What You Need To Know About Fire Insurance Claims

It is unfortunate to be a victim of a fire, may it be your home or any property that you may own. Fires have a crazy way of devouring everything in its path and the homeowner is usually left with nothing after it. Of all the accidents that may happen to someone, fires are particularly the most devastating. It can consume your house down to the ground or if not leave with you an unusable property. This is why, most homeowner insurance policy always include loss from fires as it is also the most common. Except for forest fires or fires from lightning which are very rare, fires are always caused by human error or failure. Thus, the possibility of having a fire in our homes is really very real. After the fire, the homeowners usually turn to their insurance providers to be able to get the financial support that was agreed on by the homeowner and the insurance provider and this will be filed as a fire insurance claim.

Homeowner Insurance Policy

It is required by law that anybody who owns a house or a real property such as buildings and shops must have a homeowner insurance policy. The policy is for the house or building, and any untoward accident or incident that is deemed as a natural occurrence to the property will be compensated or reimbursed by the insurance provider. The homeowner has to take out the insurance at the outset and pay monthly or yearly premiums to ensure that the property is protected and insured. However, no two policies are equal and similar. Differences will exist in terms of the coverage and what has been insured and the maximum amount that the insurance company will pay for any damage to the property.

After the fire, you need to go back and check your existing homeowner policy for the coverage that you have opted to get and what are included in those different insurance policies. If you have coverage A, then all of your property, the house and even beneath the floor is covered, and thus can request the insurance provider to reimburse every part of the house. If you also have coverage B, then it would include the different structures inside your backyard such as pools and pathways. On the other hand, if you have coverage C then all of your personal belongings are also insured, as long as it is owned by you and you use it inside the home, then it is insured. Coverage D on the other hand, this would include a living expense in which the insurance provider reimburse the homeowner their expenses for not being able to live in their own homes because it has been destroyed. So, when you file a fire insurance claim, make sure to check which coverage you have and how much you can actually ask for in your claim.

Filing An Insurance Claim

Since everything was handled skillfully and without hassle when you paid for the insurance policy, you are of the idea that filing for a fire insurance claim will be easy and breezy. This is however, very far from the truth. Insurance companies are very unwilling to give to their clients the amount that was agreed on in the policy. They would find different ways to make sure that they would pay less than they promised such as sabotaging your fire insurance claim. It is understandable that insurance providers would really want to ensure that the money they are giving to the policy holder will be used well, however, as a business enterprise, settling claims with exorbitant amounts will hurt the business. Thus, insurance providers will try to drag the settlement negotiations until they are able to actually commit to an amount that is acceptable to both parties, the lesser it is from what they have agreed on the better.

So be careful with representatives or workers from the insurance providers, without a doubt they will not work for your interests but for the benefit of their employers. They might refer you to public adjusters and industrial hygienists to make sure that the company will have to pay the minimum amount only. This will not be to your advantage since looking for another house or property to live in will also be costly. Rebuilding your spaces and buying necessities can be a start towards moving on from your misfortune and insurance money is a good way to start with having a sense of normalcy in your lives after the fire.

Filing a fire insurance claim means that you are telling your insurance provider that the worst thing I have feared might happen did really happen, and since I have bought an insurance policy from you, then I am now filing a request to claim that insurance money. But as insurance providers are corporate entities, they have very stringent rules and requirements on who could file a claim and what they can claim and the process of deciding how much of the costs of the property can be reimbursed.

It is Ok to Ask for Help

It is not a good idea to file your fire insurance claim by yourself, as you would probably be lost in all the legal jargon and this can be quite confusing for those who do not have an experience or background in it. Asking for help in filing a fire insurance claim is the best option for you, and you can find an excellent public adjuster to help you with the process. However, you need to look for a licensed public adjuster as they are legally recognized by law to represent you and negotiate on your behalf to get the most out from you insurance provider. If you do not know any public adjuster, then it is also okay to ask from your friends and relatives if they know someone and who they can recommend to you. After such a misfortune, more and more people will be willing to help you, and you will probably get a number of referrals and you can choose which one you could really work with.