David Hester inspects the damage to his home after Hurricane Helene made landfall in Horseshoe Beach, Florida, on September 28, 2024.
Chandan Khanna | AFP | Getty Images
It’s vital to know how to make a claim after a home insurance claim natural disaster.
insured loss alone for Hurricane Helen Current estimates are over $6 billion.
Meanwhile, analysts expect Hurricane Milton Possibly a “once-in-a-hundred-year” storm that could cause record-breaking damage when it lands Wednesday on the west coast of Florida.
Once you are safely out of danger, starting the insurance claims process is an important consideration. Experts say the sooner you report a claim, the sooner your insurance company can start the process and you can start rebuilding.
“Your adjusters are assigned on a first-come, first-served basis,” said Shannon Martin, a licensed insurance agent and analyst at Bankrate.com.
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Jeremy Porter, director of climate impact research at the First Street Foundation in New York City, which focuses on financial modeling of climate risk, said insurance companies’ processing departments would be dealing with “a lot of paperwork and claims.”
“The longer you wait, not only are you delaying the time it takes for your claim to be approved and served to you, but you’re also prolonging the time that claim is in the process,” Porter said.
Here are three important steps to quickly filing an insurance claim after a disaster, experts say.
1. Call your insurance company as soon as possible
Expert recommendation Include a copy of your insurance policy and contact number Disaster Preparedness ToolkitThat If you evacuate, go with you And store safely otherwise.
Once the disaster has passed, contact your insurance company immediately to let them know your home was damaged as a result of the recent disaster and you want to start the claim process, Porter said.
If you evacuate, “you can start a claim from anywhere,” Porter said. “You ultimately have to schedule a time with the insurance company to actually review and inspect the damage.”
But if you decide to wait out the storm at home, you need to prevent further damage to your home before you call, says Bankrate.com’s Martin.
Typical homeowners insurance policies have provisions that require homeowners to mitigate the impact and prevent further losses, she said.
“Then you can call the insurance company, take photos of the damage, and move the items to a safer location,” Martin said.
2. Record the damage
During the call, give the insurance company some preliminary details, such as whether your roof was blown out or if several windows were broken, Porter said.
“But they won’t do an assessment until they come in and inspect the damage,” he said.
While insurance companies will perform their own inspections, Porter says it’s always important to document your damages, including taking photos, so you can match them to official inspection records from your insurance company.
That way, he says, you can dispute any claims if necessary later.
3. Keep records of receipts
Daniel Schwarcz, a professor of insurance law at the University of Minnesota Law School, said that if a loss occurs, you must notify the insurance company immediately and you have a responsibility to protect the property.
Schwartz says that after a storm, you must protect your property from further damage, make reasonable repairs, and keep accurate records of repair costs.
Schwartz says the receipts you need to keep are those for the purchase of materials used to prevent further damage to a property that has already been damaged by a covered peril — referring to wind and trees, but typically not flooding. , unless you Have a flood insurance policy. Insurance companies will usually reimburse you for reasonable expenses incurred.
He said if such measures are not taken after a storm and the inaction results in further damage, the insurance company has no obligation to pay for the damage.
Materials purchased to protect a home before a natural disaster, such as plywood used to cover windows, are often not covered.
When you start working with a contractor to rebuild damaged areas, you’ll also want to keep records of your receipts, experts say.
Distinguishing damage from successive disasters
Porter says one of the reasons you want to document damage to your insurance company right away is so you can attach it to the incident itself, increasing the likelihood that the incident will be covered by your home insurance.
“Filing your claim immediately is the most important thing,” Porter said.
He said it was important to trace the source of the damage and having evidence could help avoid problems down the road.
Porter posited the hypothesis that someone’s home sustained wind damage from Hurricanes Debbie or Helen but had not yet filed a claim before Milton made landfall, and cause flood damage.
“Suddenly, you have a problem, National Flood Insurance Programcovers flood, while your home insurance company, covers wind, may start to argue about what exactly caused the property damage,” Porter said.
Martin says you want to make sure you file your claim within three to five days of the incident. As long as you submit all the information from the first incident in a timely manner, she said, if something else comes up, you can show the adjuster that it was the second incident.
