1: Contact your insurance company
2: Fill out the proper claim’s forms
3: Have an insurance adjuster inspect the damage
4: Make temporary repairs
5: Make a list of damaged personal property
6: Get estimates for repairs
7: Make repairs
8: Keep track of additional living expenses
When should I file a claim If my property is Damaged?
As a rule of thumb — bigger losses following a peril that damaged your property.
1-Significant Damage or a total loss-This is primarily what homeowners’ insurance is most useful for when your home suffers a loss so great after an unexpected incident that it becomes uninhabitable
Example-Disaster strikes, and part of your roof has caved in. The estimate for repair is $10,000 and your deductible is $1,000/2500. It would be prudent — and worth it — to file a homeowners claim with your insurance company to get it fixed.
When to try not to file a claim?
1- It's a maintenance issue or normal wear-and-tear or the cost to repair or replace does not exceed your deductible.
Example-If your roof or fence is already damaged and worn after years of neglect, and it collapses after a heavy snowfall, the insurance company will deny the claim because it could have been prevented had you kept up with maintaining your property.
Key thing to remember- Insurance companies run a report to see how frequent you’ve filed a claim or attempt to collect a claim within the past 3 years sometimes further- usually does not exceed 5 years.
Your premium may be affected by several factors. Insurers take your claims history into account when they decide what to charge for your premium, or whether they should even cover you at all. Statistically — whether for homeowners or car insurance — if you've previously filed a claim, you're more likely to file more claims in the future. For insurance companies, that's a risk they don't want to be responsible for even if you pay your premium every month. When you do need to file a claim, make sure to space them out as much as possible (Usually within the past 3 years).
At the end of the day, you pay a premium and that we all understand. The key advice is to make sure after a loss, you prevent further damage by taking proper safety measures to prevent extensive damage. Secondly, contacting an experience contractor to help facilitate a claim will provide more clarity when the Insurance adjuster arrives. Make sure to be prepared for their arrival by having any receipts or other pertinent information ready and if your contractor is present at the time, this will help provide more clarity. It is likely that they will interview you about the nature of the damage.