, you know, that's why
you should do an insurance check up because you don't
want to be with a company like that if they're
going to deny claims or delay claims. And American Family
is another one. So if I always pick the top
five bad companies in my opinion, to deal with, State Farm,
All State Farmers, American Family and Fred Loyer, those are

(01:39:40):
the worst, You're the worst. That's the top five of
bad companies to deal with. So people, if you have
a question, problem or complain, whether it's insurance or not,
give us a call at three ZHO three seven one
three talks seven one three eight two five five You
can call on any problem you're having. And then we

(01:40:01):
also have car Day coming up tomorrow. But if you
have a car problem, we can sneak it in. I
want to tell you about Vestera Turnkey. Mark's been telling
you about them. They are your nanny. They hold your
hand through the entire process of being a landlord in
another market. You're never alone to do it. They'll take
care of you. Find out about the program at my

(01:40:22):
biggest return dot com. Go with a sure thing Denver's
Best roofer Excel Roofing dot com. You don't pay a
cent until you're content. Time for an insurance check up free,
no obligation. In comparison, call Compass Insurance paying too much

(01:40:43):
your coverage at dozens of insurance companies find out now
three O three seven seven to one help. You'll think
you're his only customer when you choose Frank durand the
real estate Man dot com to list your home with
Remax Alliance three oh three nine two zero sixteen twenty two.
Hi Tom Martina here, Major Mark Major. We are with

(01:41:06):
Paradigm or Paragon Services. I'm sorry, let's go to the
phones and talk to Steve. Ask a question, Go ahead, Steve,
Welcome to the show. What's happening?

Speaker 13 (01:41:16):
Hi, jentlemen, thanks for taking my call.

Speaker 4 (01:41:18):
Yes, sir, get up get pop up ads on email
for a company called Lemonade, like the drink insurance company.
I've never heard of them, if you have any history
on them or what they're all about.

Speaker 1 (01:41:31):
It's a broker Lemonade does. The only Lemonade I know
is the Lemonade that does pet insurance. Okay, that's the Now.
They do have renters insurance, I should say no. Actually,
as I'm looking here, I did not realize this. I
knew them for pet insurance, and I knew them for

(01:41:51):
renters insurance, but I did not know that they do
regular insurances as well. But they have pretty good ratings.
They're they're you know, don't I've never let's put it
this way, They're not that that. They're not many of
them around. We don't get a lot of complaints, but
that's because they have a very small share of the market.

Speaker 8 (01:42:15):
It's basically AI agents. I would never suggest them. And
the only reason I say that is if you do
have a claim, whoever they put you with, good luck
getting any help. It's a digital It's it's literally a
digital insurance company, right it is.

Speaker 1 (01:42:35):
It's all fake in the way they in the way
they keep costs down.

Speaker 8 (01:42:39):
And I'm not saying they're good or bad with claims.
I don't know, but the way they keep cost down.
They really don't have any people.

Speaker 1 (01:42:46):
Yeah, but they yeah, they They have just started doing
homeowners insurance, but as far as the ratings go, they're
really mixed. On homeowners they deny coverage upfront. They'll deny coverage,
which means you may not be able to get it.
They're very selective and they only want to ensure newer homes.

(01:43:09):
I guess the insurance company can make that decision, so
if you have a newer home, they will ensure it.
They don't like homes older than twenty years old, and
they don't like old roofs. They make you replace them
if they're approaching thirty years. They do car insurance, but
the ratings on car insurances it uses a pay per

(01:43:31):
mile model that can save you if you don't drive
a lot. They literally monitor your mileage and charge you accordingly.
So some people like that if they don't drive a lot.
As far as far as pet insurance, that's where they started.
They thrive on pet insurance very highly rated. They're also

(01:43:52):
highly rated as one of the best renters insurance policies.
So if you wanted to get yet it, I would
say I'd stay away from the car, the car, and
I'd stay away from homeowners. But the pet insurance or
renter's insurance seems to be get pretty good reviews.

Speaker 10 (01:44:12):
Oh well and that listen, that's very helpful. Thank you, Joemn.
I appreciate your Yeah.

