How to file a homeowners insurance claim

To file a homeowners claim, report the loss to your insurer or agent as soon as it is safe to do so, using the claims phone number on your policy documents or the insurer's app, and get a claim number back. Then protect the property from further damage, document everything before you clean up, meet the adjuster, and keep every document the insurer sends. The report starts the clock on the insurer's duties, so the sooner it is made, the sooner the investigation begins.

Everything here describes the standard ISO homeowners form (HO 00 03 05 11) and common industry practice. Newer ISO editions, your insurer's own form and your state's amendatory endorsement can change a number or a deadline, so read your policy and declarations page alongside this guide.

Before you call

Two minutes of preparation makes the first call shorter and the record cleaner. Have these in front of you:

• Your policy number, which is on the declarations page, and the address of the damaged property.
• The date and, if you know it, the time the damage happened or was discovered.
• A plain description of what happened and what is damaged. Do not guess at a cause you cannot see; "water on the kitchen ceiling" is better than "the roof leaked."
• A callback number and email address.

If the damage came from theft or vandalism, file a police report first and write down the officer's name and the report number, since your insurer will ask for them. The Insurance Information Institute (Triple-I) says the same in its guide to filing a homeowners claim, and adds a useful set of questions for the first call: whether the loss is covered, how long you have to file, whether it will exceed your deductible and whether you will need repair estimates.

Whether to file at all is a separate question. If the damage may be close to your deductible, read should you file a homeowners claim? before you call, because a claim can affect your renewal. If the damage is serious, do not wait on that analysis. Report it.

The steps, in order

1. Make the area safe. Water, fire and structural damage can all hurt you faster than they hurt the house. the first 48 hours after damage to your home covers what to do in the first two days.
2. Report the claim. Phone the claim line, use the app or the insurer's website, or tell your agent. If you report by phone, follow up with an email or an app message that says what you reported and when. The NAIC's claims model treats notice to an agent as notice to the insurer, and many states follow it, but report to the insurer directly as well.
3. Get the claim number and the adjuster's name. The first notice of loss opens a claim file. Every later call, email and document should carry the claim number. Ask who your contact is and how they prefer to be reached.
4. Protect the property. The ISO form pays the reasonable cost of necessary measures taken solely to protect covered property from further damage, and it also requires you to take those measures. Tarp the roof, board a window, shut off the water. Keep the receipts. Permanent repairs can wait for the adjuster. See reasonable repairs: what you can fix before the adjuster comes.
5. Document before cleanup. Photographs and video of every damaged room, the exterior, and the contents, taken before anything is moved or thrown away. documenting damage: photos, video and receipts explains what to capture. If a health or code rule forces you to discard something, photograph it first and keep a sample if practical.
6. Start the contents list. The ISO form requires an inventory of damaged personal property showing quantity, description, actual cash value and amount of loss, with the bills and receipts that support it. A home inventory you made earlier saves days (how to make a home inventory for insurance). If you have none, start now, room by room. See filing a personal property claim: the contents list.
7. Keep a claim log. Date, time, name and substance of every conversation, and who promised what. Confirm anything important by email.
8. Meet the adjuster. Walk the adjuster through every room, including damage that looks minor, hand over your photographs and list, and ask for the contact information and a date by which you can expect an estimate. working with an insurance adjuster covers the inspection in detail.
9. Collect your own estimate. You are not required to get a contractor's bid, but a written, line-by-line estimate for the repairs gives you something to compare against the insurer's. See xactimate, contractor bids and estimate disputes.
10. Read the coverage decision and the estimate. The insurer will tell you what it covers, what it does not, which deductible applies and how it priced the repairs. Ask for the estimate and for any denial in writing.
11. Get paid, repair, collect the rest. Payment arrives in one or more checks, covered below.

What the insurer does with your report

Behind the scenes, the claim moves through a fairly standard sequence. Knowing it helps you tell a normal pause from a stall.

