Most people directly affected by BP’s oil spill know it, but there are some claims that might not be as obvious as others. If you own a rental vacation home on the gulf coast, you most likely have a very good claim. Just because you aren’t relying directly on the gulf for your livelihood by doing something like fishing, doesn’t mean that the oil spill did not reduce your income!
It’s no secret that there aren’t nearly as many tourists along the gulf coast now; not many people want to go swimming in tarballs or risk getting dispersant-contaminated water all over them. So if you have had trouble getting your property rented out, or if you’ve had to lower your prices and your income is not as high as it was before the spill, chances are you can get some money from the GCCF.
Not just Vacation Home Can File With The GCCF
This isn’t just limited to people who own vacation homes either; restaurants, shops, and other businesses that depend on tourists all have legitimate claims if they have earned less money after the spill. Even businesses that don’t rely directly on tourists can still rely on fishermen and other people to use their services, and if the fishermen don’t have money because of the spill that means those businesses are losing out on money too.
Don’t let BP cheat you out of what you deserve! I would recommend that you file a claim with the GCCF and try to get interim payments. Unless the final offer is really good, be careful about signing away your rights though. If you can, it’s always better to stick with interim payments so that if this mess is still affecting your income years from now, you haven’t signed away your rights to be compensated for it.
Vacation Home Claims Advice
If you want some free advice about whether or not you have a claim, feel free to fill out the free case review box on the right side of this page and we’ll take a look at it and help you figure it out. It can be hard to tell if they will pay out your claim or not, and the GCCF will use that to deny you even when you may still deserve money. For that reason I think it’s smart to get some expert advice you can use to negotiate what you really deserve from the GCCF.
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Hundreds of court cases has already been filed for lost of property value due to the BP oil spill and it could be joining one of these cases would be a better bet than filing for a BP claim for lost property value. I have personally talked to attorney’s that take these cases and I will setup a form submit page for people interested in joining a class action or BP lawsuit to get their lost property value back from BP.
One of the strongest arguments would be can your realize a loss without selling your property ? The argument from BP would be, if your invest in stocks and they fall in value but your do not sell the stocks you do not realize the loss, also from a tax standpoint this would be the case. So is it really possible to file a BP claim without first having sold the house and gotten a price lower than the expected price before the oil spill ?
The counter argument would be the lost we have today which is keeping us from selling our house as we are up side down on the mortgage basically imprison us at our current house because we can’t afford to sell it as we would owe more than the house value after the oil spill. Realizing the lost of your house value because of the oil spill would put positive equity back into you house and give you the compensation you should get for the mess BP has made in our paradise.
But what if you had leased that same house out with a beach and all of a sudden the beach is full of oil ? The person that leases that house has suffered damage and would be entitled to filing a BP claim as the value of the lease before the oil spill where greater as they had use of the beach and the ocean, but after the oil spill this was not available to the lessee anymore. There would be a damage as an result from the oil spill. This would be considered a clear case as we know the value of the lease before the oil spill but how do we put a value of the lost of the beach and the ocean to find the right loss in value ?
So back to the property value aspect, a BP claim can be filed up to 3 years after the oil spill, which would make it August 2013. If you live 30 miles from the coast that was affected by the oil spill and your have your house for sale in the next 3 years there is a claim to be filed if your receive less now for your house compared to before the oil spill.
The argument of selling your house before you can make a BP claim for the lost property value would be a hard pressed issued for a land developer that has 1,000 of acers along the gulf of Mexico, lets say this land developer was on the stock market and his stock has taken a beating since the oil spill because the market believes his land is now less valuable. There are many ways to convince a judge or a jury that land and house value is now lower on the coast that it was before the oil spill.
I think that one case has to go though the court systems before the flood gates of the lost of property value BP claim opens up for everybody to get compensation for their lost in the oil spill.
As of this writing many BP lawsuits and class action suits are popping up from all over the cost of Florida to get a court decision for the damage the BP oil spill has done to the house values along the gulf cost. These lawsuits and possible class action suits will make the way for compensation for the home owners but it will take some time maybe 1 to 2 years.
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Looking at the papers coming from the main Claims facility for BP Claims, it looks to me like BP are admitting to the point of lower house evaluations because of the oil spill. Take a look at it with me and see if my reasoning are not correct.
From the latest report from the oil spill claims head quarter in Ohio, Mr. Feinberg put out the following in his October 6 2010 report:
” Payments made to real estate brokers and agents as part of a separate fund: $34.5 million ”
Now it looks like the real estate brokers has been able to show the BP claims office that they have had losses as they could not sell their houses because of the oil spill.. They cannot sell their houses because of the oil spill and nobody wants to buy a house where there is oil in the ocean or on the beach.
So it looks like to me like the real estate agents has just proved and made a case for all the home owners and their loss of property value how else could the real estate agents get money ?
If BP has already admitted responsibility for the loss of the real estate agents in the same instance they have to admit that the oil spill has resulted in a loss of property value for the home owners located near the oil spill, mainly Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida. I am sure that a court cases has to be decided first before everybody can get on board with a class action law suit, but for sure the oil spill lawyers will take this to trial and create a landmark case that everybody else can follow to get their oil spill property loss out of the BP claims fund.
I think this is very good news for the home owners that are affected by the oil spill. If you have not already I would suggest that you contact and oil spill attorney so he can go over the option you have to get your BP claim for loss of property value.
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