Making a Claim

In the event of a loss, the first thing you must do is protect the rest of your property from further loss or damage. This may include placing sand bags around your property during a flood, boarding up a window, or putting up a temporary fence around damaged property to stop uninvited third parties wandering onto the property and becoming injured.

However, it is not normally a good idea to remove damaged goods or other property before the appraisal process has been completed. Consider taking photographs or video to show the state of the damage before carrying out any cleaning-up or repairing.

The next step is to notify your insurance company of the damage or loss. The claim department of most companies may be reached via a toll-free telephone number; however, you should be aware that conversations are normally recorded.

Before paying out any claim, the insurance company will send a claims adjuster to assess the loss. Once the assessor has confirmed the value of what was damaged or lost (and that it actually was damaged or lost), they will then offer a settlement of the claim. You may want to consider getting a number of independent estimates of the cost prior to seeing the adjuster, in order to give you more negotiating power.

When the company offers a settlement, they will ask you to sign a form that 'releases' them from further responsibility for the claim. However, if you do not agree with the proposed settlement amount, do not sign the release. You will need to hire an independent adjuster or an attorney to resolve the terms and amount of the dispute.

If you do sign the release form, then depending on the nature and extent of the loss, and on the individual practice of the insurance company, your claim may be paid in a number of ways:

• With a check or draft made payable to you directly,
• The settlement proceeds may be placed in escrow for payment to contractors and laborers
• An account may be set up an account from which the proceeds will be distributed.
• The company may have a contact with specific contractors who will provide the repairs and then bill the company directly.