Speaker 1 (01:44:17):
And if I were you, I'd call Compass. They can
run you through twenty five companies, says who's good for you?
And again there's no obligation there. So if you call Compass,
if they can't beat it, if they can't get you
a good deal, to the first ones to tell you, Rome,
what's going on with you? Rome, what's your issue with
a landlord?

Speaker 10 (01:44:34):
Well, well, my issue is we have black molds it's
called shittonium in our house. Three years ago, we told
her we had a water leak. She said, oh, it's
taxias and I'll fix it. Later brought it back to
her several times. She never fixed it, got professional mold
testing done. They found several different types of mold. But
the I'm critically ill and I have chroned and altered

(01:44:55):
of quitted, and all of a sudden I started getting
sicker and sicker and having all these other issues, and
so we've reached out to her and she is completely
ignoring us. She didn't put us up in a hotel
like the law says. She told us to either move
back in the house or shut up and move out.
And that's what she told us.

Speaker 1 (01:45:14):
Okay, if you have and if you have a health issue,
if you have a health issue, true health issue with
the home itself, not with you, but they if there's
a poisonous or toxic material and it's airborne and you
can measure it and you can show it, then she
would have to address it. But so so I don't

(01:45:35):
want to rush you. I can take if you can
hold on. I want to find out what you have
done to verify the mold or if you have a
professional company. I want to know if you have the report.
So stick around. Go with a sure thing Denver's Best
roofer Excel roofing dot com. You don't pay a cent
until you're content. Time for an insurance check up. No obligation.

(01:46:00):
In comparison, call Compass insurance paying too much your coverage
at dozens of insurance companies find out now three all
three seven seven to one help. You'll think you're his
only customer when you choose Frank durand the real estate
man dot com to list your home with Remax Alliance
three all three nine two zero sixteen twenty two. Yeah,

(01:46:24):
ripped news.

Speaker 11 (01:46:27):
You need advice?

Speaker 1 (01:46:28):
Who you don't have?

Speaker 3 (01:46:31):
Come?

Speaker 1 (01:46:32):
Run insous as fast as you can. Shooter's gonna help.
Come man, this is the Troubleshooter Show. No Tom Martino, Hello,
I Tom Martino. What's happening here? What's going on in
your life? Major Mark Majors with us. We have met
with us from Mats Stanford from Paragon Services. He's a

(01:46:54):
public adjuster who is here to help you and he
helps you with insurance claimames. And this hour brought to
you by Apple Air for your HVAC for your heating
and cooling company. And they have been around a family
owned and operated with his two sons. I mean, I
know Todd and the family. They're great people. They have

(01:47:17):
the heritage and the background to do the job right.
They care for people and they do it great along
with great prices and the best warranties. Give them a call.
It's Apple three zero three seven three three twenty eight thirteen.
Appleair that's air with an Eappleair dot Com. Great to

(01:47:39):
have them aboard. They've been on our referral list for many,
many years. We're talking about one of the worst things
you can talk about, and that's mold. And I'll tell
you why people just don't Mold is a real deal.
If you have mold contamination, it's a real deal. Now
it has different kinds of effects on different people. There's

(01:48:02):
some mold that's just bad for everyone. There's other mold
it's really just bad for people with sensitivities. But the
bottom line is this that the health Department and the
City of Denver, or even the city of Aurora, these
places recognize mold as one of the things that must
be dealt with to have a habitable place to live.

(01:48:26):
But the burden of proof is solely on the tenant.
The landlord doesn't have to do anything to help with
your case. So if you feel you have a mold contamination,
you have to prove it. You have to prove it
with science, not with I don't feel good, not with

(01:48:46):
my doctor says I'm sick. It has to be tied
to the unit, to the air, not to seeing it,
but it has to be airborne, okay, and it has
to be above us certain level. If you have that
information and the landlord is refusing to help you, you

(01:49:07):
can do a number of things. You can do a
constructive eviction where you can break your lease and get
out of there. You can sue the landlord for damages.
There's a number of things you can do. So my
first question to Rome is this, when did you first
become aware that you were not feeling good? Was it

(01:49:29):
after you saw the mold or was it when you
moved in? When were you when did you first get symptoms?
Are you there? Room ahead?

Speaker 10 (01:49:42):
Yes, sir, I'm here. Can you hear me?

