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Things You Must Do When You Have To Make A Home Insurance Claim

A home insurance is vital if we do not want to lose all the things we have saved, bought and collected over the years and that is making us live the lives we enjoy now. However, if disaster strikes and you have home insurance, a claim needs be made. The first thing you must do, if a claim needs to be made on your home insurance policy, is to let the insurance company know as soon as possible. After that, you must give your insurance agent a brief idea of what things you are going to claim by invoking the policy and then the agent would tell you what steps you need to take. Also, make sure you have the insurance agent's number on your cell phone or kept in your wallet in case you cannot retrieve it from your home during a calamity.

One thing that can be especially beneficial for you in the long run is to keep note of all the communication you had with your insurer during the filing of the claim and after the claim has been filed. Also, make sure you take videos and pictures of belongings in your house, irrespective of their importance and keep it in a safe deposit locker. This will work as ‘proof' that you had all these belongings before the damage.

Things you need to do:

1) Document the extent of damage done to your property on a video camera or digital camera. You could use your cell phone's camera for this though a dedicated unit would offer better clarity pictures and videos.

2) Anything you notice should be written down and kept as a record. Make sure you keep the pictures, videos and written documents in a safe and accessible place so that you can get back to it if anything else is noticed.

3) Gather up everybody that lived in the property and make rounds around the house and all its rooms taking notes of things that are damaged or missing. Most major home insurance agencies replace on a new for old basis. Hence, even if you have a very old item such as a television that had been damaged, make sure you mention that in your claim as you could get a brand new television.

4) Make sure you do not leave even the most invaluable of belongings out from your insurance claim. Things like old furniture etc should be mentioned as you most probably would get a brand new furniture set as a replacement.

5) Now all that needs to be done is waiting. Since insurance claims are managed on a priority basis, that is, the cases that have more severe damage on property are handled first. Thus, insurance claims can take some time depending on the extent of your damage.

If you took a loss of use coverage with your home insurance policy, you will get some money enough to cover the price of alternative accommodation while you get a reimbursement.