Claims Checklist

For Homeowners:

• Fix damage to your home and property. Cover roof damage with tarps, cover broken windows with plastic, and avoid any further damage.
• Document how much time you spent coordinating or doing repairs and cleaning up your property. You may be able to recover for your time.
• Take photographs of all physical damage as soon as possible. Even if you did not do this right after the hurricane hit, you should still do it.
• Take photographs both before repairs are made and after they are completed.
• Take photographs of anything that you have to throw away, before throwing it away.
• Located pictures of your property from before the storm. Some people wisely do this before the storm expressly for situations like this. But even if you did not do this, it is likely you have pictures inside or outside your home that will show the condition of your home before the storm.
• Keep all receipts for all of your expenses for alternative lodging and food.
• Draw up a list of all damaged or destroyed property. If possible, find any receipts showing when and how much you paid for the damaged property. Note: even if all receipts are lost, if you bought the items with a credit card, your credit card company should be able to provide you with copies of old statements. The same goes for items you bought with a check—your bank should be able to provide you with old bank statements which would prove the purchase.
• Document when your electricity and water service resumes.
• Get a copy of your insurance policies. If you don’t have them, ask your agent. If for some reason your agent doesn’t have it, then tell them to send you a FULL copy right away. The Declaration Page or the “dec page” of your policy is not sufficient.
• Call your insurer immediately to notify them of your claim. Put it in writing if at all possible. Keep note of the claim number and adjuster assigned to your claim. Create a call log of every time you talk to the insurer or adjuster by phone or in person, including when you talked, you talked to and what you talked about. Stay on them. If they do not return your calls, send them written notice of your attempts to contact them.
• Ask you insurer for living or evacuation expenses.
• IMPORTANT: FLOOD CLAIMS UNDER A FLOOD POLICY REQUIRE A PROOF OF LOSS TO BE FILED WITHIN 60 DAYS, OR YOU COULD LOSE YOUR COVERAGE.
• Get a copy of the insurance adjuster’s estimates for repairing your property.
• Be careful, when accepting payments from the insurers, that it is not a "final" settlement amount. If the money offered by the insurer is not enough to cover your insured damages, then you should first notify the insurer of that in writing and advise why their offer is insufficient. You should be able to accept their offer but continue to assert a claim for more, unless you sign a release or agree that it is a full and final payment.

For Businesses:

Businesses should take similar actions as homeowners—document damage, document out of pocket expenses, make repairs, document repairs, obtain your policies, make claims with insurers.

Many businesses also carry business interruption coverage, which cover the loss from not being able to operate the business. Other types of expenses may also be covered, such as costs of shutting down the business, evacuation, repopulation of employees and restoration of operations following the storm. It is important to look at your policy to determine exactly what type of coverage is there.

To document that claim, businesses should collect sales receipts for as far back as possible. Again, if your records were damaged in the storm, credit card companies and banks should be able to provide copies to you. Also, your tax preparer should be able to provide you with previous years’ tax returns.