Speaker 1 (01:49:44):
Yes? I can.

Speaker 10 (01:49:45):
It was about it was probably about two and a
half months after we had the rain leakage into the house, okay.

Speaker 1 (01:49:54):
And so how long ago was that in time? Like?
Is that this year? Last year?

Speaker 9 (01:49:58):
A when.

Speaker 10 (01:50:00):
A half years ago?

Speaker 1 (01:50:02):
Okay? So two and a half years ago you noticed
water running and you had what did you do? Then?
Tell me, because it's two and a half years take
me through the process. What did you do?

Speaker 9 (01:50:12):
Then?

Speaker 10 (01:50:14):
We we recorded the water coming in through the house, and
then we informed the landlord center the video so she
would know about it.

Speaker 6 (01:50:21):
We also rans for like three or four days to.

Speaker 10 (01:50:23):
Try and do and we also ran fans for the
okay to try and drive it out.

Speaker 1 (01:50:28):
Okay, where was the water coming from?

Speaker 10 (01:50:32):
Uh, the attic san Oh hallway. Yeah, it started in
the attic span and then it ran across the whole
hallway ceiling and was okaying all over the floor.

Speaker 1 (01:50:43):
Got it and then and then did they ever fix
the leaks? No, they've never fixed it. You still get
water every time it rains.

Speaker 10 (01:50:55):
It was it was one of it. We had like
this horrible storm where it went sideways. It was an
extreme storm here.

Speaker 1 (01:51:02):
But it's so it's no longer it's no longer leaking.
It just left the mold behind, yes, sir, Okay, Now,
how long after this event did you notice the mold? If?

Speaker 10 (01:51:18):
My wife had noticed it? Pretty much about three months
after the event, okay. And I was like and I
and me, I didn't know that mold was like, I
was like, I'm from Florida, And I was like, you're crazy,
blah blah blah. And she kept staying on me and
then I kept getting sicker.

Speaker 1 (01:51:34):
Yeah, Rome, and Rome, did you have you said you
had professional testing done? What did they.

Speaker 9 (01:51:42):
Test they tested the air.

Speaker 1 (01:51:47):
Okay, And what did they find.

Speaker 10 (01:51:51):
They found the shtonium, which is a zero tolerance mold
of one tolerance through the whole living area, and then
a twenty four twenty four, twenty four raw count in
the bathroom, in a one raw count in the okay.

Speaker 1 (01:52:07):
So what did they say. What did they say that
the air testing revealed to you? Did they say it
was dangerous? Did they say it was uninhabitable?

Speaker 10 (01:52:16):
Yes, sir?

Speaker 1 (01:52:18):
And when did you have that done?

Speaker 10 (01:52:22):
The twenty eighth of April this year, Yes, sir.

Speaker 1 (01:52:28):
Why did you wait two and a half years to
have it done?

Speaker 9 (01:52:32):
Sir?

Speaker 10 (01:52:32):
I'm chronically ill and like a lot of times I
don't notice. And like I said, my wife kept saying stuff,
and I just I'd never even thought it was a problem.
And I brought Landlord in and she kept telling me, oh,
da da, I mean when we ran the when we
had them run the test, she was like, oh, you know,
those people are scam artists, even even the professional wreck
environmental who's like number one ranked, and you know, they're

(01:52:57):
like one of the high end because they don't they
don't fit the mold. They just test for the mold.

Speaker 1 (01:53:01):
Yeah, yeah, what's the name of that company that tested it.

Speaker 10 (01:53:06):
It's REX Environmental Rex r EX.

Speaker 1 (01:53:11):
Yes, sir, yes, sir, okay, okay. And so if you
have a test right now, that's good. If you actually
have a test that says you have And did REX
tell you that the numbers, because the numbers don't mean
anything to me, right, Did you say numbers indicated that
you should not be living there?

Speaker 10 (01:53:32):
Yes, for multiple different molds. Yeah, for multiple different molds. Actually, sir,
all right, Well.

