February 16, 2025 • 30 mins
On today's episode Dean is joined by Arya Shakibkoo Esq. and Adir Babaeygy from Damaged Law to discuss their guidance to those who lost their homes or suffered from the fire/smoke damage to their homes. Dean dives into fire topics with the lawyers as they discuss the first steps needed and other methods. Also, Dean goes over the process of filing for a claim on a property loss.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp the
House Whisper on demand on the iHeartRadio app. I am
Dean Sharp the House Whisper. I design custom homes, build
a few custom homes, and on the weekends here I
am your guide to better understanding that place where you live.
(00:22):
Today on the show, I am very, very excited about
today's show. You can hear it in my trashed voice.
Let me first apologize. I mean, it's not my fault,
but I lost my voice yesterday and so it's coming back. Yeah,
I'm a little froggy. Hey Bud, I'm a little froggy today,
so please just put up with me. I will try
(00:43):
and be as smooth and comforting as I can be
like I normally am. Today on the show, we are
going to be talking about something so relevant, so important,
and with a subject with so many questions attached to it.
We're going to be talking about insurance claims after disasters,
not just and of course the fires. This is the
(01:06):
topic that has put it to the forefront of everybody's mind,
but everything from that too. Well, you know what happens
when the pipe breaks under the sink, and then there's
damage and call my adjuster out. And where do we
go from there? What's the nature of our relationship with
insurance companies when we're just paying premiums versus when it's
(01:26):
time to make a claim, what happens and all of
that and everything in between. And I'm doing it with
a couple of guys who could not possibly be more
expert on this topic. I've got Aria Shack and a
Deer be here. They are the founding partners of Damage Law.
Yes they are attorneys. We will talk about their humanity
(01:49):
in just a moment. But Aria and the Deer are
here with me in studio and we're just going to
be going for guys. Good morning and welcome Dean.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
How are you.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
I'm well, you can hear I'm I'm I'm okay, I'm
all right. I'm gonna be fine. So great stuff on
the show today. And of course, as always your calls.
Here's the number. I'm gonna give it to you right now.
I just saw Richie run to the phone line, so
they are yep, they're open. The number to reach me
(02:22):
eight three three two. Ask Dean eight three three the
numeral two Ask Dean eight three three two. Ask Dean
it's just that easy. The phone lines are open now
and as always, we're talking about damage claims and insurance
companies today. But when it comes to your calls, you
can call me about anything at all about your home.
(02:44):
Whatever's got you scratching your head, whether it is design,
construction related, DIY, stuff inside outside, doesn't matter. Anything you
want to talk about your home eight three three two
ask Dean uh follow us on social media. We only
do the good kind, I promise, uplifting, informative, inspiring stuff.
(03:07):
We're on all the usual suspects Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, x
you know, home with Dean, same handle for them all.
And of course, if your home is in need of
some personal house whisper attention, then you can book an
in home design consult with me and the tea who
is not with me this morning. Sorry, I'm sorry, but
(03:29):
all do you have to do to do that is
go to house Whisperer dot design. All right, let me
introduce our awesome team, Elmer, as always is on the board.
Good morning, Elmer, Good morning Dean, Good morning everyone. How
are you doing in there? I'm happy? Yeah? Are you sure?
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (03:47):
All right?
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Believe me? All right, I'll trust you. Richie is not
near Mike, is he? Oh my gosh. Every week, every
week I have to say, Richie is nowhere near a microphone,
and then there you are, right in front of the mic.
All right, good to have you nearby. And in my earbud,
(04:09):
Richie is standing by taking calls. We got a couple
on the board even now. And so that is the peaceful,
melodious voice you will hear when you call in. He'll
tell you everything you need to know, and then you
can listen to the show while you're in the queue.
And of course, my buddy, Eileen Gonzalez at the news desk,
Good morning Eileen, Good morning Dean. Good to see you today.
(04:32):
Good to be seen. My voice is not so sunshiny
today as usual. But you know what, you can't tell
I'm in good spirits. You can't tell he didn't say
anything I would not have known. Sitting across the table
from me. This is when I usually say my better
half and my design partner and my best friend in
the world. But Tina is handling some other stuff this morning,
(04:52):
so she'll be back as always, she'll be back. But
Michelle Kelly is in the studio with me today. She's
one of our account executives and she's just brightening things
up in here. So we've got a room full of
people and a room full of quality, quality advice coming
your way. We're going to do it all right after.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
I've got Aria Shack and a dear b and here
they are the founding partners of Damage Law right here
in southern California and Los Angeles. Guys, you're lawyers, and
so let's just start with proving that you're human beings.
And I want to hear. I want to hear how
(05:43):
you guys got together because it was obvious to me
the very first time we ever met that you guys
have a very special relationship and you have launched into
a very specialized field that well right now supposedly a
lot of law firms are really good at at the moment.
But this is something that you decided to do long
before Uh there was you know, fire opportunity money to
(06:08):
be made out there on this. So anyway, uh introduce yourselves,
tell me how this all started for you guys. Oh
we got it, Hey, Elmer, can we pop on, all right,
I think we're good. Yeah, Hang on a second, hang on, yeah,
(06:36):
all right, all right, I think we got it. Welcome
to live radio. We're good, Okay, go for it.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
So I was blessed to meet my partner actually in
law school. I was the first day of class, first
year of law school, and it was actually quite funny.
I thought there was an earthquake happening during the first
ten minutes fast and I looked to my left and
I see my partner's leg is shaking up and down.
(07:04):
And we weren't friends at that time. I looked over
and I saw that he was quite anxious.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Hang on a second, Ari, we're still having trouble with
your mic I think you guys can hear me, Yes,
we can. So he Aria is describing you, go for it.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
I'm going to fix his mic.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Aria is describing our first day in law school together.
I'm I'm an anxious person in general, and I tend
to shake my legs when I'm nervous in the first
day of school, any type of extravagant type of ordeal
that we're going to be going through. And as you know,
law school's very very tenuous time for individuals and Aria
(07:39):
and myself were working full time. We decided to do
law school at night. And I've never met him before.
