Assembling Your Insurance Claim

Disaster Assistance
Assembling Your Insurance Claim
By Cynthia Kirkeby
Apr 19, 2008, 08:54

Assembling Your Insurance Claim: What Your Insurance Company Will Need

START THIS PROCESS NOW. When you begin to assemble your claim for your insurance company, they’re going to need as much documentation on your loss as possible. This will be one of the most difficult paperwork challenges that you’ve ever faced. Here’s what you can start to do to help substantiate your loss:

PHOTOS

Photos are critical when it comes to substantiating your loss. There are two types of photos that can help you at this point. Photos of damage and photos that showed what it looked like before the damage.

Get a Camera: Take photos of your home or business…a lot of them. If the structure is still standing take photos of everything that’s been damaged, both the structure and the contents. If the structure has been primarily destroyed, take photos of where it was, and of anything that shows landmarks in the immediate area. If your insurance covers wind but not flooding, take as many photos as possible that shows how the wind damaged your belongings and your structure. Number your photos to add to your loss journal.

If your structure is still standing, go room by room and take photos of each wall. Then take detail photos. You can group items (or remnants of items), but anything that was expensive, should be show in its own photo.

Contact Friends and Family For Recent Photos: If you don’t have any photos of what your property and belongings looked like prior to the disaster, contact your friends and family for photos (especially recent ones, within the last year). Christmas photos and other photos of family events tend to be very helpful in showing what your house looked like and what types of belongings you had. These will all help substantiate your claim with your insurance company. Number the photos to add to your loss journal.

INSURANCE LOSS JOURNALS

This is a critical part of your claim, and one of the hardest to assemble. Your insurance company is going to require that you make lists of everything you had in your home or office, and believe it not this is what they’re going to need: the Item, a description, the year it was purchased it, how much it cost, Where it was located in your home or office, whether it was damaged and can be repaired, or if it was destroyed. In the case of replacement insurance, you also have to tell them whether or not you’ve replaced it, and how much it cost (complete with receipts – Numbering your receipts helps, because you’ll have one receipt with many items on it). Overwhelming, I know.

If you’ve ever used a Dictaphone, now is the time to use one. Go room to room and make lists of everything that you see, or can remember, item by item (see below for the format the author used.) If you have access to a computer, you can make lists that look like the chart below (organize them room by room). If you don’t have a computer, make lists that have this information on notebook paper or in the paper journals the insurance company will provide.

FAMILY ROOM

#	Qty	Photo	Item	Descript.	Location	Date Purchased	Cost	Damaged/ Destroyed	Date Replaced	Cost	Notes
1	1	23	bookcase	oak 3 shelves	north wall FR-2	06/1995	100	destroyed	03.2006	220	receipt 14

Binders help to organize everything. Print out or three-hole punch your loss journals and add any substantiating photos with them. Organize everything room by room. This is especially important, whether your home or office is damaged or destroyed, organizing things this way will allow you to mentally walk through your home or office and picture what was on each wall, so that you can fill out your lists. Ask help from family members. They may be able to remember something that you don’t. Also, ask friends and family for help when it comes to pricing items. A lot of the things you have were probably gifts.

Make room diagrams to show where things were. Give large items, or expensive items a location number on the diagram and put the number on the chart under location. All of this will help you remember things and make sure that you’re compensated for all of your belongings.

START NOW
Although you are probably feeling totally overwhelmed right now, don’t wait to start these lists. Things are freshest in your memory right now. The longer you wait to start these lists, the harder it will be to do them. Get a LARGE envelope or accordion folder for your receipts. With an accordion folder you can label each section for a room in your home or office. Give each receipt a number so that you can track them in your journal. TRACK EVERYTHING!

This will help you get organized for the task ahead with the insurance company. Those of us at ClassBrain are terribly sorry for your loss, and we wish you all the best in rebuilding your future.

A Personal Note: The author went through a personal disaster in 1995 when her home and office were primarily destroyed by fire. Standing in the middle of the destruction she turned to her mother and asked, “Where do I start?” Her mom replied, “Begin at the beginning.” She shook her head, “But where is the beginning?” “Anywhere you start,” her mom replied. This will be one of more difficult things that you will have to do in your life. Rebuilding is never easy. Hold tight to your loved ones, try to keep a sense of humor, and begin at the beginning.