What is the process for handling a home owners insurance claim?
Thursday, January 29th, 2009 at
3:54 am
peridot251970 asked:
We were just notified that one our houses, (we are trying to sell it) has just flooded from frozen pipes. I, fortuntely, have never had to file an insurance claim ever. Do we call ins. first, or do we get estimates caused by the damage or do we just start repairing? What role does the ins company play?
We were just notified that one our houses, (we are trying to sell it) has just flooded from frozen pipes. I, fortuntely, have never had to file an insurance claim ever. Do we call ins. first, or do we get estimates caused by the damage or do we just start repairing? What role does the ins company play?
Tagged with: Estimates • Home Owners Insurance • Insurance Claim
Filed under: Homeowners Insurance
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Be very very careful! Make sure that it is covered under your insurance policy. Once claim is filed, it stays on your “record” and could bump your premium. It does not matter that you get paid for it or not.
If you are covered, you need to get the insurance inolved right away.
Do anything necessary to prevent further damage first of all. Then contact your agent or the insurance company claims number right away. If it is covered you won’t need to get any estimates as an adjuster will evaluate the claim & issue you a check for the repair.
The issue of whether this will be covered depends on the type of policy. Is it a homeowners policy, or a standard fire policy?
Do you occupy the home, or do renters?
First, to do what you need to do to minimize the loss – which at a minimum, is getting out there to shut off the water and try to dry things up a bit. Then, you call your agent and file the claim, THEN you get a plumber out there to try to fix the problem.
Warning, if the house is vacant, AND you didn’t have the heat on, there’s an automatic exclusion of coverage for burst pipes due to freezing. If you DID have the heat on, you’ll have to save whatever parts of the heating system broke down, AND the heat bill, to show there was continuous attempts at heating the place, in order for there to be coverage.
Expect to get a cancellation notice, for vacancy, within the next 30 days, in any case, unless you had this written on a vacant property policy in the first place (in which case, there’s no coverage for frozen burst pipes anyway).
I’ll assume that the water has been shut off to the house now (if not run and do it now!). You will really need to speak with your broker/agent as this really depends on the wording of your policy, but I’ll try to cover all of the “what ifs”. Has the house been vacant (i.e. previous occupant/tenant has moved all stuff out with no intention of returning) for more than 30 days? Your damage will not be covered. Let’s say the house does not meet the definition of vacant, but you turned the heating off to save money. Your damage will not be covered (house must be heated during the usual heating season). Let’s say the house does not meet the definition of vacant, the heating has stayed on, almost all insurers would require you (or a competent person) to enter the dwelling daily to ensure that heating was being maintained. If this wasn’t done, your damage MAY not be covered. You will have to check your policy to confirm the third one. If all of the above has been done, then you are required to take whatever action required to prevent further damage, however you must wait for the adjuster to contact you before you can proceed with repairs. There is nothing stopping you from getting estimates right away, but do not agree to anything until the adjuster contacts you.
1. Notify the insurance company. I speculate that with the frozen pipe claim you will have quite a bit of damages.
2. Chose a contractor, perhaps your insurance agent or adjuster can give you some ideas.
3. Get a water extraction company out there asap. That will help to avoid mold. I think Service Master is nationwide, but any one will really do.
Once the water extraction is done, the adjuster and/or the contractor or both come up with an agreed scope of repair. You, the homeowner, authorize the repairs, and pay the deductible. The contractor repairs, you sign the check to him, and you are back to where you were before the loss.
Caution, however, if all the damages togehter are affordable to you, you might not want to submit a claim. Your choice, but if you are going to submit a claim to the insurance company, do it now….otherwise you may have problems getting paid for the damages. the insurance company has the right to investigate, and if you don’t tell them now, you could prejudice their rights, and if that happens, you may not get paid
I have found the source box to be a good resource for this type of insurance. There are a variety of ways to go about this so I suggest you research some of the companies for their offers.