This is the first day of school. My leg's shaking
up and down, and to my right is sitting Aria,
and he's looking at me like I'm some kind of
deranged crazy person.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
And he tells me.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Hey, it's gonna be okay, don't worry, sorry, and I
look at him and I go, you know, my fiance
is in law school, and she's telling me about all
these things about you're gonna get cold called and they're
gonna ask you a bunch of questions. You've got to
stay on top of the reading. We work full time.
We're working ten hour days and we have to come
at night, and he's like, hey, it's gonna be okay.
And you know what, it turned out to be okay,
(08:19):
it turned out better than okay. I created this bond
with Aria, and we stayed very close friends throughout the
entirety of law school. Aria is like my brother. We've
been through highs and lows together, and then after law school,
when we graduated past the bar, we decided to join
a teen up together and create damage law and really,
(08:43):
you know, hit these insurance companies hard and make sure
that insurance are getting the benefits that they're prescribed to
for their policies and make sure that they're acting approporately.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
This is not a it's not a massive field.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
No.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
As a specialty.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
No, this is a very Nietzsche industry. It's a very
niche aspect of law.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
And you know, you have to have the background of
knowing exactly how the whole construction process also occurs, because
at the end of the day, insurance carriers they look
at the insurance as if they're experts as well when
they're going through the claim process. So at the end
of the day, you always want to make sure that
you know what's going on with your home and what
(09:25):
the valuations if your home are, and these insurance carriers
they try to, you know, skip steps and at the
end of the day, we're just making sure that everyone
gets what they're entitled to exactly.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
And so what drove you in that direction, I mean
there was so much other law to do, you know.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
It really was Aria's idea when he came up to me,
I was going to go into transactional work on a
corporate level. I was the director of underwriting for a
high risk business to business lender for about eight years
prior to becoming an attorney. And I'm a very financially
oriented individual. I can read financial statements. I have that aspect.
(10:04):
I can underwrite businesses and make sure that they can
withstand alone. And Aria has about fifteen years of experience
in real estate and real estate transactions, and he's seen
how insurance carriers take advantage of their insurance through the
process unfortunately, and he came up to me with this
idea of how, you know, we could be advocates for
(10:26):
the insurance and make sure that they get the benefits
that they pay for on a monthly basis when a
loss is the state right. And when he came to me, I,
you know, I looked at it and I was like,
I've never heard of this before. You know, I've heard
of personal injury. I've heard of corporate law. I've heard
of transactional law, I've heard of litigation. Breach of contract
and essentially this is a breach of contract because your
(10:50):
policy is a contract. The policy binds you and the
insurer into an agreement where there are certain policies and
I mean benefits and restrictions in that policy, and once
that's breached, you file an action against the insurer and
make sure that they pay out accordingly.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
But the trick here is the trick is that there
is some definition out there of what is fixed and
what is whole yes, and what is restored yes. And
the insurance company versus you know, they're not in there.
They're not in the business to educate homeowners as to
(11:29):
all the layers of what fixed means and covering all
those bases.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
They don't have an incentive to right. You know, they
have a bottom line, and unfortunately the bottom line is
the shareholder. The insurance carriers only care about making sure
that you know, the shareholders are maximizing on whatever they're
getting paid on dividends and whatnot.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
It's a really difficult subject for me to wrestle with.
I think everybody wrestles with it because because you know,
I don't want to communicate today to anybody that that
you know, insurance companies are evil uh entities. Uh because
we all need them, we all use them. But it
(12:13):
is a bizarre relationship. It's the weirdest relationship. When you
think i've i've i've i've grabbed on to uh to
this company to assist me in my life. You know,
we've made a contractual relationship. You're my friend. You know,
you're the helping hand and uh and and so I'm
(12:35):
paying you to help protect my assets and and my life.
And that's all well and good. And then something happens
when it's time to pull that trigger. And the reality
is not to overstate it or overblow it, but the
reality is, I am now at best in a in
(12:58):
a original and antagonistic relationship because because suddenly suddenly, I mean, yeah,
we've got the contract to hold us in place, but
we we suddenly have very very different goals now. And
that's really tough. That's really tough on a homeowner. It's
(13:19):
a really tough position to be in, especially if you
don't know every layer of your home from beginning to end.
And what homeowner does well a few do, a few do.
But the point is this, there are so many aspects
of where this goes. And I wish it wasn't the case.
I wish we weren't in this situation. I wouldn't know
(13:40):
how to do it otherwise. But it's just the reality
for everybody who's listening that when it comes to making
a claim. Once the claim day comes, you have got
to be wise. I'll just put it that way. You've
got to be wise how you deal with your insurance company,
(14:01):
because their goal is to reduce the payout, to minimize
the payout, and your goal is to maximize the payout,
all right, so that you are made whole, truly hold
the right definition of whole. And that's I think where
we're going to go next is what does it take
when something happens? And I want to talk about the
(14:22):
fires and the unprecedented nature of that. So, guys, thanks
for being here. Thank you, everybody, hang tight. We're gonna
dive deep into this conversation.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
But first, you're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on
demand from KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
KFI. That's where I am at AM six forty live
streaming and HD everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. Dean Sharp
the house whisper with you on this lovely have you
seen it outside? Lovely, crisp, cool, relatively cloudless Sunday morning
here in southern California wherever you are across the nation listening,
(15:02):
I hope, well, you know, I know it's not going
to be as warm as it is here for a
lot of you. But I hope you're in a good spot, safe, warm,
dry good, got a warm beverage by your side, and
you got me in your ear. And we're talking insurance claims.
This is truly something that has nothing to do even
(15:23):
though my guests are founded a law firm to do
exactly this stuff right here in southern California. These truths,
like so many things that we talk about your house,
are universal across the nation. This is just the reality
of working with insurance companies, and that's where we're going
and of course also your calls as well in just
(15:45):
a bit, so hang tight with me through it all.