Speaker 1 (01:53:39):
We have molds all the time, and some of them
are toxic and some of them are not. And it's
almost you'll never get a place that's one percent mold free.
Probably most of the time. It just doesn't happen. But
as far as if there are if there are unsafe

(01:54:01):
levels of any mold in your air, and your landlord
refuses to deal with it, then you should you have
an obligation And I'm just going to tell you this
for an eventual lawsuit if you don't move out of
there after finding out that it's toxic and that it's
zero tolerance and that you're sick, if you don't move

(01:54:25):
out of there, you're going to give them a ticket
to diminish your losses. They're going to say that you
knew you were getting sicker and you stayed there anyway,
So have you made arrangements to leave?

Speaker 10 (01:54:39):
We're we already We left the same day We went
and lived in a tent for three weeks, two and
a half weeks, just to avoid having to go back.

Speaker 1 (01:54:48):
And now where are where are you now?

Speaker 9 (01:54:50):
Rome?

Speaker 1 (01:54:50):
Where are you now living? Well?

Speaker 10 (01:54:53):
I mean, gentlemen, if you're not living.

Speaker 1 (01:54:57):
In that of you, here's what I want to know
to to strengthen your claim. You have not lived there
since the discovery of the mold?

Speaker 10 (01:55:05):
Is that right, correct, sir?

Speaker 1 (01:55:09):
And have you still been paying rent? No?

Speaker 9 (01:55:13):
Sir?

Speaker 1 (01:55:14):
When did you move out? In April?

Speaker 10 (01:55:18):
As soon as the day we found out, we literally
set up a tent in the sideguard and started living
in the tent outside, all right?

Speaker 1 (01:55:29):
And did the landlord evict you?

Speaker 10 (01:55:32):
No?

Speaker 1 (01:55:33):
Not yet, okay, but you haven't. I'm just trying to
get a lay of the land here. You stopped paying rent?
You didn't pay for May's rent, coreg. Did you pay
April's rent.

Speaker 5 (01:55:49):
Part of it?

Speaker 10 (01:55:49):
Part of it?

Speaker 1 (01:55:51):
Okay? Did you pay March's rent?

Speaker 10 (01:55:55):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (01:55:57):
Okay? Stop paying full rent? In April and then stop
paying for me, okay, because you're not living there and
it's unsafe. What is the landlord telling you right now?
Are they telling you they will fix it? What is there?
What is their stand on this?

Speaker 10 (01:56:14):
They told us they're not going to do anything. They're
going to sell the house.

Speaker 1 (01:56:19):
Oh is it a single family house?

Speaker 10 (01:56:22):
He has an Englewood colorade of her.

Speaker 1 (01:56:25):
Okay, and they say they're not going to do anything.
They're going to sell the house. Do they think they
owe you anything for all of this?

Speaker 10 (01:56:35):
No, sir, she said we owe her twenty four n Yeah,
she said, we still owe her twenty four hundred dollars.

Speaker 1 (01:56:41):
You know, you really, you really need to get a
hold of an attorney because you could get an attorney
that could play, that could really if they if you
chose an attorney that would take this on contingency. This
woman thinks she has more rights than she does. Right now,
the scales are tipped heavily in the tenants favor, especially

(01:57:03):
if you have a real environmental company that did testing.
And that woman is wrong. She is responsible and and
she's got to fix it. And if she puts it
up for rents, she's going to have to tell people
about it. Does she know all of this?

Speaker 10 (01:57:20):
Well, she has the.

Speaker 6 (01:57:22):
City of Englewood Building Code Compliance.

Speaker 10 (01:57:24):
I called the City of Inglewood building Code Compliance and
informed them and sent them the copy of the mold report.
And they deed in the house unlivable.

Speaker 1 (01:57:34):
Oh did they Did they ban the house or did they?
Did they condemn the house?

Speaker 10 (01:57:40):
They condemned the house and said it was unlivable and
sent her uh uh in writing that is a letter stating.

Speaker 1 (01:57:49):
Such, Okay, you need to file a lawsuit against this woman.
You're not going to go back to the house. Is
your Did she offer it clean any of your stuff?

Speaker 10 (01:58:02):
Nope?

Speaker 1 (01:58:04):
No, sir? Oh my god. I mean, what does she
think she can just hide? She thinks she can just
hide her head under the sand and it's gonna go away.

Speaker 6 (01:58:17):
To Those laws don't apply to her. They only apply
to scumbag landlord's not her.

