Fire and Smoke Damage: Filing a Property Insurance Claim in Michigan
A single spark can upend your life. Flames destroy prized belongings; acidic smoke seeps into walls, furniture, and clothing, leaving thousands in cleanup costs. Your homeowners policy should pay—but carriers routinely delay, deny, or low-ball valid claims. Homeowners don’t need a DIY checklist—they need experienced advocates who force insurers to pay what the policy promises.
Flames destroy prized belongings in minutes. Insurance should solve the crisis—yet carriers routinely delay, deny, or lowball legitimate fire-and-smoke claims. When that happens, homeowners don’t need a checklist. They need experienced advocates who force insurers to pay what the policy promises.
At Fabian, Sklar, King & Liss, fire losses are not new territory. Our firm has forced insurers to honor their obligations since 1986—recovering hundreds of millions of dollars for families and businesses.
Insurance Companies Use Every Tactic to Minimize Fire Claims
Insurers know fire losses carry high price tags—especially when smoke remediation, code upgrades, and specialty finishes are involved. To safeguard profits, carriers:
- Label smoke damage as “cosmetic” and offer cleaning instead of replacement
- Depreciate building materials even when replacement-cost coverage applies
- Invoke obscure exclusions—blaming “pre-existing damage” or alleged increase in hazard
- Slow-rolling investigations, putting business owners and families in precarious financial positions
- If your carrier is employing any of these tactics, it’s time to bring in legal muscle—not more phone calls to a claim hotline.
How Our Legal Representation can Change the Outcome
Insurance adjusters are trained negotiators. Our experience has shown unrepresented commercial building, business and homeowners are at a distinct disadvantage. Retaining FSKL levels the playing field in your Fire and Smoke Damage Insurance Claim:
. Retaining a respected Michigan property-insurance attorney immediately shifts leverage:
- Credibility: Carriers know our courtroom record and precedent setting cases and know we will maximize your claim.
- Comprehensive Loss Valuation: We employ top engineers, origin-and-cause specialists, and smoke-remediation experts to document the full scope of damage—structural, personal property, and code-mandated upgrades.
- Policy Mastery: Our attorneys dissect every exclusion, endorsement, and time-limit clause, closing loopholes insurers exploit.
- Pressure: We pursue appraisal, file complaints with Michigan DIFS, and litigate bad-faith conduct when carriers refuse to pay.
“We find insurers count on policyholders giving up or settling for less then they are entitled to after a fire. We force them to confront the full cost of restoration—no shortcuts, no excuses.”
– Jason J. Liss, Managing Shareholder
Our Track Record Speaks Louder Than Promises
Fabian, Sklar, King & Liss has:
- Secured seven-figure recoveries for historic-home and business owners facing total interior smoke contamination
- Repeatedly won policy-limit settlements for families and commercial business owners after insurers attempted to depreciate assets destroyed by fire
- Set Michigan case law clarifying replacement-cost obligations in fire-loss scenarios
- Won hundreds of business interruption and agent error & omissions award arising out of fire and smoke damage property insurance claims
- Recovered over an estimated $500 Million for our clients against insurers in property insurance damage claims.
Our experience has been that when insurers recognize we are involved with a claim, negotiations change—and we get you on track for a full recovery.
Move Forward Confidently—Start Your Fire & Smoke Property Insurance Claim Review Today
Every day without sufficient funds keeps your family out of your home and your business operations shuttered. Don’t let the insurance company dictate what your future is worth. Fire and Smoke Damage: Filing a Property Insurance Claim in Michigan, we are here to help.
Contact Fabian, Sklar, King & Liss for a free consultation. We charge no fee unless we recover money for you—so you risk nothing and gain Michigan’s most experienced fire-claim advocates.