All right, I want to continue my conversation with my
special in studio guests from Damage Law, the founding partners
Aria and a Deer. Guys, let's just talk about the
fires for a second, Okay. I want to get more into,
you know, the the aspect of anybody making claims and
(16:07):
all of that. But the big question is like, oh
my gosh, what is going on with the fires. This
is an unpreceded circumstance. It's very, very different, and I've
had to explain that to so many people because people
want to know when are they going to get rebuilding
on that stuff. I'm like, yeah, you know, if a
single house burns down in a neighborhood or a couple
(16:29):
of houses next to each other, that's a completely different
animal than what we're dealing with right here, because that's
not the infrastructure of the neighborhood being wiped out. That's
just a house. And so when does rebuildings start. I
don't know, like tomorrow. You know, essentially in that situation
out here Alta Dina Palisades, we have entire neighborhoods gone
(16:55):
and there are issues, and there are no you know,
experienced experts. It's about, oh, yes, I'm the guy who
knows how to rebuild neighborhoods after fires have wiped them
all out. You would think by this time we might
have one of those guys, because it's been happening a lot.
But what are the unique issues that you're discovering right now?
I just want to hear from your perspective, because I
know you guys are in the thick of it. You know.
Speaker 4 (17:17):
The biggest thing that I'm seeing right now that's an
issue is that testing. Most people are not getting testing
conducted or the insurance carrier is not proving testing.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Okay, so what does that mean? Break that down?
Speaker 4 (17:29):
Testing testing for contaminants, because all these houses around the
surrounding area are older homes which carry contaminants such as lead, asbestos,
and it's just spreading throughout the whole neighborhood. We're finding
positive tests of arsenic as well on these properties, and
we're telling our clients especially, just make sure you're testing
(17:49):
your property inside and outside to know what the current
condition is so you can follow the protocol necessary to
abate it at the end of the day. Because there's
proper abatement that needs to go in process. You can't
do smoke remediation before you do lead or asbestist remediation,
so you got to test to see if that's within
your property or surrounding your property.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
All right, So now are you talking about homes that
are directly adjacent to the fire damage, or homes that
have been partially fire damaged, or properties that have been
wiped out completely, all of the above, all of the above,
because all of this stuff, the lead, the arsenic, the asbestos,
it was all inert and it was all you know,
(18:31):
you know, in stable, in place inside the home. But
these fires have literally just tossed it out into.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Uh spread of contamination everywhere, everywhere, everywhere.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
What insurance suggestor is going to come to a homeowner
and say, all right, first of all, we have to
test everything. Oh good luck, so none of them, zero
of them.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
So maybe if it's not zero zero, it's a few
that will do it.
Speaker 4 (18:55):
It all comes down to they're trying to skip steps,
not all of them, some of them, and they're asking
the clients to just start the smoke remediation at the
end of the day. You first need to know what
the condition of the home is, what it's contaminated with
before you start removing combustion byproducts such as smoke damage,
material of ash and set So you need to get
(19:18):
a baseline and once you know that baseline, if something
is contaminated with lead or asbestos. The protocol is for
porous items they need to be completely thrown out and
the non poores items can be professionally clean. But they're
not pushing for that. They think that you can just
come and clean it or get some dry cleaning, just
wipe it down, just clean it down.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
It's dirty. It's dirty. But if it's porous. Then that
contamination has gotten into the material in a place that
cannot be cleaned. Sure by kind of by definition. All
you have to ask is the folks over at Notre
Dame Cathedral in France, it's like, how easy is it
to get lead dust out of limestone? Exactly? Right? Exactly?
Speaker 4 (20:02):
I mean at the end of the day, the way
that they're saving their cost is that they're trying to
clean these items. They're getting dry and cleaned, but the
cost to replace that item is ten times more. So
that's what we're showing that the clients is that you're
entitled to replacement of those items because you don't want
to walk around with those clothes on your body, or
(20:22):
sleeping that mattress that's contaminated, or that furniture that's sitting
in your living room. It's just it's not safe for
anyone to be living around those conditions.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
So your first step is you want to do an
environmental testing, see what the results of that testing is,
present the results to the carrier and tell them, hey,
look there's either lead or a specialist present in the home.
You got to do an abatement.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Now. In a situation that we're in now, like in
the Palisades or in Altadena. When do you do that
testing or how many times do you do it? Because
I could imagine, Okay, what if I test now and
I identify certain things on my property and then in
a few weeks, when OEES and the EPA are supervising
(21:09):
the neighborhood cleanup, yeah, and kicking up particulates from other
people's homes again into the air, how do I know
that my property isn't getting recontaminated.
Speaker 4 (21:21):
And that's that's the number one question right now. When
do we start actually abating these contaminants? And our answer
is try to delay that process as long as you can.
Like you said, you might clean your property. A month later,
your neighbor starts kicking up dust and then it recontaminates
your property. And insurance carriers are not the type to
(21:42):
pay twice for the same work exactly.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
There are discussions right now inside of insurance carriers where
they're saying, okay, there may there may come a time
where double testing will be required to see if there's
contaminants in the beginning and in the end, and they
may pay for that, but there's no guarantee of that.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
I think we talk about time a lot on the show.
Time and sense of like, I'm always encouraging people when
they're building their dreams to slow it down and take time,
and it sounds like in this situation, the rush to
rebuild is not necessarily in a homeowner's best interest. It's
not not at this time.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
I would say, this process is going to take some time,
and at the end of the day, you don't want
to go and conduct all this work and then your
insurance carrier doesn't cover for the cleanup again.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Right, exactly, all right, We've got to take a break, man.
I have so many questions for you, guys. This is
good stuff, right right, This is not the kind of
stuff you've heard before. People are sitting at home right
now thinking testing. Nobody ever mentioned that. That's why we're
doing this for you.