A sworn proof of loss is a separate form, due under the ISO policy within 60 days after the insurer asks for it. Ask for the form in writing if it has not arrived, and read the proof of loss form and its deadlines before you sign.

How the payment arrives

Say a hypothetical kitchen fire leaves $60,000 of covered replacement-cost damage to the dwelling, your deductible is $2,500, and the insurer withholds $9,000 of depreciation until the work is done. The first check is $48,500: $60,000 less $9,000 less $2,500. When you finish repairs and send the final invoices, the insurer pays the $9,000 of recoverable depreciation, so the total is $57,500, which is the $60,000 cost less your deductible. The ISO form has you claim actual cash value first and the rest later if you notify the insurer within 180 days after the loss that you intend to repair or replace; check your own form for the period. See recoverable depreciation: getting the rest of your claim.

Two practical points surround that check. First, if you have a mortgage, the lender is named on the building payment under the mortgage clause, and the lender may hold the money and release it in stages as repairs progress. why your mortgage company is on the claim check explains why, and what to ask your servicer. Second, contents and living-expense payments are usually made separately and to you alone, under different coverages. claim checks, holdbacks and when the money arrives covers holdbacks and delays.

The clocks

Two sets of clocks run at once: yours and the insurer's.

Yours. The policy requires prompt notice, with no fixed number of days in the ISO form, and the proof of loss and suit deadlines described above. Some states also set statutory notice limits. Florida, for example, bars an initial or reopened claim unless notice is given within 1 year after the date of loss and a supplemental claim within 18 months (Fla. Stat. 627.70132). The time to sue is separate again; see deadlines to sue over a home insurance claim.

The insurer's. States adopt versions of the NAIC's claims model regulation, which calls for acknowledging a claim within 15 days, accepting or denying within 21 days after a signed proof of loss and paying within 30 days of accepting (NAIC Model Regulation #902). The model is a template, and states differ on both the number and the trigger:

Many of these rules are enforced by state insurance departments rather than through a lawsuit, though a few states, Texas among them, attach interest and attorney's fees to late payment. how long insurers have to pay a home claim gives the full comparison and explains what happens after a major catastrophe, when states often extend the deadlines.

When the claim stalls or comes in low

Start with the simplest tool: a dated, written request. Ask the adjuster which policy provisions and which estimate lines drive the number, then send your contractor's itemized bid and photographs and ask for a reinspection. If that fails, the escalation path is usually a call to the adjuster's supervisor, a complaint to your state insurance department (how to file a complaint with your state insurance department), the state's mediation program if one exists, and, for disputes over the amount of loss, the policy's appraisal clause. underpaid home insurance claim: how to push back sets out those steps and homeowners claim denied: what to do next covers denials.

Cashing a check does not usually end the claim. Many insurers pay the undisputed amount first, and you can ask for a supplement when more damage turns up. Read any release or "full and final" language before you sign or deposit, and ask whether the payment is partial.

Common mistakes

• Waiting until repairs are finished, which leaves the insurer nothing to inspect.
• Hiring a contractor for permanent work before the adjuster has seen the damage.
• Giving a recorded statement with guesses about the cause, rather than what you saw.
• Signing a contractor's assignment of benefits or authorization without reading it (assignment of benefits: what to know before you sign).
• Letting the 60-day proof-of-loss period run because the adjuster "had everything."
• Throwing away damaged items without photographs.

Key takeaways

• Report the loss promptly, get a claim number, and follow a phone report with something in writing.
• Protect the property, photograph before cleanup and keep every receipt; the policy pays reasonable emergency costs and also requires you to limit the damage.
• Expect an inspection, a written estimate and a coverage decision, and ask for each in writing.
• The first check often excludes depreciation and may include your mortgage company as a payee; the rest comes when repairs are complete.
• Insurer deadlines are set by state law and differ widely, so check your state's rule and calendar your own proof-of-loss and suit deadlines.