Insurance Information
If you are insured, your insurance will be the most important single component in recovering from a fire loss. Your insurance policy is a contract between you and the insurer. The insurer promises to do certain things for you. In turn, you have certain obligations. Among your duties after a fire loss would be to give immediate notice of the loss to the insurance company or the insurer's agent.

Protect the property from further damage by making sensible or necessary repairs such as covering holes in the roof or walls. Take reasonable precautions against loss, such as draining water lines in winter if the house will be unheated for some time. The insurance company may refuse to pay losses that occur from not taking such reasonable care.
Make an inventory of damaged personal property showing in detail the quantity, description, original purchase price, purchase date, damage estimate and replacement cost.
Cooperate with the insurer or his/her adjuster by exhibiting the damaged property. Submit, within a stated time period (usually 30 - 60 days), a formal statement of loss.

Such a statement should include:
·    The time and cause of loss
·    The names and addresses of those who have an interest in the property.
·    These might include the mortgage holder, a separated or divorced spouse or a lien holder.
·    Building plans and specifications of the original home and a detailed estimate for repairs.
·    The damage inventory mentioned above.
·    Receipts for additional living expenses and loss of use claims.

Assessing Your Property
A pre-fire inventory along with a videotape of all your property could prove to be a valuable record when making your claim. When adjusting your fire loss or in claiming a casualty loss on your Federal income tax, you will have to deal with various viewpoints on the value of your property.

Some terms used are listed below:
·    Your "personal value" is your attachment to and personal value of your property lost in a fire. Personal items have a certain sentimental value. This term is not meant to belittle their value to you but is used to separate feelings about the value from objective measures of value. It will be objective measures of value which you, the insurer, and the Internal Revenue Service will use as a common ground.
·    The "cost when purchased" is an important element in establishing an item's final value. Receipts will help verify the cost price.
·    Fair market value before the fire also is expressed as "actual cash value." This is what you could have gotten for the item if you had sold it the day before the fire. Its price would reflect its cost at purchase and the wear it had sustained since then. Depreciation is the formal term to express the amount of value an item loses over a period of time.
·    "Value after the fire" is sometimes called the item's "salvage value."
·    The cost to replace the item with a like, but not necessarily identical, item is the replacement cost.

Adjusting the Loss
"Loss adjustment" is the process of establishing the value of the damaged property. This is the result of a joint effort among a number of parties. Basic parties to the process are the owner or occupant and the insurance company and its representatives.

The owner or occupant is required by the insurance contract to prepare an inventory and cooperate in the loss valuation process. An insurance agent may act as the adjuster if the loss is small. The insurer may send an adjuster who is a permanent member of the insurer's staff, or the company may hire an independent adjuster to act in its behalf. It is the insurance adjuster's job, as a representative of the insurance company, to monitor and assist in the loss valuation process and to bring the loss to a just and equitable settlement.

Either you or the insurer may hire the services of a fire damage restoration firm or fire damage service company. These firms provide a range of services that may include some or all of the following:
·    Securing the site against further damage
·    Estimating structural damage
·    Repairing structural damage
·    Estimating the cost to repair or renew items of personal property
·    Packing, transportation, and storage of household items
·    Securing appropriate cleaning or repair subcontractors
·    Storing repaired items until needed

It is important to coordinate with the insurance adjuster before contracting for any services. If you invade the insurer's responsibility area by contracting without its knowledge or consent, you may be left with bills to pay that otherwise would have been covered by the insurer.

RECORD KEEPING
EMERGENCY AND NON-EMERGENCY NUMBERS

Make a list with the following phone numbers and keep copies at
locations other than your home:

Replacement of Valuable Documents and Records