Speaker 3 (22:48):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
We are having a really, really important conversation on the
program today. I have very special guests with me in studio,
the founding partners of Damage Law here in Los Angeles,
Aria Shack and A dear b These guys, I cannot
even begin to tell you. You know that when I
bring experts in studio with me. It is to help
(23:20):
you in whatever category we're talking about. Whether you know,
next weekend, I'm going to have one of my favorite
concrete contractors on the planet sitting across the table from me,
talking all things concrete and masonry. So when I bring
these folks in, they're always a benefit to you. But
let me tell you, this topic of insurance companies and
(23:44):
claims after property damage to your precious home is so confusing.
It is. It is so it can be so deep
and so multi layered, and so misdirected so often that
let me let me tell you, I am just I
am opening a door for you today to talk to
(24:06):
the guys who are going to help you. Just see
it straight through now, I know, I know, I am
the first guy in the world who is going to
step up and say, hey, not every problem in life
has to start with hiring an attorney. Okay, But but
how can I tell you that this one is a
(24:28):
different situation? Okay, So guys, aria a dear we were
talking during the break. Undoubtedly the most confusing aspect of
all of this is right up front. Because I'm a homeowner,
My property has been damaged on some level, right, and
so I file a claim. Okay, Then comes the adjuster. Yeah, okay,
(24:54):
So what is Dean saying. Is he saying that I
shouldn't trust the adjuster to just handle this for me.
And then the insurance company is going to recommend their
list of approved contractors. Then they're like, hey, you know
our guys, if you use one of our contractors on
our approved list, we can fast track some of this
work and get you back in and blah blah blah blah.
And so there's that there are public adjusters out there,
(25:16):
there's all who do we call?
Speaker 4 (25:21):
You know, the first phase at the end of the
day is calling a professional who could quantify the loss.
So either a public adjuster, a contractor who's familiar with
insurance practices and knowing how to quantify through their system
called exact demate, or even an attorney who's has the
season in this, because quantifying is the biggest problem here
(25:43):
is knowing what is it going to cost to bring
you back to your pre lost condition, especially taking an
account that labor costs and material is going to go
up at this time.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
Okay, so already I'm like, great, now I'm out of
pocket on this stuff. Now, I gotta I gotta call
people in and pay people to watch dog the people
that I'm not so to pay to rebuild my house.
But you guys do it differently, all right, This is
I'm not setting this up to be a damaged law commercial,
but honestly, I am so impressed with how you guys
(26:14):
handle this. Somebody can call you and you're gonna do what.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
So somebody will call us and we will review their
policy for free. We'll review their situation for free and
give them advice as to how they can move forward
with their claim on their own. But unfortunately, they're going
to hit a roadblock or an impasse at some point.
God forbid. I hope they don't, but they may end
(26:39):
up hitting a roadblock with the insurance carrier and they'll
get taken advantage by the insurance carrier, and that's when
they need an advocate to support them. We don't charge
on an hourly rate. We charges what's called the contingency fee,
where we take a percentage of the gross funds that
are issued to the insured after everything's been settled out,
So kind of like a personal injury situation, right, and
(27:02):
what we've been doing, you know, is devastating. Times, it's unprecedented.
People don't have homes right now, they're not at home,
they're relocated. We've been reducing our rates significantly and you know,
trying to accommodate these these individuals who have been drastically
affected by these fires. So we've been going out of
our way to kind of just be a support system
(27:24):
to these individuals and help them through this process.
Speaker 4 (27:27):
At the end of the day, we're here to provide
guidance and there are times that you need public adjusters
and attorneys, and there's times that you don't need us.
You'll know when you need us when the insurance carrier
is trying to skip a step or they try to
fix your home at an amount that you can't even
get a contractor mediation company to do the work for.
(27:48):
So it's always best to know what's going on in
the market and when are they going to be able
to do this work and for how much, and getting
their insurance carrier to approve it before you even go
and sign that contract, because you don't want to be
out of pocket.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
They should cover this if you have that coverage, gotcha.
And obviously there are degrees here of what gets an
insurance company's attention. Yes, I would say, I tend to
put it in the order of in my own experience,
and I'd probably get going to get this order wrong
because I'm putting myself higher on the chain than I should.
But but no, I mean I've got friends and family
(28:22):
members who go through stuff, and I get the first call, right,
and so I kind of step in in the role
sort of like what a public adjuster would do because
of my experience with what a home is and what
it takes and how it should be handled and so on,
and do better advocacy for them. Right. The difference though,
where where my contribution in that process, and or as
(28:46):
an experienced builder and or a public adjusters contribution hopefully
in the same realm. We can't sue an insurance company,
you guys can, ye, And so they're listening twice as
hard when when you guys get involved, I would imagine,
(29:07):
because there's a lot more on the line for them,
all right. I just want to underscore this point because
because I love you guys so much that you guys
that somebody can call you today today and for free
you will evaluate you know where they're at and and
give them good direction as to where to go next.
(29:27):
So this is the first step, the best, the best
first step.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
We've been doing this since January seventh. We've been doing
free policy evaluations and free review and we're happy to
continue doing so.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
We're right, all right. When we come back, we're going
to go to the phones as promised, like we do.
We've got some calls on the board. When we return
to this subject again, I want to first start out.
I want to define some of these terms that we've
been using. I don't want to presume that everybody knows,
you know, damage law attorney, public insurance adjuster, in insurance contractors.
(30:01):
Let's figure out exactly where everybody stands and who everybody
is in the game. Uh, before you know, before we
you know, kick off as it were, all right, y'all
your calls when we return. You're listening to Dean Sharp,
the House Whisperer on KFI. This has been Home with
Dean Sharp, the House whisper Tune into the live broadcast
(30:23):
on KFI AM six forty every Saturday morning from six
to eight Pacific time, and every Sunday morning from nine
to noon Pacific time, or anytime on demand on the
iHeart Radio app,
KFI AM six forty. You're listening to Dean Sharp the
House Whisper on demand on the iHeartRadio app. I am
Dean Sharp the House Whisper. I design custom homes, build
a few custom homes, and on the weekends here I
am your guide to better understanding that place where you live.
(00:22):
Today on the show, I am very, very excited about
today's show. You can hear it in my trashed voice.