Speaker 10 (01:58:21):
She told us that those laws don't apply to her.
They apply to scumbag landlord's not her.

Speaker 1 (01:58:26):
Oh come on, this woman sounds arrogant as hell. Oh
my god. And so so she just simply is are
you dealing with a management company or just this woman?

Speaker 10 (01:58:40):
Just this woman?

Speaker 1 (01:58:42):
All right? We're gonna need to put someone on this
to call her and tell her with the realities of life.
You know, Rome, you can you can sue her for
a lot of money. You can stop her from selling
that house too, because you can put a claim on it. Yeah.
You how long have you lived there? Total?

Speaker 10 (01:59:05):
Eleven years?

Speaker 1 (01:59:07):
Oh my god, you've been there eleven years, yes, sir.
And and with the same landlady.

Speaker 10 (01:59:17):
Yes, sir. I've known her for thirty five years.

Speaker 1 (01:59:19):
Sir. Why is she being this way?

Speaker 3 (01:59:24):
Have no idea.

Speaker 8 (01:59:25):
I think most mold and this is a question for Brian,
but I'm not so sure her coverage will cover it.

Speaker 1 (01:59:34):
Well, we're pretty it probably.

Speaker 10 (01:59:37):
The front house is in structural, is down, and we're
pretty sure her insurance canceled on her a month or two.

Speaker 6 (01:59:43):
Yeah.

Speaker 8 (01:59:43):
All I'm saying is, even if they didn't cancel and
this happened over the years where she did have insurance,
I'm pretty sure most renters policy do not cover mold.
So I don't even know where you would recoup funds
unless you went directly after her and whatever whatever equity
he has in the rental or house or whatever.

Speaker 10 (02:00:05):
She owns the house outright, sir.

Speaker 1 (02:00:09):
Yeah, that's what you would sue for you to end
up owning the house and gets So he's going to.

Speaker 8 (02:00:15):
Have to hire he's going to have to hire an
attorney to go after. This is going to be very costly.

Speaker 10 (02:00:20):
Yeah, it is.

Speaker 8 (02:00:23):
No, it's easy to find an attorney, sir, It's very easy.
I promise you. For four under bucks an hour, I
can give you a list of ten of them.

Speaker 1 (02:00:32):
Yeah, you can find attorneys. You can't find an attorney
to take it right. You don't have the money to
fight her, is what you're saying.

Speaker 10 (02:00:42):
Yeah, because I haven't been able to work in seven years.

Speaker 1 (02:00:45):
Now, what what kind of health what kind of health
problems do you have?

Speaker 10 (02:00:52):
I have alternative clytith and Crohn's, which the doctors tell
me it's impossible to have both of them, but I do.
I also have and this is all.

Speaker 5 (02:01:00):
From the mold.

Speaker 1 (02:01:02):
Are the doctor saying it's from your environment?

Speaker 10 (02:01:06):
My doctor? Yes, my doctor is highly likely that it's
from the environment that I'm living in, because when I
got out of it, I started getting more energy. I
couldn't even get out of bed before you know.

Speaker 1 (02:01:18):
You know, listen, Rome, you might be able to find
a personal injury attorney that will take this on contingency.
Have you talked to personal injury attorneys? That's where you
want to talk, not to real s.

Speaker 8 (02:01:30):
I know he should call that well even give them
time a day.

Speaker 1 (02:01:33):
This is just personal thing. Would be a bend and elly. Yeah, okay, yeah,
we can get you that number, but you need to
take some action. If listen, if you have a diagnosis,
you have a doctor saying it was unsafe, you have
testing done. It's not like you're just crying in the wind.

(02:01:57):
You've had all of this done and now you're even
starting to feel better. This woman is going to be
faced with a big judgment. I mean, but you got
to get an attorney who will take it. You're not
going to be able to fund it on your own,
you know, I just for the heck of it, I
just had a conversation.

Speaker 8 (02:02:14):
With groc and I mean it's saying that mold definitely
cannot create say Crohn's disease. It can make it worse
if you have it, but it cannot cause it, period,
end of story.

Speaker 1 (02:02:28):
No, I don't think you're claiming it caused it. What
are you claiming was caused by the mold?

