Discover Water Damage In Your Home, Here’s What To Do:
Dealing with water damage in your home is an overwhelming and time-consuming task to tackle. Many homeowners do not have experience in plumbing, electricity, structural water damage, or even the process of filing an insurance claim. When all of these issues happen at the same time, people are often overwhelmed and are unaware of where to even start. This article is here to help you understand the most important things you can do to mitigate the water damage, fix what is damaged, and get the maximum amount of payment out of your insurance company.
It goes without saying that water is a necessity in every home. Everything from showering to cleaning dishes, access to clean water is the most important thing you can have. What happens when water leaks from ceilings, damaged walls or warps floorboards? This article will tell you exactly what to do in chronological order to fix the damage that has occurred and most importantly be properly compensated by your insurance company so you do not have to pay for something that is not your fault.
- Identify the water leak and stop it
- Hire a mitigation company to professionally dry and remove all water damaged items
- Document and report everything that you find
- Contact a public adjuster to help file a claim with your Insurance company
These five things are the most important steps you can take in order to mitigate, repair damages, and be fully compensated by your insurance company in a timely manner.
Identify the water leak and stop it
Whether it be a burst pipe, groundwater, or a backed-up toilet, it is vitally important to stop the water as soon as possible in order to minimize the damage to your house and/or personal belongings. If it is not possible to stop the leak on your own contact a mitigation company or a plumber as soon as possible.
Hire a mitigation company to professionally dry and remove all water damaged items
Mitigation companies are vitally important to the clean-up process for water losses. They are the ones that dry out all of the affected areas with professional-grade equipment. Whether it be ceilings, walls, carpet, or personal belongings they do everything they can to dry and repair the affected materials and if they are unusable, remove them.
Document and report everything that you find
Although this is third on the list, when dealing with any type of insurance claim it is extremely important to document and record everything from the very second you realize water damage exists in your home. The more pictures, invoices, and documents you have to prove to the insurance company that your loss is justified the quicker the process of getting your loss covered will be.
Contact a Public Adjuster to help file a claim with your Insurance company
This is the most important step you can take in the process of filing an insurance claim. The only job that an insurance company has is to properly compensate their customers for damages that are covered under their policy. Although this sounds simple on paper, in reality, it’s a lot more complicated. This is due to the fact that an insurance company’s goal is to pay as little as possible to their customers.
Insurance agents undervalue the payments for damages every chance they get, this is when a trusted public insurance adjuster comes into the picture. Public insurance adjusters fight on behalf of the client. Their job is to force the insurance company to pay the maximum amount possible. With knowledge and experience of policies, covered losses, state and federal insurance laws, and constant correspondence with insurance companies, public adjusters are vitally important to the process of filing an insurance claim. Not only do they get the maximum payout possible, but they also put pressure on the insurance company to speed up the claims process, saving much-needed time and hassle for you.
If you are dealing with a water loss right now, call us or fill out a form on the home page and we will reach out to you as soon as possible to get your life back to normal.
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