How to Deal with the Insurance Company After a Wildfire

The only measure of comfort to be found after your home has been damaged in a wildfire is the fact that you’re covered by insurance. At least, you hope you’re covered. You also want to find a fast resolution to any claim you make. Those benefits can help you clean up, rebuild, and get your life back on track.

First, you have to deal with your insurance company, and that can sometimes be challenging.

The following information can help you understand the wildfire claim process.

Immediate Steps to Take After a Wildfire

The worst-case scenario in any wildfire is to receive an evacuation order. The first priority is to make sure everyone in the family is safe. It then becomes a waiting game until you’re given clearance to return to your property.

Even with that clearance, there are still precautions to take.

Consider the following:

Wear Personal Protection

If you’re returning to a property that has been destroyed by a fire, you should wear a NIOSH-certified N95 respirator mask. Additionally, you should wear goggles, gloves, long pants, and long sleeves when cleaning ash. This will prevent exposure to toxicities.

Inspect Your Property

If your property is still standing, you need to conduct a thorough inspection to detect any potential hot spots. These could be smoldering embers on the roof, around vegetation, or on other structures on your property.

Check Your Utilities

Before you turn on any power, you have to check for downed power lines and broken gas lines. If the house is damaged, you should shut off the main circuit breaker. It’s also important not to use water until it has been deemed safe.

Contact Your Insurance Carrier

Your insurance policy might require you to contact the carrier to report the damage to your property. This initial contact doesn’t have to be a formal claim, but it puts the insurance company on alert and helps them prepare for the eventual claim.

Documenting Property Damage and Personal Loss

After a wildfire, there will be dozens, if not hundreds, of claims coming into many of the same insurance carriers. That will be a lot for them to sort through. It helps when a claim is completely supported with strong documentation.

Here’s how you should document property damage and personal loss:

Take Photos and Videos First

Before you begin to clear any debris, you should take photos and videos of all damaged areas. That includes your roof, walls, appliances, furniture, and any other damaged asset.

It also helps to include photos of undamaged areas around your property for comparison.

Create a Detailed Inventory List

You need to create a list of every item that was damaged. That should include the date of purchase, the price, brand, and model number. You can categorize each item by room.

Hopefully, you created that list before any damage was incurred.

Gather Evidence of Value

Your claim will be supported by receipts, invoices, bank records, and appraisals for damaged items. If you have items that were completely lost, you could use old family photos or home videos to prove they existed. The better approach would be to have a “before” video of your home and assets.

Document Repairs

As you begin to make repairs, you want to keep a detailed log of all your expenses. That also includes temporary repairs. If you were displaced, you want to include your hotel and meal expenses.

Record Communications

An insurance adjuster will be assigned to your claim. You’ll want to record and document all your interactions with them. As you record, be sure to notify them and get their consent.

They’ll most likely be recording the conversations as well.

Understanding Your Homeowner’s Policy Limits and Coverage

No matter how much damage you’ve suffered from a wildfire, you can only receive reimbursement up to the limits of your policy. Simply put, if your policy is for $500,000 but your damages are $750,000, you’ll only be able to settle for $500,000.

Even though there is a number attached to your policy, there are additional constraints that can limit what you can claim.

The following are some of the common key components of a homeowner’s insurance policy:

• Dwelling Coverage: This covers the cost of rebuilding the structure of your home. This amount does not include the current market value or the cost of the land.
• Other Structures: This typically covers 10% of your dwelling coverage and protects detached structures such as fences, sheds, or garages.
• Personal Property: This covers your belongings, including furniture, clothes, and electronics. Typically, this would be around 50%–70% of dwelling coverage. It might also include special limits for high-value items like jewelry and art.
• Loss of Use and Additional Living Expenses (ALE): With this coverage, you can be reimbursed for temporary housing if your home is uninhabitable due to a covered claim.

Your insurance policy will also stipulate whether you can apply for Replacement Cost Value (RCV) or Actual Cash Value (ACV). RCV pays to repair or replace items with new items, but without deducting for depreciation. ACV pays the value of the item at the time of loss. That will include depreciation.

It is important to understand which of these policies you are carrying. You won’t be able to “switch” after the wildfire.

Common Tactics Insurance Companies Use to Deny Claims

Even with all your documentation and understanding of your policy, an insurance company can still put up roadblocks. This is especially true after a wildfire, when the company is facing millions in settlement payouts.

As a result, they might try to use some of these common tactics to deny your claims.

• Delay tactics
• Misinterpreting policy language
• Blaming pre-existing maintenance
• Lowball initial offers
• Attributing damages to excluded coverage
• Demanding excessive documentation
• Relying on independent experts

These are the types of tactics that can be extremely frustrating, especially when you need the funds to get your home up and running again.

When to Hire a Wildfire Insurance Lawyer

If you notice your insurance company engaging in any of these tactics, it could be acting in bad faith. That is when you need to get a Reno wildfire insurance lawyer involved. The Law Office of Matthew L. Sharp has stepped in to advocate for many Reno residents who have run into resistance from an insurance company.

Our years of negotiating and litigation experience have put our firm in a unique position to detect bad-faith tactics.

We know how these companies operate and aren’t afraid to call them out. When confronted with strong evidence and unrelenting persistence, they will often reach a fair settlement to avoid a lawsuit that could prove more costly for them.

We understand how important it is for homeowners to resolve their claims quickly.

After years of paying premiums on time, those policyholders are entitled to reimbursement based on their claim and policy limits. If we agree to help with your claim, we can take over the communications with the insurance company to help expedite the process.

If you’re dealing with an insurance company that isn’t operating in good faith, we want to hear from you. Call today to schedule a free case review to discuss your options.