Justin Petrie

I had the unfortunate situation of a water leak in the wall in my kitchen behind my cabinets. I had been travelling for work and, upon my return, my next door neighbor advised me that her adjoining bedroom was flooded. I checked my kitchen wall and found that it was soaked. I pulled the wallpaper ...away from the wall and found that mold was growing beneath it. My son pulled one of the cabinets away from the way and it was soaked and mold was growing on the cabinet as well. I reported the claim to my insurance company and immediately had the area tested for mold (which came back positive). A friend gave me the name of an public claims adjuster who I called. We spoke on the phone and he sent out a representative to have me sign papers since he was unable to make it. I later learned (from Justin Petrie) that legally only he, the certified public adjuster, and not his designee, must be present when such forms are signed. He then had a series of people he worked with come in to also test for mold, come up with a remediation plan and let me know what it would cost for replacement. I can honestly say that the adjuster did not have my best interest in mind and submitted the least expensive claim to the insurance company for the mold remediation which did not even include setting up a containment area or scrubbing the air which is proper protocol in such a situation. The adjuster also told me to purchase replacement cabinets from Ikea which in no way compare to the quality of the solid wood custom cabinets I had in my kitchen. The claims adjuster dragged the situation out for months, dodged my phone calls and when I did speak with him he always told me I needed to be patient. After I insisted on a containment area, I spent the next 8 months without the use of my kitchen and had to live in my bedroom. Very frustrated over both the adjuster and my insurance company, I contacted Justin Petrie. I explained, in detail, the situation. Throughout the ordeal, he communicated with the insurance company, on my behalf to expedite the processing of the claim. I ultimately made the decision to take the money out of my savings to have the repairs done as I could no longer live as I was while waiting for the insurance company to move on my claim. Justin provided me with names of companies he had worked with to handle the mold remediation and I was very pleased with their professionalism and expertise. I then submitted all of the expenses I had incurred to Justin (because I could no longer wait for the insurance company). In the end, Justin had to take legal action, on my behalf, against my insurance company to help me get reimbursed for the cost to bring my home back to where it was prior to the incident. I truly believe that the insurance company dragged their feet in an effort to make me and my claim go away. Throughout this ordeal, which took well over a year to resolve, neither I nor Justin were willing to fold to the unfair treatment by both my insurance company and the public adjuster who seemed to be more content on making the insurance company happy than me, his client. He even boasted about his “good friend” at the insurance company. After much perseverance on the part of Justin, I finally was able to recover the amount that I paid out for the repairs out of total desperation and a desire to have normalcy return to my life.