A Santa Clarita realtor is helping a number of Ventura County residents who lost their homes in the Woolsey Fire — and victims of any other disaster — handle a variety of issues completely free of charge, ranging from insurance claims to mortgages to property taxes and more.

Richard Szerman of Alta Realty Group is known throughout Santa Clarita for the free foreclosure defense services he provides, and now wants the community to know that he also offers free assistance to victims of disasters, large and small.

“In addition to fighting with banks, we also fight with insurance companies,” Szerman said. “People have a very difficult time advocating for themselves during a crisis, so we step into that breach.”

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Szerman and his team are currently helping a family of four who lost everything in the Woolsey Fire, and are now living on a friend’s couch because their insurance company has been “extremely slow” to act on their claim, he said.

Another Woolsey Fire victim has enlisted Szerman to help dispute the value the insurance company placed on their custom home that burned down.

“Often you get into arguments as to what is the value of the property, how quickly are they going to do things,” Szerman said. “We’ve got now a slew of clients that came out of the recent fires.”

In addition to dealing with insurance claims, Szerman also assists disaster victims with contacting the appropriate officials regarding property taxes, mortgage payments, homeowners association fees and more.

“There are a lot of things that when people go through a disaster, they don’t think about,” Szerman said. “The trick is to think about all these various things that you need to contact, which is a pretty impossible task, being that you’ve just gone through a disaster… That’s where we kind of step in.”

Victims of the Woolsey Fire or any other disaster, large or small, are encouraged to contact Szerman for free assistance.

“If you are somebody or know somebody who’s been in some trouble, who’s had an emergency, fire, flood — even if it’s just (that) you flooded your kitchen and the insurance company is not playing nice — … come to us,” Szerman said. “We’d be happy to help.”

To contact Rich Szerman of Alta Realty Group for free disaster assistance services, call/text 661-714-1400 or click here.

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