Filing Fire Damage Insurance Claims? Follow These Tips for Maximum Benefit

Fire accidents are progressively increasing in the state of California. As a result, many insurance companies are trying to find more ways to deny claims or undervalue the damage as much as possible to save money. When an insurance claim for fire damage is filed properly, you can get proper reimbursement.

However, with lack of guidance and knowledge of the claim filing process, you can easily be wrongly denied or the amount might be adjusted to minimum just because of some completely avoidable mistakes.

When you are devastated by fire accidents already, you don’t want your homeowners’ insurance provider to give you a hard time. So, here are some tips that we highly recommend you to follow when dealing with a fire accident at your property.

Request to get an advance against the ultimate fire insurance claim

When you can’t grab your essentials during fire accidents, you can call your insurance company and ask them to bring a check to wherever you have taken the shelter. This way, you can easily purchase necessities without waiting for the final coverage amount or borrowing from your friends and relatives.

But, you must not go overboard because the insurance company will refuse to reimburse for things that are non-essential or more expensive (than they need to be).  

Enlist all items you lost to the fire and keep everything with you

As soon as you are allowed to go home, make a list of everything that you have lost to the fire. Be as comprehensive as you can and ask other family members to see what valuables and belongings they have lost to the fire as well. Make this list as soon as possible so that you remember everything properly.

Make sure that you don’t throw anything away until the damage evaluator from the insurance company and your insurance adjuster see them so that it is easy for you to prove that you really lost those items.

Evaluate the loss correctly and file insurance claim without delay

Insurance policyholders are required to act immediately when they need to file fire insurance claims. So, call your insurance agent quickly. When you will contact the insurance company, it will ask you to submit the “proof of loss claim”. That’s where you will share the list of all the items you lost during fire accident along with their value.

If there are also other homeowners affected by the fire accident in the area, you might fall to the bottom of list of policyholders with fire insurance claims. That’s why there could be a longer time before the insurance adjuster contacts you. So, act ASAP.

Make sure you have the following information ready to file your claim correctly, quickly, and properly:

The date of fire accident, location of the damage, the type of loss or damage, any injuries caused by the fire accident, condition of the home, description of damaged items, and necessary temporary repairs, and a police report.

Lastly, remember that the process of fire damage insurance claims is not over until the victim party says so. Thus, if you think that the amount offered by the insurance company doesn’t match the loss, hire a licensed public insurance adjuster to negotiate the settlement.