Let me first apologize. I mean, it's not my fault,
but I lost my voice yesterday and so it's coming back. Yeah,
I'm a little froggy. Hey Bud, I'm a little froggy today,
so please just put up with me. I will try
(00:43):
and be as smooth and comforting as I can be
like I normally am. Today on the show, we are
going to be talking about something so relevant, so important,
and with a subject with so many questions attached to it.
We're going to be talking about insurance claims after disasters,
not just and of course the fires. This is the
(01:06):
topic that has put it to the forefront of everybody's mind,
but everything from that too. Well, you know what happens
when the pipe breaks under the sink, and then there's
damage and call my adjuster out. And where do we
go from there? What's the nature of our relationship with
insurance companies when we're just paying premiums versus when it's
(01:26):
time to make a claim, what happens and all of
that and everything in between. And I'm doing it with
a couple of guys who could not possibly be more
expert on this topic. I've got Aria Shack and a
Deer be here. They are the founding partners of Damage Law.
Yes they are attorneys. We will talk about their humanity
(01:49):
in just a moment. But Aria and the Deer are
here with me in studio and we're just going to
be going for guys. Good morning and welcome Dean.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
How are you.
Speaker 1 (02:01):
I'm well, you can hear I'm I'm I'm okay, I'm
all right. I'm gonna be fine. So great stuff on
the show today. And of course, as always your calls.
Here's the number. I'm gonna give it to you right now.
I just saw Richie run to the phone line, so
they are yep, they're open. The number to reach me
(02:22):
eight three three two. Ask Dean eight three three the
numeral two Ask Dean eight three three two. Ask Dean
it's just that easy. The phone lines are open now
and as always, we're talking about damage claims and insurance
companies today. But when it comes to your calls, you
can call me about anything at all about your home.
(02:44):
Whatever's got you scratching your head, whether it is design,
construction related, DIY, stuff inside outside, doesn't matter. Anything you
want to talk about your home eight three three two
ask Dean uh follow us on social media. We only
do the good kind, I promise, uplifting, informative, inspiring stuff.
(03:07):
We're on all the usual suspects Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, x
you know, home with Dean, same handle for them all.
And of course, if your home is in need of
some personal house whisper attention, then you can book an
in home design consult with me and the tea who
is not with me this morning. Sorry, I'm sorry, but
(03:29):
all do you have to do to do that is
go to house Whisperer dot design. All right, let me
introduce our awesome team, Elmer, as always is on the board.
Good morning, Elmer, Good morning Dean, Good morning everyone. How
are you doing in there? I'm happy? Yeah? Are you sure?
Speaker 2 (03:46):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (03:47):
All right?
Speaker 1 (03:48):
Believe me? All right, I'll trust you. Richie is not
near Mike, is he? Oh my gosh. Every week, every
week I have to say, Richie is nowhere near a microphone,
and then there you are, right in front of the mic.
All right, good to have you nearby. And in my earbud,
(04:09):
Richie is standing by taking calls. We got a couple
on the board even now. And so that is the peaceful,
melodious voice you will hear when you call in. He'll
tell you everything you need to know, and then you
can listen to the show while you're in the queue.
And of course, my buddy, Eileen Gonzalez at the news desk,
Good morning Eileen, Good morning Dean. Good to see you today.
(04:32):
Good to be seen. My voice is not so sunshiny
today as usual. But you know what, you can't tell
I'm in good spirits. You can't tell he didn't say
anything I would not have known. Sitting across the table
from me. This is when I usually say my better
half and my design partner and my best friend in
the world. But Tina is handling some other stuff this morning,
(04:52):
so she'll be back as always, she'll be back. But
Michelle Kelly is in the studio with me today. She's
one of our account executives and she's just brightening things
up in here. So we've got a room full of
people and a room full of quality, quality advice coming
your way. We're going to do it all right after.
Speaker 3 (05:16):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (05:23):
I've got Aria Shack and a dear b and here
they are the founding partners of Damage Law right here
in southern California and Los Angeles. Guys, you're lawyers, and
so let's just start with proving that you're human beings.
And I want to hear. I want to hear how
(05:43):
you guys got together because it was obvious to me
the very first time we ever met that you guys
have a very special relationship and you have launched into
a very specialized field that well right now supposedly a
lot of law firms are really good at at the moment.
But this is something that you decided to do long
before Uh there was you know, fire opportunity money to
(06:08):
be made out there on this. So anyway, uh introduce yourselves,
tell me how this all started for you guys. Oh
we got it, Hey, Elmer, can we pop on, all right,
I think we're good. Yeah, Hang on a second, hang on, yeah,
(06:36):
all right, all right, I think we got it. Welcome
to live radio. We're good, Okay, go for it.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
So I was blessed to meet my partner actually in
law school. I was the first day of class, first
year of law school, and it was actually quite funny.
I thought there was an earthquake happening during the first
ten minutes fast and I looked to my left and
I see my partner's leg is shaking up and down.
(07:04):
And we weren't friends at that time. I looked over
and I saw that he was quite anxious.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
Hang on a second, Ari, we're still having trouble with
your mic I think you guys can hear me, Yes,
we can. So he Aria is describing you, go for it.
Speaker 1 (07:18):
I'm going to fix his mic.
Speaker 2 (07:19):
Aria is describing our first day in law school together.
I'm I'm an anxious person in general, and I tend
to shake my legs when I'm nervous in the first
day of school, any type of extravagant type of ordeal
that we're going to be going through. And as you know,
law school's very very tenuous time for individuals and Aria
(07:39):
and myself were working full time. We decided to do
law school at night. And I've never met him before.
This is the first day of school. My leg's shaking
up and down, and to my right is sitting Aria,
and he's looking at me like I'm some kind of
deranged crazy person.
Speaker 1 (07:55):
And he tells me.
Speaker 2 (07:56):
Hey, it's gonna be okay, don't worry, sorry, and I
look at him and I go, you know, my fiance
is in law school, and she's telling me about all
these things about you're gonna get cold called and they're
gonna ask you a bunch of questions. You've got to
stay on top of the reading. We work full time.
