When you file an insurance claim, the insurance company has an obligation to act relatively quickly. They need to investigate the claim within a reasonable timeframe and provide you with an outcome. Whether they are going to authorize a payout or deny your claim, they still need to work diligently to provide you with information, investigate your case, gather documentation and evidence, and take other critical steps.
If the insurance company fails to do this, it may be an example of operating in bad faith. This is unfair to you as a policyholder, and it could be viewed as a breach of the contract that the insurance company agreed to when you purchased the policy in the first place.
Why would insurers create purposeful delays?
For instance, say that you file an insurance claim, but the company does not even begin investigating it for months. Even after they conduct the investigation, they ignore your communications, whether those are phone calls or email messages. The months drag on, and you do not hear anything about the status of your case, much less receive the money that you believe you are due to repair the property.
In some cases, this could simply mean that the insurance company is inefficient, that there has been miscommunication involving your case, or that there are other administrative errors.
But you could also argue that they may be trying to get you to drop the claim, make the repairs on your own and cover the costs yourself. They are creating unreasonable delays simply to make the process more difficult for you.
If you believe that the insurance company is intentionally acting in bad faith through these unreasonable delays, you must understand exactly what legal steps you can take to rectify the situation and get the answers that you need.