What Do I Do First?

In any water or wind mitigation issue your first action should always be to contact your insurance provider.
This is typically an issue that can be covered by your Home Owners Insurance policy but there is a clock on your coverage that stipulates that the longer you wait to contact them, the more likely your claim will be denied.

Your priority is to get your claim action started as early as possible.

Contact A Mitigation Repair Service

Typically your mitigation service (like Roto Rooter) can not only start your repairs, they can start your mitigation claim as well.

They will typically expose your source cause, contain it and fix it.

In that process they will typically open walls, floors and or ceilings as necessary to get to the problem.

In most cases they can contact the insurance provider directly and file their claim for payment.

After they find and fix the problem they may or may not repair the damage to your home that they create in order to fix the problem.

If they do not repair their damage your next step is…

Contact A Repair Specialist

Contacting the home repair specialist is your next step in the process.

It’s important to remember that the specialist you choose will be in your home, unattended for many days so trust is a big factor here.

Your insurance company should not be a part of this process since it’s in the best interest of the insurance company to pay out as little as they can manage.

Referrals generally work best but always look to the BBB (Better Business Borough) website to determine if they are reliable or a risk.

Schedule An Interviews & Estimate

Invite them to your home to conduct an interview and estimate.
Interviews will determine whether you feel like you can trust them and the estimate will determine their cost to perform the work.

Remember that their cost isn’t an issue you need to be concerned with. Your insurance company will be paying for this so you need to concentrate on their reliability, their work ethics and their experience.

Forward the Estimate To Your Insurance Adjuster
After you get the estimate from the specialist you have chosen you should forward it directly to your insurance adjuster for consideration.

Typically your adjuster will compare your specialist estimate with their own and as long as no irregularities occur, will approve the amount (greater or lesser) and adjust your benefit check accordingly.

Contact Your Specialist And Schedule Your Commencement Date
After you recieve your benefit, contact your specialist and schedule for them to stop by your home and answer any additional questions, present your down payment amount and sign what ever documents are necessary.
Then get a definitive start date and an estimated completion date.