We're working ten hour days and we have to come
at night, and he's like, hey, it's gonna be okay.
And you know what, it turned out to be okay,
(08:19):
it turned out better than okay. I created this bond
with Aria, and we stayed very close friends throughout the
entirety of law school. Aria is like my brother. We've
been through highs and lows together, and then after law school,
when we graduated past the bar, we decided to join
a teen up together and create damage law and really,
(08:43):
you know, hit these insurance companies hard and make sure
that insurance are getting the benefits that they're prescribed to
for their policies and make sure that they're acting approporately.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
This is not a it's not a massive field.
Speaker 2 (08:57):
No.
Speaker 1 (08:57):
As a specialty.
Speaker 2 (08:59):
No, this is a very Nietzsche industry. It's a very
niche aspect of law.
Speaker 4 (09:05):
And you know, you have to have the background of
knowing exactly how the whole construction process also occurs, because
at the end of the day, insurance carriers they look
at the insurance as if they're experts as well when
they're going through the claim process. So at the end
of the day, you always want to make sure that
you know what's going on with your home and what
(09:25):
the valuations if your home are, and these insurance carriers
they try to, you know, skip steps and at the
end of the day, we're just making sure that everyone
gets what they're entitled to exactly.
Speaker 1 (09:37):
And so what drove you in that direction, I mean
there was so much other law to do, you know.
Speaker 2 (09:43):
It really was Aria's idea when he came up to me,
I was going to go into transactional work on a
corporate level. I was the director of underwriting for a
high risk business to business lender for about eight years
prior to becoming an attorney. And I'm a very financially
oriented individual. I can read financial statements. I have that aspect.
(10:04):
I can underwrite businesses and make sure that they can
withstand alone. And Aria has about fifteen years of experience
in real estate and real estate transactions, and he's seen
how insurance carriers take advantage of their insurance through the
process unfortunately, and he came up to me with this
idea of how, you know, we could be advocates for
(10:26):
the insurance and make sure that they get the benefits
that they pay for on a monthly basis when a
loss is the state right. And when he came to me, I,
you know, I looked at it and I was like,
I've never heard of this before. You know, I've heard
of personal injury. I've heard of corporate law. I've heard
of transactional law, I've heard of litigation. Breach of contract
and essentially this is a breach of contract because your
(10:50):
policy is a contract. The policy binds you and the
insurer into an agreement where there are certain policies and
I mean benefits and restrictions in that policy, and once
that's breached, you file an action against the insurer and
make sure that they pay out accordingly.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
But the trick here is the trick is that there
is some definition out there of what is fixed and
what is whole yes, and what is restored yes. And
the insurance company versus you know, they're not in there.
They're not in the business to educate homeowners as to
(11:29):
all the layers of what fixed means and covering all
those bases.
Speaker 2 (11:35):
They don't have an incentive to right. You know, they
have a bottom line, and unfortunately the bottom line is
the shareholder. The insurance carriers only care about making sure
that you know, the shareholders are maximizing on whatever they're
getting paid on dividends and whatnot.
Speaker 1 (11:50):
It's a really difficult subject for me to wrestle with.
I think everybody wrestles with it because because you know,
I don't want to communicate today to anybody that that
you know, insurance companies are evil uh entities. Uh because
we all need them, we all use them. But it
(12:13):
is a bizarre relationship. It's the weirdest relationship. When you
think i've i've i've i've grabbed on to uh to
this company to assist me in my life. You know,
we've made a contractual relationship. You're my friend. You know,
you're the helping hand and uh and and so I'm
(12:35):
paying you to help protect my assets and and my life.
And that's all well and good. And then something happens
when it's time to pull that trigger. And the reality
is not to overstate it or overblow it, but the
reality is, I am now at best in a in
(12:58):
a original and antagonistic relationship because because suddenly suddenly, I mean, yeah,
we've got the contract to hold us in place, but
we we suddenly have very very different goals now. And
that's really tough. That's really tough on a homeowner. It's
(13:19):
a really tough position to be in, especially if you
don't know every layer of your home from beginning to end.
And what homeowner does well a few do, a few do.
But the point is this, there are so many aspects
of where this goes. And I wish it wasn't the case.
I wish we weren't in this situation. I wouldn't know
(13:40):
how to do it otherwise. But it's just the reality
for everybody who's listening that when it comes to making
a claim. Once the claim day comes, you have got
to be wise. I'll just put it that way. You've
got to be wise how you deal with your insurance company,
(14:01):
because their goal is to reduce the payout, to minimize
the payout, and your goal is to maximize the payout,
all right, so that you are made whole, truly hold
the right definition of whole. And that's I think where
we're going to go next is what does it take
when something happens? And I want to talk about the
(14:22):
fires and the unprecedented nature of that. So, guys, thanks
for being here. Thank you, everybody, hang tight. We're gonna
dive deep into this conversation.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
But first, you're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on
demand from KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (14:40):
KFI. That's where I am at AM six forty live
streaming and HD everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. Dean Sharp
the house whisper with you on this lovely have you
seen it outside? Lovely, crisp, cool, relatively cloudless Sunday morning
here in southern California wherever you are across the nation listening,
(15:02):
I hope, well, you know, I know it's not going
to be as warm as it is here for a
lot of you. But I hope you're in a good spot, safe, warm,
dry good, got a warm beverage by your side, and
you got me in your ear. And we're talking insurance claims.
This is truly something that has nothing to do even
(15:23):
though my guests are founded a law firm to do
exactly this stuff right here in southern California. These truths,
like so many things that we talk about your house,
are universal across the nation. This is just the reality
of working with insurance companies, and that's where we're going
and of course also your calls as well in just
(15:45):
a bit, so hang tight with me through it all.
