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Water damage is an unfortunate and often gut-wrenching event that can ruin your home and the contents inside it. When that happens, the last thing you want to worry about is the process of filing a claim in order to get compensated for repairs and replacement. The focus of this document will be to try and guide home owners through the process of filing an insurance claim effectively and efficiently for a water damage incident. By strictly adhering to the process and requirements laid out by the insurance provider a policy holder can be successful in filing a clam that flows smoothly and turns out in their favor in the end.
To successfully file a claim policy holders must show that they took immediate action to limit additional damage, they had a pre-existing system in place to prevent further damage, they documented clear evidence of the damage, filed a claim form within a reasonable time frame and acted with reasonable care. By adhering to these steps home owners can assist insurance providers in adhering to their own stated guidelines and to ultimately better serve all policy holders.
The very first and most important step in filing an insurance claim for water damage is to document everything, second of all, if you did this step you should not have any problems. This means taking photos or video of the area s in question, including information like the date and time the photos were taken as well as just a general idea of what is wrong and how bad it is. Before any cleanup is done, leave the damage as is also. This makes sure that the claims adjuster get a clear view of any evidence of water marks, leaking water and damaged furniture just to name a few things. The next piece of advice in this process would be to not try to do any clean up on your own, that is the duty of the cleanup crew sent to handle your water damage situation. You without realizing or meaning to could and can affect the outcome of your claim and make a bad situation a lot worse for yourself.
At this point most home owners are usually feeling, too frightened or overwhelmed at this point to continue with the necessary steps, but it is imperative that you check the policy in regards to your dwelling. You have to know, specifically what that policy covers in terms of water damage. Fortunately or unfortunately, most if not all policies cover most or all of the dwelling meaning the inhabitable areas like the bedrooms, bathrooms, living room and kitchen making the process a little easier on owners. Some policies have blanketed restorations coverage and that en tails that anything in the house like furniture, electronics and heirlooms would be protected under just a general coverage clause instead of specifying this or that item. Some carriers also have provisions for lost food as well, as far as how much that usually is it varies, but the usual rate is around five hundred dollars. If, however the policy does not include specific provisions for actual cash value or replacement cost the owner should check past what their policy will pay out and how. They should also be advised that contents coverage covers clothing, furniture and appliances, outside appliances. They should also look to see how much coverage they would have per every thousand dollars.
At this point, it can be assumed that you have everything listed above and you are still worried about what to do next? The insurance company needs to be notified in a timely fashion or you could face denial of your claim. Not being able to do anything with out the carrier’s say so may be surprising or astonishing, but, it is not without good reason. The company wants to know as much as possible about everything so if you add anything in that is not true or that is missing information then this can either slow down the claim process or can preemptively take you out of the whole process itself. Every insurer needs a full investigative report from every home owner about emergency safety measures and when they found out about the loss. They also need to know if the water damage came from inside or outside the dwelling. After the information is submitted and your insurance provider assess your home, they are required to send an adjuster out.
On the other side of the field lays the insurance company or carrier and their responsibility is to the home owners. The company is to follow your provisions about coverage. While we all would like to believe that the provisions stand as open-ended, they do not, however, there are remedies that are in place when dissatisfied with your carrier’s solution to your loss. Communication is a key tool in this whole thing. You really don’t even have to communicate about anything to them, except for you insurance policy number and then your head ache will soon be over. Open ended provisions can be very misleading in their prepared language.
The most important step in this whole water damage process is forward commutation with the adjuster. When talking to or meeting with the adjuster make sure that the home owner has all the corresponding documents ready that were turned into the insurance company. The adjuster for the company is the person that will determine if or when the carrier will pay for a dwelling’s repair.