Speaker 10 (02:02:35):
Well, chronic dehydration, pasma. Okay, liver problems and gall bladder
is hair is falling out. My wife's hair is falling out.
She's having skin issues.

Speaker 6 (02:02:48):
Can't get under wraps.

Speaker 1 (02:02:50):
But how long have you been out of it? Two
and a half years.

Speaker 10 (02:02:54):
No, No, we've been out of it since the.

Speaker 1 (02:02:58):
Well, that's right, that's right. You said it was only
until April. You got it. Oh, hold on, I got
to take this break. We're way overtime. Hold on, I'm
Tom Martino. More coming up. Go with a sure thing
Denver's best roofer Excel Roofing dot com. You don't pay
a cent until you're content. Wait time for an insurance

(02:03:21):
checkup free, no obligation. In comparison, call Compass Insurance paying
too much your coverage at dozens of insurance companies find
out now three oh three seven seven to one help.
You'll think you're his only customer when you choose Frank
durand the real estate Man dot com to list your
home with Remax Alliance three oh three nine two zero
sixteen twenty two. Your micro's at okay, Hi, Tom Martino here,

(02:03:59):
we're with Parragon Services dot com seven one nine seven
two six zero zero two zero when he's not here,
and let's talk to Rome and wrap this up here. Rome,
you this is if truly what you're If what you're
saying is true, you do have a case. You just

(02:04:19):
need to find someone who's gonna take it. And I
think you can go to a personal injury attorney who
may work on contingency, because what you're going to end
up with is a judgment against this woman and probably
be able to take the house. I mean, I don't
see how she escapes responsibility.

Speaker 8 (02:04:37):
Here is she make going to come? It's all going
to come down to assets though. I mean, this is
pretty much. If she doesn't have a lot of assets,
I don't know an attorney that's going to touch it.

Speaker 1 (02:04:47):
That's just the bottom line, think of it. What about
the house mark? He says, he says she owns the
house outright?

Speaker 8 (02:04:53):
Well, I mean that's what he's saying. I mean, I
don't know.

Speaker 1 (02:04:56):
If she does because of the mold. How's that going
to help. What's that which condemned because the old house
that going to help? Well here's why. Okay, First of all, Rome,
there is no there is no department of justice that
gives you money. So the only place to get damages.
The only place is against this woman. And if she

(02:05:17):
doesn't have anything, then you've learned a valuable lesson, and
that is you can't always collect what you have coming. Okay,
you can't. But here's what I think. If she owns
that house outright and it's free and clear, and if
you want a lawsuit against her and she couldn't pay it,
then you could foreclose on that house down the road

(02:05:40):
and that and you say it's condemned, it's condemned because
it has to be cleaned. That's not going to take
that much. If somebody handed me a free house, I
wouldn't care if it was condemned. I would have it
fixed up because no matter what is not going to
rise to the value of the home. What would that
home self want or if it was in good condition,

(02:06:01):
what would that house sell for?

Speaker 10 (02:06:04):
Well, it zoned R two in Inglewood, So she says
she could sell it in a week and a half
for like seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

Speaker 1 (02:06:11):
Okay, So let's just say you got a judgment against there. Okay,
it wouldn't matter. You're not getting the home to get
the home. You're getting the home to sell the home.
This home still has value. It wouldn't matter if it
was if it was completely inundated with mold. People will
buy a house like that to fix it up. But

(02:06:32):
we're putting the car before the horse. What you have
to do is one thing at a time. You need
to speak to a personal injury attorney, and you need
to tie your injuries to her lack of concern and
to her negligence. Okay, she has a big she has
a big responsibility to you. Now, I'm taking you at
your word that you have doctors who will say that

(02:06:55):
the environment you were living in most likely caused your
problems or made them worse. And if that's the case,
and if it still tests high, she has done nothing
to fix it. I don't see how she wins this lawsuit.
And it sounds like she's so arrogant she may not
even show up. I mean, she says those laws are

(02:07:18):
for everyone else. Is she Amelda Marcos or what what
is she talking about? The laws are for other people?
What does that mean?

Speaker 9 (02:07:28):
Sir?

Speaker 10 (02:07:28):
You'd have to ask her. I don't under I'd never
I didn't understand it when she said it, like it
just didn't make sense to me.

