Homeowners claim

Has anyone ever filed a major homeowners claim? We had a flood behind the wall in our bathroom that went into my sons room. Both rooms are now completely gutted. The insurance company is covering the damages, but their estimate is considerable lower than what all the contractors have estimated. Do I have any grounds to contest and request additional funds?

Re: Homeowners claim

Tell the insurance company to give you the name of a contractor that will do the work at that price. Also I assume you accounted for deductible difference?

Homeowners claim

Yes, deductible was taken out of the amount they gave us. I have another two estimates pending so I'm hoping they come in within the allowed budget, but I was just curious what to do if they didn't. Thank you.

Homeowners claim

You need to compare the contractor's estimate (get it itemized) and the insurance company's estimate to see where the differences are. Sometimes the contractor includes things that are not covered by insurance, and sometimes they just charge more for materials or labor.

Homeowners claim

You also need to look at your policy to see if you have replacement cost" coverage or "actual cash value" coverage. Replacement cost will reimburse you for the actual cost to replace something and acv will only give you replacement cost minus depreciation

Homeowners claim

Thank you. They did deduct depreciatation. The estimate I received this morning is about 4K more than theres and I can see a few things that I think the insurance company left out. I'm hoping that if I send it to them they will additional money, since the estimate is from one of their preferred contractors.