People's Trust: storm damage reattributed to long-term ground settling

The reattribution play in the carrier’s own words: storm-claimed damage reassigned to “long-term ground settling and wear and tear,” with a vent pipe declared “not caused by a storm.” Settling and wear are gradual, excluded causes; the storm is sudden and covered; the entire claim turns on which label sticks.

Gradual causes leave gradual evidence: years of progressive cracking, staining with old margins, deflection a prior inspection would have caught. Sudden causes leave sudden evidence: a clean pre-storm inspection, dated photos, damage that first appears in the storm’s aftermath. A carrier asserting settling without pre-loss evidence of settling is stating a theory, and Florida law requires the insurer to prove an exclusion applies, not merely to name one.

People’s Trust is also Florida’s signature managed-repair carrier, whose policies route repairs to its affiliated contractor. When a reattribution letter arrives from a carrier that would otherwise control the repair itself, the independent-evidence file matters twice.