Speaker 1 (02:07:35):
She may not be intentionally a slumlord, but she's certainly
acting like one. You've rented it for eleven years, you've
been out of there now for a few months. You
got to take action. Do you know is it listed
yet for sale?

Speaker 10 (02:07:52):
I do not know for sure, sir See.

Speaker 1 (02:07:55):
An attorney who's worth their weight would take this case
and a lean on the case, which means they would
probably help you foreclose on that house if you won.
But an attorney will only take it if they think
they'll win, because they're going to work on a contingent.

Speaker 8 (02:08:14):
Give Axe, get give Axe the address. I want to
do just a quick little research on.

Speaker 1 (02:08:19):
The house and Rome, Rome. Have you talked to any
personal injury attorneys yet?

Speaker 10 (02:08:30):
We've started calling. We have h one. We did an
intake with one so far who and they're okay ross the.

Speaker 1 (02:08:42):
Okay. I don't know them. So what you want to
do is talk to Marco ben Denelli's. He's on a
referral list. Let me get you that number. It's it's
really uh. You need someone who knows what they're doing
and someone who will fight for you. I for some reason,
it's not coming up on here on the is He's

(02:09:03):
still on the referral list. I'm looking for him. I
put it on. Oh yeah, we have it here. Oh
you put it up there for us, Thank you very much.
Here's his number. It's one eight hundred attorney. That's a
great number, one eight hundred attorney. And and if you

(02:09:25):
need the number, it's one eight hundred attorney, which is
two eight eight sixty seven sixty three. And then what
you can do is talk to him and tell him
that you have all the tests done, you've been out
of there, You've done everything right. It's not like you're
sitting there with holding rent and living there. You put

(02:09:47):
your money where your mouth is. You said, I'm not
going to make myself sicker. I'm getting out of here.
So there's a lot of credibility to what you're saying.
And it's this company that you hire does not do remediation.
They have no reason to exaggerate on the claims. They
have no reason to. And I don't know much about

(02:10:11):
the mold they found, but you're telling me it's a
really really bad mold, right, Yes, it's.

Speaker 10 (02:10:17):
A rare, rare mold that is super deadly.

Speaker 1 (02:10:22):
Summer deadly. It's like deadly, like how like the like
the hand the virus kind of thing. What's serious? What's
it called again? I'd like to look it up.

Speaker 6 (02:10:32):
When I researched the mold, and it's called shotonium C
H A E P O M.

Speaker 9 (02:10:39):
I U M.

Speaker 6 (02:10:41):
What I found was that any organizations consider that a
zero tolerance mold, so any amount in the air, in
any concentration is considered harmful. And in our main living
space we did it had only a one count in
the air, but in our bathroom he had a twenty

(02:11:02):
four rock out.

Speaker 1 (02:11:04):
Wow. Yeah, So listen, a lot of times people would mold.
They don't have the proof, they don't have the testing,
they don't have the illnesses. You have all of that,
so make no mistake. I think Marco would meet with you,
tell him you were on the show, and we thought
he should listen to this. He will, He'll listen to you.

(02:11:28):
One eight hundred attorney all right, And anyway, we have
more coming up on the Troubleshooter Show. I got to
take this break three oh three seven to one three
A two five five go with a sure thing. Denver's
Best roofer Excel roofing dot com. You don't pay a
cent until you're content. Time for an insurance checkup free,

(02:11:52):
no obligation. In comparison, call Compass Insurance paying too much
your coverage at dozens of insurance companies find out now
three oh three seven one help. You'll think you're his
only customer when you choose Frank durand the real estate
Man dot com to list your home with Remax Alliance
three oh three nine two zero sixteen twenty two. Hey,

(02:12:13):
I'm Tom Martino. Appleair Heating and Cooling. They offer a
satisfaction guaranteed warranty. That's satisfaction guaranteed with free estimates, twenty
four to seven emergency service, and they do boilers as well.
They do heat pumps and air conditioning. They use Dacon

(02:12:36):
equipment with twelve year parts of warranty labor. That's three
oh three seven three three twenty eight thirteen since nineteen
eighty eight. That's Todd Terry and his two sons run
the place. And we can throw in his wife as well.
It's a whole family affair. Appleair that's air with an
Eappleair dot Com. What about you? What do you got

(02:12:58):
going on? We have I have an insurance adjuster here
that I hope you're listening to because we've been talking
about a lot of nightmares that can happen with an
insurance claim and how to get around it. Now, Mark,
what did you find out about that rental the guy has,
well a lady.

