After a natural disaster, you will likely have a lot of questions and not enough answers on how you’ll be able to rebuild your life and your home. Our team at Berliner-Gelfland is dedicated to providing you with guidance throughout the process and making sure you receive the best possible consultation on how to finalize your claim and get back to normal.
Here’s a quick overview of a six-step process that you’ll be following during this time.
- First Steps and Claim Adjusting: After the dust has settled and it’s safe for you to return to your home, a claims adjuster will work with you to determine the extent of the damage and how much money you’ll be able to get for it. Even if you accept the initial offer on the spot and receive a check, you can also reopen the case within a year if you find additional damage.
- Effects on Your Mortgage: When you receive your check for the amount determined by the claims adjuster, it will be made out to yourself and the mortgage lender to pay for repairs. They will also need to endorse the check, and the lending company may also want to be there to inspect the repair work done on your house.
- Choosing a Contractor: Picking the correct contractor to do your repairs is vital. Make sure the person you choose is reputable, and that you shop around for more than one estimate. Get all their references and paperwork before you sign anything. In some cases, you may need to sign off on allowing your insurance company to pay repair funds directly to the contractor.
- Personal Belongings: In addition to your main house and property claims, you can also collect on personal items that have been damaged. You can prove what you had at the time of the incident through old receipts, bank statements, or through photographs or videos of the spaces which once held your damaged items. Your policies can pay you for your loss in a number of ways, including replacement cost or cash value of the items.
- In The Meantime… While your house is being repaired, you should be able to receive a check for additional living expenses, which will cover car rentals, hotels, and associated costs of your temporary living situation.
- Moving Forward: Following the damaging event, you can choose to rebuild your house either on the same property, or another space if it has been completely destroyed. Your initial policy and the value of your house determine how much funds you’ll have to do this, which should be roughly the same value as the house which you had lost.
While this is a brief overview, at Berliner-Gelfland we’ll be able to walk you through the process and provide you with real-time answers to your most pressing questions about your homeowners insurance. For more information and to fully utilize our 50 years of experience, call us today at 203-367-7704 to hear about how we will work for you.