This is the third in a series of articles on how to get paid for insured restoration work. The first two articles focused on accelerating payments from insurance companies and from banks holding two party checks in escrow, mostly in homeowners insurance claims.

If you have been in the restoration business for more than five years, you have likely noticed it is getting harder to collect from your customers who are dependent upon insurance proceeds and two-party checks to pay for your services. 

When a property owner is surprised by the lack of insurance coverage for a water loss, the credit worthiness of the customer may come into question.

Things-are-a-changing in the commercial insurance business on mold claims, but at a snail’s pace. The universal insurance exclusions for fungi, mold and bacteria, introduced by insurance companies on a wide scale in 2005, are finally having a measurable effect in the area of environmental insurance claims in 2017.

Catastrophes, while terrible for people in the affected area, produce a lot of restoration and remediation work in a concentrated area, making them an incredible business opportunity for restoration contractors.

A few years ago, a restoration client of mine asked me what he could do to speed up payment from bank escrow accounts for the insurance claim work he had done. 

Every cleaning and restoration contractor knows there are times where they are working on or around some pretty valuable items.

Every restoration contractor seems to know an insurance agency can be a good source for referrals. Most marketers have noticed marketing to insurance agencies is becoming less productive over time. The good news is – there is a way to reverse the trend by understanding how and why it is happening.

Restoration firms providing biohazard cleaning services need special training and insurance coverage to manage the additional risks associated in performing this type of work.

If you have read my columns in R&R over the years, you know I complain and warn a lot about the coverage problems with the liability insurance policies sold to restoration firms.