Legal Question in Insurance Law in California

I'd like to know if I can fight a claim denial against an insurance company on my particular case. If yes, would an attorney work for a % of what can be collected? Since I can't afford to pay anything. Here are the particulars of this denial:

I purchased a property in Missouri (I'm posting here because it's Farmers Insurance, a CA based company). It was vacant at the time and needed some work. I purchased a landlord protector policy. I wasn't asked if the property was vacant and I don't recall if I made a mention of it. However, the insurance agent visited the property before writing the policy and an adjuster from Farmers after the fact.

I hired a contractor who began work on the property and was paid as materials were purchased. After some time, it was becoming clear that he wasn't doing much and he was swapping out materials, to show to my property manager that materials were there. Eventually, it was brought to our attention that a lot of the materials purchased by him was on credit, which he did not pay and I was being contacted for payment. When confronted, he brought in a truck overnight and stole everything possible.

After the discovery, a police report was filed, along with a claim. They valued the claim to be over $40K and after nearly a 3 month investigation by Farmers, the claim was denied because the property was vacant for 30 days and apparently that's how the policy was written.

Technically speaking, it looks like they win. However, the contractor did reside on the property from time to time (several days and nights at a time), and technically speaking, he was living there, even if was for short durations, and technically, the property was not vacant.

If they can deny my claim using a technicality, I'm wondering if I can fight them using this technicality.

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