Public adjusters in Clinton Township, Michigan.
Close to half of Clinton Township's housing is townhomes or apartment and condo units, and on March 4, 2024 explosions at a burning warehouse near 15 Mile and Groesbeck damaged dozens of homes and businesses. Shared walls, shared roofs and debris that lands far from a fire all change what a loss here costs and whose policy pays.
AdjustFair works only for the policyholder, from our Ferndale office, about 14 miles southwest of the township. We read the policy, document the full loss, price the repair the way a contractor would have to build it, and put that number in front of the insurance company with the proof behind it.
Where claims here get underpaid.
Three kinds of loss shape most serious Clinton Township claims, and each one gets underpaid in its own way.
- Fire and smoke through shared walls. In January 2012 a fire at the Schultz Estates condos near Garfield and Canal started in a hidden void inside the building and spread through four connected units. Smoke follows the same voids, attics and ductwork into homes the flames never reached, and those units often get a cleaning allowance instead of a real repair scope. What the association's policy covers and what falls to your own policy depends on the bylaws and both policies, so read them before anything is settled.
- Burst pipes and overflows from the unit above. With so many stacked and side by side units, one failed supply line, water heater, or upstairs tub, toilet or sink that overflows can run through the ceilings of the homes below, and the estimate for each unit tends to shrink to a few lines of drywall and paint. About three in ten township homes were built before 1970, and in those, water that comes up a basement floor drain because the home's own line collapsed or broke is a fill-up that started in the house and usually gets the full policy, not the lower limit on a true back-up, where heavy rain overruns the system; a short plumber's report usually decides which it was.
- Blast and impact damage. After the March 2024 explosions, a printing business nearby replaced all its windows and found hundreds of holes in its roof only when it started raining, and its owner said 87 percent of the equipment took on water. Impact damage hides in roofs, siding and ceilings, and the insurance company often prices what can be seen from the ground and declines to open anything up. The water that gets in later through that damage can be part of the same loss, depending on the policy, when it is documented that way from the start.
An offer of $11,630 on a commercial water loss that settled at $113,600.
Water through a Royal Oak office. The scope on the table stopped well short of the building. We itemized it, backed the materials with lab reports, and settled in three months.
Questions we get here.
Water from the unit above came through my Clinton Township condo ceiling. Whose policy pays?
It depends on the association's master policy, the bylaws and your own unit policy. Often the association covers the building and your policy covers interior finishes, upgrades and contents, but the split varies from one complex to the next. Get the cause in writing, photograph everything before it is torn out, and have both policies read before you accept a denial.
My Clinton Township house is from the 1960s. What gets missed on a fire or water estimate?
Usually the count of line items, not the prices. A kitchen or bathroom gets written in a handful of lines when rebuilding it takes many more, and original trim, doors and flooring get priced as stock. Smoke also moves through older framing and ductwork further than a quick walk-through shows. We document what is in the house and price it that way.
How soon can someone get out to Clinton Township?
Clinton Township is about 14 miles from our Ferndale office, an easy trip for us across Macomb County. Call the number on this page and you will reach someone who can walk you through the first steps, from stopping the damage to saving receipts, and set a time for an adjuster to see the property.
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