For those of you who don't know me, who am I kidding, none of you know me, our family had a house fire 5 months ago. It was devastating and we lost everything. We lost our home, all our possessions, and my husband's 1972 Buick Skylark. 5 months later, we are JUST NOW making head way with the insurance company. I learned A TON about how to deal with an insurance company. Mostly I learned that it is a legal way to SCREW you. My husband's INSURED car in our INSURED house was not covered. How can that be you ask??? Well, we had liability only on the car because it wasn't being driven. Apparently liability doesn't cover fire damage. Well that's ok, it was in my insured garage so it should be covered, right? Wrong! They don't cover any vehicles, motorcycles, ATVs, RVs, anything that could be driven. I am sure that was in the fine print of our policy somewhere but honestly, when you have as much insurance on your stuff as we did you just figure it is covered. NEVER ASSUME THINGS ARE COVERED!!! We found that out the hard way. Our $10,000 worth of uninstalled hardwood floors, not covered, our tile, not covered, how could that be? Well, because they will only pay us for ONE floor, since they are paying for the floor that is installed they don't have to pay for the one we INTENDED to install. OR they can not pay for the floor that is installed and the costs for installation. Either option you chose they will somehow pay you the same amount! How that works out, I don't know.. They also get "Their preferred contractor" to do the bid up for them. You can object to the bid, you can get 50 bids of your own, it doesn't make a bit of difference. They will just tell you, our guy can do it for this price so you can either use him or pay more out of pocket for your own contractor. ALWAYS USE YOUR OWN! Even if that means you will pay for it. Otherwise you will end up with a house patched together and have a ton of problems. Then their is the depreciation of your belongings. Did you know all of your clothes are automatically depreciated by 80%? Neither did I. Actually most of our belongings they depreciated about 50%-80% of their value. So if you had a $100 pair of jeans, you will see $20. NOW if you come up with the additional $80 out of pocket and buy the same jeans, for the same $100 price, they will eventually get around to paying you back the other $80. Doesn't seem like a big deal. We had $200,000 in coverages. They depreciated our stuff by about $100,000. For us to see the $100,000 we spent on those items we have to first come up with an additional $100,000 to be able to re buy all of the items. You have 2 years from the day they open the claim. 5 months later we are just starting to get the payments sorted out. We now have 1.5 years to come up with a spare $100,000 to buy things with so that the we are reimbursed for our things. Yeah, that is legal. Shouldn't be, but it is. Do you know the brand, model number, age, and cost of EVERYTHING you own? No, well then you will not be paid for it. What do you mean your house burned down and you can't go back and see what you had, to be able to write it down? Well then do it all from memory. Yes, I agree that sound ludicrous, and yet it is their policy. Oh and by the way you have 60 days to do it in. So when the most traumatic thing that has likely ever happen to you happens and you are beyond stressed, trying to find a place to stay, food to eat, clothes to wear, you will also need to be itemizing. Don't forget anything, it is like pulling teeth to add it later!!! Don't get me wrong, I am very thankful I was insured. My sister and her family had a fire 14 months ago and they were uninsured. It was devastating to their family. They still have yet to get on their feet. I am thankful I have it. I just believe that if I PAY for a service then they should provide it, not go out of their way to do the crappiest job possible. In conclusion, Keep digital copies of receipts of any large purchases and email them to yourself. Take a video of your things and talk to yourself in the video reminding yourself of what you have, when you bought it, what brand it is and what you paid. Email it to yourself and update it yearly. Is it a lot of work, yes, are you likely to ever need it? No, but I promise you that if you do need it, you would wish more then anything you had done it. KNOW YOUR POLICY! Find out what your house covers and up to how much. Under insured is almost as bad as uninsured, believe me I know. I hope you never have to use my advise but please take it. Coming from someone who has dug through WAY to many charred ashes trying to figure out how many pairs of children's pants my kids owned, I wish I had been more prepared. Lastly, I don't care how nice the insurance guy is, he is not your friend. He gets paid EXTRA for every dollar he saves the company, screwing you over. He will be VERY nice to you while he does it, but he will do it all the same. Always remember that. I hope my disaster, helps save you from one.
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