Home insurance claim checklist

Most claim mistakes happen in the first few days: damaged items thrown out, permanent repairs started before the adjuster has looked, a phone call with no note of who said what. The checklist puts the steps in the order you need them and adds five more for the kind of damage you have.

How to use it

Pick what happened: water damage, wind, hail or hurricane, fire or smoke, or theft or vandalism. The list then runs 24 steps in six groups: first hours, the five steps for your type of damage, reporting the claim, documenting the loss, the adjuster and the estimate, and what to do if you disagree. Tick items as you finish them. A progress count and a bar for each group update as you go. "Save my progress on this device" keeps your ticks in this browser, separately for each type of damage, and "Clear" resets them. Print gives you a paper copy.

What it checks

The groups follow the duties in a standard homeowners policy. In the first hours the list asks you to make everyone safe, make reasonable temporary repairs with receipts but no permanent ones before the adjuster sees the damage, and photograph everything before cleanup. Reporting means prompt notice, writing down the claim number and the adjuster's name, asking your deductible for this loss, and asking about an advance for living expenses. Documenting means a call-and-email log, a list of damaged belongings with age and replacement cost (home inventory builder helps), keeping damaged items until the adjuster releases them, and saving receipts. For the adjuster visit it asks you to be there, get your own contractor estimate, request the estimate line by line, and ask how recoverable depreciation is paid. If you disagree, it points to a written explanation, appraisal or state mediation, and your state insurance department.

The damage-specific steps include shutting off the water and drying within a day or two for water losses, tarping openings and checking your wind deductible after storms, getting the fire department's report number after a fire, and filing a police report and listing serial numbers after a theft.

What it assumes

The steps track the duties in the ISO homeowners form (HO 00 03 05 11, published by the Maine Bureau of Insurance, Section I Conditions): prompt notice, police notice of a theft, reasonable and necessary repairs with a record of expenses, an inventory of damaged property with receipts, showing the damage, and a signed, sworn proof of loss within 60 days after the insurer asks. The form makes loss payable 60 days after the proof of loss and an agreement, judgment or appraisal award. The NAIC's model claims regulation (Model 902) suggests acknowledging a claim within 15 days, but it is a model, and states set their own deadlines. The checklist contains no dollar figures.

Where it stops being right

The list is general and does not know your policy. Your form, endorsements and state law control, and an insurer may ask for steps the list leaves out. It has no item for the sworn proof of loss or its 60-day clock (the proof of loss form and its deadlines), for your state's claim-notice and suit deadlines (deadlines to sue over a home insurance claim), or for the fact that your mortgage company is usually named on the claim check (why your mortgage company is on the claim check). It saves ticks, not notes, so keep the claim log elsewhere.

If a claim is large or contested, a licensed public adjuster or an attorney can tell you what your state requires. Before you file at all, the Should I file a homeowners claim? weighs the payout against a possible premium increase, and how to file a homeowners insurance claim covers the whole process.