All right, I want to continue my conversation with my
special in studio guests from Damage Law, the founding partners
Aria and a Deer. Guys, let's just talk about the
fires for a second, Okay. I want to get more into,
you know, the the aspect of anybody making claims and
(16:07):
all of that. But the big question is like, oh
my gosh, what is going on with the fires. This
is an unpreceded circumstance. It's very, very different, and I've
had to explain that to so many people because people
want to know when are they going to get rebuilding
on that stuff. I'm like, yeah, you know, if a
single house burns down in a neighborhood or a couple
(16:29):
of houses next to each other, that's a completely different
animal than what we're dealing with right here, because that's
not the infrastructure of the neighborhood being wiped out. That's
just a house. And so when does rebuildings start. I
don't know, like tomorrow. You know, essentially in that situation
out here Alta Dina Palisades, we have entire neighborhoods gone
(16:55):
and there are issues, and there are no you know,
experienced experts. It's about, oh, yes, I'm the guy who
knows how to rebuild neighborhoods after fires have wiped them
all out. You would think by this time we might
have one of those guys, because it's been happening a lot.
But what are the unique issues that you're discovering right now?
I just want to hear from your perspective, because I
know you guys are in the thick of it. You know.
Speaker 4 (17:17):
The biggest thing that I'm seeing right now that's an
issue is that testing. Most people are not getting testing
conducted or the insurance carrier is not proving testing.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Okay, so what does that mean? Break that down?
Speaker 4 (17:29):
Testing testing for contaminants, because all these houses around the
surrounding area are older homes which carry contaminants such as lead, asbestos,
and it's just spreading throughout the whole neighborhood. We're finding
positive tests of arsenic as well on these properties, and
we're telling our clients especially, just make sure you're testing
(17:49):
your property inside and outside to know what the current
condition is so you can follow the protocol necessary to
abate it at the end of the day. Because there's
proper abatement that needs to go in process. You can't
do smoke remediation before you do lead or asbestist remediation,
so you got to test to see if that's within
your property or surrounding your property.
Speaker 1 (18:09):
All right, So now are you talking about homes that
are directly adjacent to the fire damage, or homes that
have been partially fire damaged, or properties that have been
wiped out completely, all of the above, all of the above,
because all of this stuff, the lead, the arsenic, the asbestos,
it was all inert and it was all you know,
(18:31):
you know, in stable, in place inside the home. But
these fires have literally just tossed it out into.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
Uh spread of contamination everywhere, everywhere, everywhere.
Speaker 1 (18:40):
What insurance suggestor is going to come to a homeowner
and say, all right, first of all, we have to
test everything. Oh good luck, so none of them, zero
of them.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
So maybe if it's not zero zero, it's a few
that will do it.
Speaker 4 (18:55):
It all comes down to they're trying to skip steps,
not all of them, some of them, and they're asking
the clients to just start the smoke remediation at the
end of the day. You first need to know what
the condition of the home is, what it's contaminated with
before you start removing combustion byproducts such as smoke damage,
material of ash and set So you need to get
(19:18):
a baseline and once you know that baseline, if something
is contaminated with lead or asbestos. The protocol is for
porous items they need to be completely thrown out and
the non poores items can be professionally clean. But they're
not pushing for that. They think that you can just
come and clean it or get some dry cleaning, just
wipe it down, just clean it down.
Speaker 1 (19:38):
It's dirty. It's dirty. But if it's porous. Then that
contamination has gotten into the material in a place that
cannot be cleaned. Sure by kind of by definition. All
you have to ask is the folks over at Notre
Dame Cathedral in France, it's like, how easy is it
to get lead dust out of limestone? Exactly? Right? Exactly?
Speaker 4 (20:02):
I mean at the end of the day, the way
that they're saving their cost is that they're trying to
clean these items. They're getting dry and cleaned, but the
cost to replace that item is ten times more. So
that's what we're showing that the clients is that you're
entitled to replacement of those items because you don't want
to walk around with those clothes on your body, or
(20:22):
sleeping that mattress that's contaminated, or that furniture that's sitting
in your living room. It's just it's not safe for
anyone to be living around those conditions.
Speaker 2 (20:32):
So your first step is you want to do an
environmental testing, see what the results of that testing is,
present the results to the carrier and tell them, hey,
look there's either lead or a specialist present in the home.
You got to do an abatement.
Speaker 1 (20:46):
Now. In a situation that we're in now, like in
the Palisades or in Altadena. When do you do that
testing or how many times do you do it? Because
I could imagine, Okay, what if I test now and
I identify certain things on my property and then in
a few weeks, when OEES and the EPA are supervising
(21:09):
the neighborhood cleanup, yeah, and kicking up particulates from other
people's homes again into the air, how do I know
that my property isn't getting recontaminated.
Speaker 4 (21:21):
And that's that's the number one question right now. When
do we start actually abating these contaminants? And our answer
is try to delay that process as long as you can.
Like you said, you might clean your property. A month later,
your neighbor starts kicking up dust and then it recontaminates
your property. And insurance carriers are not the type to
(21:42):
pay twice for the same work exactly.
Speaker 2 (21:45):
There are discussions right now inside of insurance carriers where
they're saying, okay, there may there may come a time
where double testing will be required to see if there's
contaminants in the beginning and in the end, and they
may pay for that, but there's no guarantee of that.
Speaker 1 (21:59):
I think we talk about time a lot on the show.
Time and sense of like, I'm always encouraging people when
they're building their dreams to slow it down and take time,
and it sounds like in this situation, the rush to
rebuild is not necessarily in a homeowner's best interest. It's
not not at this time.
Speaker 4 (22:18):
I would say, this process is going to take some time,
and at the end of the day, you don't want
to go and conduct all this work and then your
insurance carrier doesn't cover for the cleanup again.
Speaker 1 (22:30):
Right, exactly, all right, We've got to take a break, man.
I have so many questions for you, guys. This is
good stuff, right right, This is not the kind of
stuff you've heard before. People are sitting at home right
now thinking testing. Nobody ever mentioned that. That's why we're
doing this for you.
