How best to insure against waste-related fires

Why Use Us

Dealing with fire damage insurance claims is often a painstaking process that can be emotionally and financially draining.

Insurers are likely to employ a team of experts to investigate your claim and they may even interrogate you in a way that leaves you feeling like you have done something wrong.

Our experts can help ease the pressure by looking after everything for you, so you can concentrate on taking care of the rest of your life.

We have a huge amount of experience negotiating with insurance companies on behalf of claimants, so you can be confident we will get you a fair outcome.

How We Will Help You

Our team of experienced experts will:

• Organise emergency works to secure your property and protect it from any possible further damage.
• Ensure that disaster cleaning companies do a safe and thorough job to give you peace of mind.
• Arrange suitable alternative accommodation.
• Prepare, present and negotiate your claim, including any issues concerning the building and contents.
• Coordinate your insurer and their loss adjusters to make sure you get the settlement that you are entitled to, whether that’s reinstatement or cash.
• Identify the full extent of the damage, not just the visible parts. Heat, smoke and water can often have a worse effect than flames, which can lead to long term problems if not treated correctly.
• Help you appoint specialist surveyors and contractors, so you can avoid the insurance companies’ supply chains, which might not operate in your best interests. We will supervise these parties through to the end of the project to make sure you get everything you need.

Tips for making a home fire damage insurance claim:

Suffering a fire at home causes catastrophic damage and tremendous personal upset. To mitigate some of that worry, we’ve written a guide on how to make a fire insurance claim in order to get the most from your cover and to help you on the way to recovery. We’ve tried to make this as comprehensive as we can to ensure that if the time comes, the process is as stress-free and painless as it can possibly be.

Prepare in advance

Whatever the claim you’re making, you want to make sure that you are prepared before the fact. Ensure that you keep receipts of all your purchases, or take photos of them to keep digital copies. People can be turned down on their claims due to a lack of evidence, so make sure that you can prove that you owned these items and how much they were worth to avoid any nasty surprises when the time comes.

Get Support

Before calling your insurance provider, you can call a loss assessor for a free consultation to see what your insurance policy will cover – this will help you know how to speak with and deal with your insurance providers. We can tell you what evidence to gather, what to mention, or what questions to ask when making your claim – our role is solely to get you the best possible claim.

File a fire damage insurance claim as quickly as possible

While this may be the last thing on your mind, it’s important to keep a cool head and think of the practicalities. Once everyone is safe and the fire department is dealing with the blaze, you need to start being proactive in getting the most out of your cover. While most insurance providers will let you contact them up to 180 days after the fact, filing a fire insurance claim early can make a huge difference in the support you get and will also get you back on your feet much quicker.

Don’t throw away any damaged items

Although it’s tempting to start clearing things straight away, unless something poses any immediate danger to anyone nearby or to your home, we’d highly recommend leaving everything where it is until your insurance company tell you otherwise. We’d advise you to keep everything as is so that your insurance company can assess the damage to your property and goods with their loss adjuster – clearing anything up could actually work against you in this case as you’d remove evidence of the possessions that you had or the damage that was done to them.

Take Photographs

Your home insurance provider will ask you to send through a rundown of what happened, what was damaged or lost and for evidence. As painful as it may be, it’s a good idea to take photos or a video of the damage done to your property and to your goods, these can always be useful in case of a dispute.

Make Lists and Compile Evidence

On top of photographs, it’s a good idea to get everyone who lived in the home together to go through each room of the house and list things that may be lost or damaged and estimate the price of each item. Find receipts, digital receipts and bank statements as proof. All of this detail will form the basis of your contents claim, so make sure to think of as much detail as possible, use old photos of your home to remind you of anything. If you have to be moved into temporary accommodation while your home is repaired, or if your car is damaged, make sure that you keep a record of any costs that you have incurred at this time.

Get what you Need

If your house is no longer habitable due to the damage, you’re probably going to need temporary accommodation, clothing, food, living essentials etc. Make sure to notify your insurance provider about all of this as they should be able to provide you with a cash advance on your claim to do so – it will, however, still be up to you to arrange all of this, so make sure to contact family and friends who may be able to help too. Again, keep a record of any costs incurred in order to claim this back too.

Get Help from a Loss Assessor

Getting all of this done while trying to deal with the trauma of a house fire can be extremely difficult and take a lot out of you. Particularly when bearing in mind the fact that the loss adjuster sent to your house is working directly with the insurance agency, not for you – their aim is not to help you as they do not work directly for you. If you bought your home insurance policy via a broker, you can always turn to them for help. Hiring a loss assessor to manage the claim for you can level the playing field somewhat as our role is entirely to get you the best possible deal as we work for you personally.

See how we’ve helped previous clients with everything mentioned above during their fire insurance claim, get in touch to see how we can help you.