This all started with a puddle on the floor. Since then, my husband and I have been going through the claims process with our homeowners insurance company. Overall, things are going much easier than I ever expected they would. Here is the next step in the process.
Today, we received three, separate, envelopes in the mail from the insurance company that we have our homeowners policy through. Oddly enough, the mail arrived as the claims adjuster was at our home, doing his job. I’ll go over that portion of the claims process in another blog. For now, I wanted to briefly go over what one of the three letters said.
It turned out that all three letters were, basically, form letters. They were not bills, or physical forms to fill out about our claim, or letters that detailed why our (still ongoing) claim was being rejected. It seems that when you make a homeowners insurance claim, at least in California, the insurer is required to inform you, by letter, of certain things.
One of the three letters was “to confirm your participation on the (insurance company’s) Premier Service Program”. The letter said that we have “the opportunity to choose any participating independent contractor or independent service provider(s) you wish to repair your property”. In other words, if we, for some reason, didn’t like the repairmen that the insurance company called for us, we could pick a different repair company. We happen to like them, so this is not an issue.
The letter also points out that the insurer “will repair the damaged property covered by your policy, less your deductible, subject to your policy’s terms and conditions.” If we choose to have the repair guys do additional work, beyond what the actual repair requires, the insurer won’t cover it. That makes sense.
We will have to sign an “Authorization To Repair” form before the repairmen start the work. When they are done, we need to sign an “Authorization to Pay” form. This will allow the insurer to pay the workers for the portion of the bill that the insurer is willing to pay. The insurer, and the workers, will “warranty their worksmanship labor on building or structure repairs for a five-year period”.
In short, the purpose of this letter is to remind us of how this part of the claims process will work. It lets us know that we can choose a different repair company if we want to, or can stay with the one the insurer selected. We know that we have to pay down a deductible first, before the insurer will pay for repairs. We know that there are forms to fill out in order to let the repair company do the work and get paid for it from the insurer.
Image by Public Domain Photos on Flickr