Property Damage Attorney In Hammond

On August 12, 2016, the Tangipahoa River began climbing over its banks north of Hammond, and by the next day 20 to 30 inches of rain had fallen across southeast Louisiana in roughly 48 hours. Nearly half of Tangipahoa Parish flooded before the water receded. That single event still shapes how insurance adjusters treat claims out of this area a decade later, and it is one reason Hammond and Tangipahoa Parish homeowners so often find themselves fighting for a fair payout after storm damage rather than simply receiving one.

DeJean Law Office represents Hammond-area homeowners and business owners whose property insurance claims have been denied, delayed, or underpaid, and does it across Louisiana, not only from the Baton Rouge office. Consultations are available by phone, in person, or by Zoom, so the distance up I-55 or I-12 never has to stand between a Hammond policyholder and the help their claim needs. Click-to-call puts that conversation one tap away.

Property Damage and Insurance Claims We Handle in Hammond

Most calls into this practice start with one of a handful of situations. Hurricane and straight-line wind events tear off shingles, siding, and sometimes whole roof sections, and the fight that follows is usually over how much of the damage the insurer will admit is storm-related rather than “existing wear.” Roof damage claims specifically tend to draw the sharpest pushback, since a partial repair costs the carrier far less than a full replacement, even when a full replacement is what the policy and the damage actually require. Flood and water damage claims raise a separate problem entirely: homeowners policies and NFIP flood policies cover different things, and a carrier will sometimes deny a claim by pointing to the other policy instead of paying what its own policy owes.

Denied and underpaid claims and outright bad faith insurance practices, meaning an insurer that misrepresents policy language, delays a decision without cause, or lowballs a settlement to see if the homeowner will just accept it, sit at the center of this work. Business interruption coverage matters here too, and it gets overlooked more than any other line on the policy. A Main Street storefront or a business along the I-12 corridor that has to close for cleanup and repairs may be entitled to lost income under its policy, but that coverage rarely pays out without someone pushing the insurer to honor it. DeJean Law Office handles all of these claim types under one practice, so a loss that touches more than one type of damage does not require piecing together more than one lawyer.

Why Hammond Homeowners Face a Tough Fight After a Storm

Tangipahoa Parish has been included in 36 federal disaster or emergency declarations since 2000, and hurricane is by far the most common hazard behind them, accounting for 25 of the 36. Hurricane Ida hit the parish directly in August 2021. The 2016 flood remains the costliest single event on record for this area: NOAA logged roughly $629 million in flash flood damage from that one August weekend, and Tangipahoa Parish alone generated 1,696 NFIP flood claims that year totaling $98 million in payouts. Only about 13 percent of parish households currently carry flood insurance, which means a large share of homeowners who flood again will be negotiating with their homeowners carrier or facing the loss without coverage at all.

Housing age compounds the problem. Just over half of Tangipahoa Parish’s homes, roughly 54 percent, were built before 2000, meaning they predate Louisiana’s statewide Uniform Construction Code that followed Hurricane Katrina. Older roofing systems, older flashing, and older framing do not perform the same as new construction in a wind event, and insurers know it. That gives an adjuster an easy narrative on an older Hammond-area home: call the damage pre-existing deterioration instead of storm damage, and the claim gets denied or cut down before it is ever fully evaluated. A high storm frequency paired with an older building stock is exactly the combination that produces disputed claims, and it is exactly why a policyholder in this position benefits from someone who has seen this specific fight play out before.

Know Your Deadlines Under Louisiana Law

Louisiana law gives policyholders real protection after a declared disaster, but it also runs on a clock. Under La. R.S. 22:1892 and 22:1894, property insurers generally must allow at least 180 days from a catastrophic loss tied to a declared emergency to submit proof of loss, and that window does not start running until the declaration is lifted. Once proof of loss is filed, the insurer is required to pay the claim or make a written offer within a set period, and a carrier that misses that deadline or handles the claim in bad faith can face significant penalties.

Missing an internal policy deadline, or Louisiana’s separate legal deadline for filing suit against an insurer, can forfeit the right to recover altogether. That deadline varies by claim and depends on facts an attorney needs to review, so no homeowner should assume they know where they stand without having the timeline checked. This is exactly the kind of detail a directory listing or a general practice website will never mention, and exactly the kind of detail that determines whether a claim can still be pursued.

Talk to a Hammond-Area Property Damage Attorney

DeJean Law Office reviews Hammond-area property damage and insurance claims by phone, in person in Baton Rouge, or by Zoom consultation, and brings a real track record to that review: a $350,000 recovery on a homeowner’s hurricane property claim, the kind of result that comes from knowing how these disputes actually get resolved. Whether the claim involves a storm-damaged roof, a flooded first floor, or a business that lost income while its doors were closed, the same question applies: is the insurance company paying what the policy actually owes?

If a claim out of Hammond or anywhere in Tangipahoa Parish has been denied, delayed, or underpaid, the clock described above is already running. Call (225) 344-ANDY or request a Zoom consultation to have the policy and the insurer’s response reviewed before that window closes. Visit the property damage practice page for the full range of claims DeJean Law Office handles across the state, or read more about Andy DeJean’s background before reaching out.