How to make the most of your home insurance claim

After you’ve lived through a storm, accident, or natu­ral disaster that damages your home, the stress and emotion are hardly over for you: you still have to file a claim with your homeowners insurance.

This is the point where many policyholders will re­luctantly take a lower pay­ment than they deserve, just because it’s easier to cut their losses and move on than it is ensure you get your full payout —to fight with insurance after all of their other stresses.

It doesn’t have to be that way. There are several things you can do before and after the fact to without feeling like you’ve been through the wringer twice.

Here’s what you need to know before you’re staring at your flooded living room in dismay:

• Be prepared.

One of the biggest rea­sons why people are disap­pointed by their homeown­ers insurance payout is that they’re not clear on what exactly is covered. We tend not to think about insurance until we need it, but every homeowner should take some time each year to re­view your policy and make certain that it still provides adequate coverage.

It’s also important to have an itemization of your prop­erty. This is much easier in the modern world when you can take photos and videos of your stuff rather than list­ing it. There are even apps to make it easier. According to Kiplinger,

“Insurers used to recom­mend making long lists of every item in your house and storing the records in a safe-deposit box. Now you can take a video of everything— including your possessions and architectural details— with your smart phone and e-mail it to yourself.”

•Record, record, re­cord.

In addition to having a photographic or video re­cord of your possessions, it’s also a good idea to take pictures of your home be­fore a disaster strikes. If you know that you’re in the path of a hurricane that’s set to touch down soon, you should take the time to re­cord what your home looks like beforehand. Then, you’ll have a comparison if your home is damaged by the storm.

This obviously won’t work for other types of damage that don’t an­nounce themselves ahead of time. However, it’s always a good idea to get photo­graphs or video of the dam­age soon afterwards. If you can give your claims ad­juster photographic proof of the source of a leak, for example, there will be fewer questions about the cause, and your claim will go more smoothly.

•Don’t wait to start temporary repairs.

One of the tough aspects of filing a claim is feeling like you need to wait for your insurance check be­fore you can start fixing things. Unfortunately, wait­ing to fix things may lead to parts of your claim being denied. If a broken window or leaking roof causes more damage, it’ll be difficult for your adjuster to know what damage came from the initial loss and what hap­pened because the window wasn’t fixed yet.

When you do make these temporary repairs, make sure that you save all your receipts and docu­mentation, as you’ll often be reimbursed.

•Be persistent

Just because your claim is initially denied doesn’t mean that you’re done. Continue to ask for what your policy covers. If you’re still having trouble getting anywhere, contact your state insurance department. There’s one in all 50 states, and each offers a free ser­vice to help policyholders through the claims process.

The Bottom Line

Navigating the claims process will never be any­one’s idea of fun, particu­larly after living through a disaster. However, with planning, organization, and persistence, filing a claim doesn’t have to be a disaster of its own.