State gets few insurance gripes in Gatlinburg

GATLINBURG - If attendance Thursday night was any indication, most people are pretty satisfied with insurance companies’ response to November’s wildfire in Sevier County.

About 250 chairs were set out in the gym at Rocky Top Sports World, but barely a fifth were filled by half an hour after the official start of the state-sponsored public meeting.

Several people did have complaints or questions about insurers’ response to the massive fire, which destroyed more than 2,400 structures in Sevier County.

A number of questions related to some insurers’ insistence on an itemized list of losses in order to get reimbursement for the contents of burned houses.

Jerry McCarter led off that line of discussion: While his agent has been “outstanding,” there’s no way he can list everything accumulated from 31 years’ residence – all of which is now gone.

Others had related closely related questions. Some said they’d been offered only a percentage of their insured value.

Michael Humphreys, assistant commissioner for insurance in the state Department of Commerce & Insurance, said house-contents coverage is an issue he’ll take back to Nashville as needing clarification. The department works as mediator between companies and customers on a case-by-case basis, but right now the standards for contents coverage are broad, differing from carrier to carrier, he said.

Humphreys’ department held the meeting at the request of several concerned legislators, including state Rep. Dale Carr, R-Sevierville; Rep. Andrew Farmer, R-Sevierville; and Sen. Doug Overbey, R-Maryville.

Carr said Gov. Bill Haslam has appointed a cabinet-level task force on response to and recovery from the fire.

“We’re rebounding; we know we are. We’re coming back, and we’re coming back strong,” Carr said.

Humphreys said in nearly three months since the fire, more than 4,000 insurance claims have been filed – but his department has received at most two dozen complaints. Even so, this public outreach was set up on two weeks’ notice, and seven of the area’s 10 largest insurers sent representatives.

The total value of claims filed thus far is about $30 million lower than announced two weeks ago, department spokesman Kevin Walters said: it stands at $911 million, reduced because one insurer submitted duplicate information; but it will probably rise again on March 3, the next reporting date.

So far insurance companies have paid out $630 million for the Sevier County fire, closing 1,300 claims with payment, Humphreys said.

“This is one of the largest insured catastrophe losses, certainly in Tennessee, and recently nationwide,” he said.

Only 281 claims closed without payment, and so far those seem justified, Humphreys said. Some people who thought they had policies actually didn’t, or their damage total was less than their deductible.

In cases of total loss, though, the state would like to see insurers pay out faster than they have, Humphreys said. He urged anyone with an issue to contact his office.

Complaints have to be filed in writing, but can be submitted online, said Vickie Trice, director of the Consumer Insurance Services Section. Insurance companies have to answer complaints within 30 days, and most are resolved within two weeks, she said.

Craig Gibbs complained that he has been shuffled from one insurance company representative to another, and has been repeatedly put off despite paying for a “Cadillac” policy for many years.

“We lost everything. No birth certificates, no passports, nothing,” he said.

Gibbs said he wants to sell out and leave Gatlinburg, but now can’t even reach his assigned agent.

Carr and Humphreys directed him – and, eventually, several others – to state representatives at a table set up to begin the formal complaint process.