Acceptable emergency rates for insurance work

[kct]

I don't mean to benefit from the demise of others, but I am looking forward to possible homeowners insurance work from Irene. I have had great experience in the past--Insurance companies pay better than I get on bid jobs and are good pay-- they want the tree off the house and the roof tarped ASAP before further damage (been doing trees 27 years -- just learned some of the insurance game from a public adjuster few years ago). I don't provide estimates for insurance companies-- I only take the insurance jobs where I do the job and submit a bill-- the "get 3 estimates for the insurance company" are always a waste of time. I can't get a straight answer from TCIA, ISA , Insurance co, or anybody on what the ins. co.s deem acceptable emergency rates. I have been charging $100 (double time for us) a man hour(for each man) plus crane rental etc., min half day/full day to show up and have not had a claim denied. Is double time acceptable or am I working too cheap? Is it acceptable to charge a minnimum of a half or full day? I don't want the attorney general knocking on the door for price gouging but obviously will charge more if I'm entitled to. I'm not looking to rip anybody off or for anyones trade secret but would appreciate any insight. I'm located in south jersey. Thanks

 

[jmcscrap]

Stuff like that pisses me off, I get higher deductables and inflated prices out of the deal. Sure, your not ripping off the homeowner, just the rest of the insurance companies clients. You're not talking 3am call and cut emergency, you're pulling up to a house during the day to do a job you have lined up. Your price should be your price, if you and your crew are worth $100 a man hour, charge it. But if you regularly charge $50, then that's your price. If you need to raise the price to cover the increased cost of being on the road, so be it.

 

[kct]

So sorry to piss you off. I did mean 3am jobs, daytime jobs when I have to call the guys in at doubletime and 8 hr gaurantee to work in wind and pouring rain- not sun and blue skies the day after. It might be a day job where I have to drop everything, go to another town to do the job and then accept a loss to reset the following day on the scheduled job I was doing. Every co in my area complains they work too cheap including me and there should be a standard. Trade Unions are by no reason perfect, but they do set standards for workers to have a decent life.I have tried getting the $ and that results in 10% bookings- so I have to work cheaper. On insurance work I can get a fair pay and I get paid. There are people who overvalue and undervalue themselves. I'm no wuss but more danger, driving in and working in bad conditions and more stress and a higher level of skill should get more $. A lot of people wouldn't do our job for a million bucks but I enjoy it. I can't always get the prices I need and don't want to get screwed by some loop hole, by some paperpusher in a corporate office who doesn't understand my business and what is involved. Maybe I should charge state prevailing rates and I would really drive your ins rates up. Perhaps my choice of words was wrong to seek the info I needed, but I was just trying to see if there was a acceptable standard decided by the ins. co.s from the experience of someone else . There are aspects of our occupation you cannot put a set price on. Sorry I asked

 

[jmcscrap]

Excellent response. I had only read what you wrote about coming in and charging twice your price. The things you mentioned in the last post were things I had not considered. Maybe instead of saying you are doubling your rates, just say you have additional costs you need to cover. By all means I want people to make what they are worth, and yes, alot of people wouldn't want to do what we do. Keep asking questions, lots of smart people here to help, I just mis-understood, or it was not clear how it was written. Not here to ruffle too many feathers!

 

[kct]

no worries. I guess when I mentioned the word public adjuster it raised an eyebrow--most of them are whores. When I used the word "game"--I meant "rules of the game" ie wording in the policy--I use to think Ins only covered up to $500 to remove the tree--what they mean is cleanup--the extraction is separate. So naive as I am some times I would cut regulars a break on the job if it was a hardship for them not knowing the ins co would have paid me full price. Thanks for responding back

 

[just_a_tree_guy]

you should just charge what the job is worth to you . dont charge more just because you can get it .

 

[Daniel]

100/man/hour seems like a very acceptable rate in emergency conditions.. I just put 1400 on a standing dead oak takedown, against 2 other bids 1800, and something over 3K.. Had 19 or 20 man hours into it.. That would have been over 150 man/hour at the highest bids price.. So I guess a lot of it depends on your ability to get it done..

I put 4650 on a job today, after the homeowner told me the only other price was 9K.. everyone else took a pass.. 135'+ tulip struck by lightning, threatening two houses with a huge leader cracked at about 75', and 80 MPH winds coming Saturday.. The lighning apparently caught an underground pipe and popped a gas line in the kitchen, startign a fire.. Insurance adjuster wanted to wait til Monday as they had to get the cause determined and that crew was due Monday.. I had to beat his ear about the danger for a minute til he called it in and they gave the go ahead.. Probably my biggest takedown yet.. If things go wll it could be done in 40 man hours, but I might have underbid it.. find out tomorrow..

 

[theXman]

for emergency work, I charge time + a half. And have done so for a very long time. When i am told another companies price for the same emergency job, it is usually very close.

Why time+ 1/2?

Because I am doing their work instantly. Because i am dropping everything I am doing, day or night and doing their job. Why should we not get paid for the effort it takes to do that?

Other customers in my work list have been waiting 5 weeks (this season many more) and why should I push them asside to do an job for the same price?

If emergency work was the same price as any other job and I had plenty of work: I would not do the emergency work. Well, business wise it would not be smart to do it, but if it was for one of my past customers, I'd want to help them out anyway.

Emergency work should always be more.

IF I have to call my co-workers back to work after they went home, or work on the weekend, we pay time plus a half to them too. and we are not talking overtime, even if their work week was only 35 hours they get time+1/2 for any emergency call to them. time plus a half if they come in when not a normal working hour day.

 

[Paul Biester]

X, Im glad im not alone! I also charge that.and actually do double time if its a holiday. The last one i did was on mothers Day! had to call in My foreman and load up etc. To motivate your people to come in after hours on a holiday you need to compensate them... and pass those costs on to the client...it seems fair, and im not the gouging type!!

 

[surfarmer1]

the last insurance qoute I gave was a joke.. The client asked for a qoute ASAP. The insurance co waited 5 days to respond (there was no hazard to anyone or I would have secured things and received a partial payment). Then the home owner asked if I could do it for less money and if so please rewrite the qoute ...Then 1 week later the tree was gone because a neighbor paid out of pocket for the removal of a tree on his property and the workers cut the wrong tree..Oh well!!!