What You Need to Know About Smoke Damage Insurance Claims
What You Need to Know About Smoke Damage Insurance Claims
Where there’s smoke, there’s fire, and where there’s fire, there’s smoke! Even if you are covered by fire insurance, you might have difficulty with filing a claim for the smoke damage. If you have encountered an insurance agency that refuses to pay for smoke damage, these tips are for you.
Document everything thoroughly.
Document any damage and loss that you have experienced as a result of the fire/smoke damage and get this listing to your insurance agent as soon as possible. They will have a limit on how long you have to make a claim, so be sure to file on time. Your list should include all of the following information:
- Date loss occurred
- Type of loss or damage
- Related injuries
- Condition of the home after the incident
- Address of damaged property
- Description of the damaged contents
- Whether each damaged item requires repair or complete replacement
- A fire report from the fire/police department
Since you will be sending multiple documents to multiple sources, make sure that you keep a detailed record of all correspondence and files. A binder is a great place to start to keep all of these items in one place.
Know your homeowner's policy.
If your home is destroyed in a fire a typical insurance policy will cover it, and they are obligated up to the policy limit for a new home. A typical policy will also cover anything inside your home that has been damaged by byproducts of the fire, such as smoke. Smoke and soot permeate virtually everything in your home and they are hazardous to your health. An item doesn’t have to be visibly charred by flames in order to have been damaged by the fire. Your smoke damage might even be the result of a fire at your neighbor’s property. Document every item that has even a small amount of smoke or soot damage. After all, this is why you pay for insurance – to cover these types of situations.
You should also pay for professional cleaning by a company that has specialized equipment designed to remove the toxic soot, ash and smoke smell from your home. Most insurance policies will cover this, but check to be sure.
At Shrock Restoration, we work with all insurance companies and are here to help you through the entire process. Our team of experts can manage claim, no matter how big or small. We work directly with your insurance providers to make the process as hassle and worry free as possible.
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