Part II: Public Adjusters Guide For First 30 Days After A Fire
Let’s dive into more of the items that need your attention in the first 30 days after a fire. While there are many important things that you need to be paying attention to, THE most important thing to do after meeting with the adjuster is to find some comfortable living arrangements for your family.
Temporary housing
Homeowners policies all have coverage for what is called Additional Living Expenses (“ALE”). This particular benefit provides monies to help families find suitable housing while their claim is getting settled and their homes rebuilt. The language within the policy for this coverage typically says that the insurance company “will pay any additional money necessary for you to maintain your normal standard of living”. So, if the house that you were living in was 2,000 square feet with 3 bedrooms and 2 baths then you would be entitled to find a house comparable in size and quality as to what you were living in. This arrangement would meet the definition of “your normal standard of living”.
But, whatever you do, don’t get persuaded by the insurance company to go rent a 2‑bedroom apartment. If you do, you will soon “feel the walls closing in” and regret having agreed to something much smaller than you are used to. When families are forced to live in accommodations half the size of their previous living arrangements family dynamics can get very stressful and strain relationships, making for a very unhappy homelife. Find some place where you will feel comfortable for six months or more. Settling your claim and then restoring your home will take a lot longer than you can imagine. Trust me on this.
Homework assignment: Contents Inventory.
When you met with your adjuster no doubt, he gave you some “homework” to do. He assigned you the task of listing all the items in your home that were lost in the fire and wish to make a claim for. This is a rather formidable task in the best of times, much less after disaster strikes. But, if you want to be given money for all the items you lost in a fire or tornado you are going to have to commit a substantial amount of time to putting together a complete and detailed inventory. So, take lots of photos of all the contents and do your best to capture within the photo the name or brand of the item as this will help with pricing.
Remember, you will only get paid for the items you list; so, if you decide to not list an item because the whole process is too time-consuming and emotionally draining then just understand that the insurance company you will not give you the money to replace it out of the goodness of their heart. It also means, that you will be coming out of your own pocket when the time comes to replace any item not listed.
Secondarily, since 90% of the policies I read provide for Replacement Cost coverage you will need to list the cost of replacing a given item at TODAY’s price and not what you paid for (be it last year or ten years ago). Pay attention to this or it will cost you money. Additionally, don’t use as your Replacement Cost a “sales” price as that item most likely won’t be on sale at the time you move back into your home and start buying and replacing all your damaged contents. Use normal retail pricing.
One final note: if listing and pricing all of your contents just seems to be too great a burden at this time in your life, and it’s becoming apparent to you that you are deliberately leaving off such items as tooth brushes and shower curtains (as an example) in order to save time, you would be wise to get some professional help with your “homework assignment”. You have hundreds and hundreds of items in your house that are under $20 and if you leave them off the inventory list you will only be hurting yourself. (FYI: we have several inventory specialists on staff who do this for our clients and are experts at putting together a full and complete list of everything in a home, pricing those items and then factoring in depreciation. They get rave reviews from our clients. Feel free to call us and let’s talk about it).
Let me end up Part II by admonishing you not to throw away any of the items in your home without written authorization from the adjuster. One of the “conditions” of you being able to have a policy with any carrier is that they have “the right to inspect all damaged items as often as they reasonably require.” If you throw something away before they have the chance to make their own damage assessment or determine salvage value, they could refuse to pay you anything for that item.
I’ll go into more detail in some future article about inventorying of personal property. Until then if you should have any questions, please feel free to call us and we’ll get you pointed in the right direction.