Speaker 8 (02:13:17):
A lady does not own it. It's a guy. And
we're trying to get back with that caller. But hey,
so when you call back the number, what happens, ax Man?

Speaker 13 (02:13:27):
Well, earlier I had to reset my phone, so I
can't see the numbers that called me.

Speaker 8 (02:13:33):
Oh, I got youa So anyhow, if they're still listening callback,
we'd like to know the name of the landlord. But
I looked it up. The house is worth about four
hundred ninety one thousand. It's not for sale right now,
and I know who the owner is. But it's not
a woman, that's for sure. So I don't know what
that's all about.

Speaker 1 (02:13:53):
Maybe the owner doesn't know about what's going on, but
they're going to face some strict liability if they have
some real bad, some really bad mold. I'm serious. You
know the laws have changed a lot. It used to
be if you were a tenant, nobody listened to you.
Of course, you do have to have enough to get
an attorney sometimes, though there's free legal help available through

(02:14:14):
Legal Aid and stuff. You'd be amazed at how many
people get free legal help through the Bar Association or
Legal Aid and different outlets like that. Deputy D the
other day, I said, you know, I wanted to close
my credit card because it had so much fraud on it,
this one particular card, And I said I wanted to

(02:14:36):
close it, but I said it might ruin. Not ruin,
but it might give me a ding on my credit
because they go by how much credit you have and
how much credit you utilize. And I thought that if
I close it, it's going to mean less credit I
have available and more credit every month that I utilized

(02:14:58):
by not having that line of credit it there. And
you said, not necessarily. Why did you say not necessarily? Tom?

Speaker 7 (02:15:05):
Our conversation was slightly different in that it was a
more narrow answer when somebody asked, Hey, we'll closing a
credit card account reduce my credit score. And I've been
researching this for the past couple of months because I've
heard both you and Mark say that before. And what
I found is actually what you just touched on closing
a credit card account by itself won't result in a

(02:15:29):
negative impact on your credit score, but the reduction and available.

Speaker 1 (02:15:32):
Credit could may. And so what they're looking for with
these outs same thing. I mean, there's not necessarily.

Speaker 7 (02:15:39):
Not necessarily two months ago, I closed a credit card
account that I wasn't using, and at the same time,
within a couple of days, I opened a new one
with a much larger credit line.

Speaker 8 (02:15:51):
Then the inquiry within itself would give you a little hit.

Speaker 7 (02:15:55):
Yeah, the inquiry would. But what we were talking about
is why does closing a credit card account impact your
credit score? And so closing it and if it results
in a net decrease to your available credit lines, that
will have a negative impact.

Speaker 8 (02:16:10):
So I guess let me throw something in there too.
If you have one of the things that goes with
credit in general credit score is time you've had credit.
If you happen to close the oldest credit cards you had,
even if it was only a two hundred dollars limit
you got when you were eighteen, you close that, that

(02:16:30):
can dramatically affect your credit score by up to fifty
points because that's your oldest utilized credit card.

Speaker 1 (02:16:38):
Mark.

Speaker 7 (02:16:39):
You're on the right track, but you're not quite there.
The account that you close will remain on your credit
report for another seven to ten years. So it is
that itself, closing an old account just because it's been
there for twenty years, will not hurt your credit score
apps because the account remains.

Speaker 8 (02:16:57):
Okay, first of all, number four, number four, which means
you're wrong four different ways. I want you to research
that over this break and come back after the break
and apologize.

Speaker 1 (02:17:11):
So the difference here is you're saying that he's saying
the mere fact of it being closed will affect your score.

Speaker 7 (02:17:18):
That's what Mark says, and I'm saying no, based on
the research.

Speaker 8 (02:17:21):
I've done, absolutely affect your score.

Speaker 1 (02:17:25):
Okay, well, we'll have to figure it out. I'm Tom
Martine with more coming right up.