Speaker 3 (22:48):
You're listening to Home with Dean Sharp on demand from
KFI AM six forty.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
We are having a really, really important conversation on the
program today. I have very special guests with me in studio,
the founding partners of Damage Law here in Los Angeles,
Aria Shack and A dear b These guys, I cannot
even begin to tell you. You know that when I
bring experts in studio with me. It is to help
(23:20):
you in whatever category we're talking about. Whether you know,
next weekend, I'm going to have one of my favorite
concrete contractors on the planet sitting across the table from me,
talking all things concrete and masonry. So when I bring
these folks in, they're always a benefit to you. But
let me tell you, this topic of insurance companies and
(23:44):
claims after property damage to your precious home is so confusing.
It is. It is so it can be so deep
and so multi layered, and so misdirected so often that
let me let me tell you, I am just I
am opening a door for you today to talk to
(24:06):
the guys who are going to help you. Just see
it straight through now, I know, I know, I am
the first guy in the world who is going to
step up and say, hey, not every problem in life
has to start with hiring an attorney. Okay, But but
how can I tell you that this one is a
(24:28):
different situation? Okay, So guys, aria a dear we were
talking during the break. Undoubtedly the most confusing aspect of
all of this is right up front. Because I'm a homeowner,
My property has been damaged on some level, right, and
so I file a claim. Okay, Then comes the adjuster. Yeah, okay,
(24:54):
So what is Dean saying. Is he saying that I
shouldn't trust the adjuster to just handle this for me.
And then the insurance company is going to recommend their
list of approved contractors. Then they're like, hey, you know
our guys, if you use one of our contractors on
our approved list, we can fast track some of this
work and get you back in and blah blah blah blah.
And so there's that there are public adjusters out there,
(25:16):
there's all who do we call?
Speaker 4 (25:21):
You know, the first phase at the end of the
day is calling a professional who could quantify the loss.
So either a public adjuster, a contractor who's familiar with
insurance practices and knowing how to quantify through their system
called exact demate, or even an attorney who's has the
season in this, because quantifying is the biggest problem here
(25:43):
is knowing what is it going to cost to bring
you back to your pre lost condition, especially taking an
account that labor costs and material is going to go
up at this time.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
Okay, so already I'm like, great, now I'm out of
pocket on this stuff. Now, I gotta I gotta call
people in and pay people to watch dog the people
that I'm not so to pay to rebuild my house.
But you guys do it differently, all right, This is
I'm not setting this up to be a damaged law commercial,
but honestly, I am so impressed with how you guys
(26:14):
handle this. Somebody can call you and you're gonna do what.
Speaker 2 (26:19):
So somebody will call us and we will review their
policy for free. We'll review their situation for free and
give them advice as to how they can move forward
with their claim on their own. But unfortunately, they're going
to hit a roadblock or an impasse at some point.
God forbid. I hope they don't, but they may end
(26:39):
up hitting a roadblock with the insurance carrier and they'll
get taken advantage by the insurance carrier, and that's when
they need an advocate to support them. We don't charge
on an hourly rate. We charges what's called the contingency fee,
where we take a percentage of the gross funds that
are issued to the insured after everything's been settled out,
So kind of like a personal injury situation, right, and
(27:02):
what we've been doing, you know, is devastating. Times, it's unprecedented.
People don't have homes right now, they're not at home,
they're relocated. We've been reducing our rates significantly and you know,
trying to accommodate these these individuals who have been drastically
affected by these fires. So we've been going out of
our way to kind of just be a support system
(27:24):
to these individuals and help them through this process.
Speaker 4 (27:27):
At the end of the day, we're here to provide
guidance and there are times that you need public adjusters
and attorneys, and there's times that you don't need us.
You'll know when you need us when the insurance carrier
is trying to skip a step or they try to
fix your home at an amount that you can't even
get a contractor mediation company to do the work for.
(27:48):
So it's always best to know what's going on in
the market and when are they going to be able
to do this work and for how much, and getting
their insurance carrier to approve it before you even go
and sign that contract, because you don't want to be
out of pocket.
Speaker 1 (28:01):
They should cover this if you have that coverage, gotcha.
And obviously there are degrees here of what gets an
insurance company's attention. Yes, I would say, I tend to
put it in the order of in my own experience,
and I'd probably get going to get this order wrong
because I'm putting myself higher on the chain than I should.
But but no, I mean I've got friends and family
(28:22):
members who go through stuff, and I get the first call, right,
and so I kind of step in in the role
sort of like what a public adjuster would do because
of my experience with what a home is and what
it takes and how it should be handled and so on,
and do better advocacy for them. Right. The difference though,
where where my contribution in that process, and or as
(28:46):
an experienced builder and or a public adjusters contribution hopefully
in the same realm. We can't sue an insurance company,
you guys can, ye, And so they're listening twice as
hard when when you guys get involved, I would imagine,
(29:07):
because there's a lot more on the line for them,
all right. I just want to underscore this point because
because I love you guys so much that you guys
that somebody can call you today today and for free
you will evaluate you know where they're at and and
give them good direction as to where to go next.
(29:27):
So this is the first step, the best, the best
first step.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
We've been doing this since January seventh. We've been doing
free policy evaluations and free review and we're happy to
continue doing so.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
We're right, all right. When we come back, we're going
to go to the phones as promised, like we do.
We've got some calls on the board. When we return
to this subject again, I want to first start out.
I want to define some of these terms that we've
been using. I don't want to presume that everybody knows,
you know, damage law attorney, public insurance adjuster, in insurance contractors.
(30:01):
Let's figure out exactly where everybody stands and who everybody
is in the game. Uh, before you know, before we
you know, kick off as it were, all right, y'all
your calls when we return. You're listening to Dean Sharp,
the House Whisperer on KFI. This has been Home with
Dean Sharp, the House whisper Tune into the live broadcast
(30:23):
on KFI AM six forty every Saturday morning from six
to eight Pacific time, and every Sunday morning from nine
to noon Pacific time, or anytime on demand on the
iHeart Radio app,
Home with Dean Sharp News
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