A Checklist for Inspections During Insurance Claims

Let us be aware of an ounce of prevention!!!!

What can you do to keep your best possible outcome when it comes to an Insurance claim?

95% of all losses come from the same area. Meaning there are only certain spots of the home where damages occur.

And this checklist, we should be aware of this, but depending on what type of siding you have, you want to inspect your siding.

It’s a very common loss even if you have stucco, it may have had impact damage or some freeze damage over the winter. But check your siding.

• Roofing and shingles blow off often. If you have a flat roof, check to make sure that it’s not peeled up or curled. Outbuildings get damaged but we rarely go out there and look at them because maybe the dogs are out there, so look at the roof and the siding on the shed as well.
• Swimming pools can be damaged especially above-ground pools by the harsh winter. In-ground pools generally get damaged in the summer by wind, and blown patio furniture, and causes damage inside the pool after the furniture goes in.

You want to take a look at all of your flooring very closely. Wood and laminate floorings are the most susceptible to damage, especially to water, Christmas trees, and plants. Laminate flooring gets affected very easily.

Depending on the type of heat you have, you want to check for smoke. If you have gas or oil heat, both of those can create tons of soot at home and you want to check every year to make sure that’s not occurring.

If you have a fireplace and it’s gas, the odds are it’s creating an issue already that needs to be inspected. So, we do a smoke test on those areas.

• Check around your vanity to make sure that it’s not leaky inside
• Check inside your base cabinets.
• Check the side panels to look for signs of potential water damage. In the kitchen
• Check those base cabinets
• Check-in and out, underneath the sink, near the refrigerator, at the ends of the cabinets, and next to the refrigerator as well.
• The washing machine, the patio door, and any other sink in the home are also huge sources of losses.

So, please inspect those areas carefully. Walls can be damaged on the exterior of your home, especially this winter by ice damming, look for unusual stains, interior walls, and ceilings that may have been damaged by rooms above.

Finished basements are often an area of damage, make sure you take a look around the condensate pump or the Sump pump in the basement.

What type of flooring makes a big difference for it, if that loss occurs?

Certainly, check around your Sump pump, and your ceiling tiles in the basement from a leak above. And the condensate pump is right next to the furnace. 95% of all losses come from these locations.

So, don’t think you can skip it. Go around it at least once a year, I recommend twice a year and make sure that there’s no damage occurring.

Generally, the policy requires generally what is known as Prompt Notice.

Various language and various specific wording can be in your policy, but they all require prompt.

And prompt basically says that as soon as you identify it, you should notify the insurance company.

You can’t let something occur and continue to occur or it may be excluded under an ongoing loss principle.

You know that the law is in your policy as well.

Here’s what’s known as the statute of limitations.

There are many differences depending on what state you live in.

• But let’s assume most of them are about one year. So, if you have a statute of limitations of one year, it means that if you don’t identify it, and present it within a year, you’ve been barred for life from suing the insurance company.
• Well, once that happens, you lose all leverage in your claim, and most likely you will not be paid adequately for your loss, because the insurance company doesn’t have to do it.
• You couldn’t sue them anymore once that statute is barred, and that’s generally one year after the date of occurrence.

So, that’s why it’s really important to take a look probably at least twice a year!!!!!!!

• We use certain tools to double-check for things, we use moisture meters to check building materials if they’re containing water.
• We use cameras to look at especially roofs from the ground.
• We can zoom in.
• We use thermal image photography which can look for damage behind walls, especially with stucco houses, wet windows sills, and things of that nature.
• We really use high-powered flashlights well over 1000 lumens to inspect the building. It’s a lot easier to see their image with bright light on it.
• And we also use smoke sponges to test for damages from interior soot, most likely from that gas fireplace.

Hopefully, this information will help you out a little bit, and it is pretty much your duty to make sure your property is in good condition.

Further, If you want help with that inspection and further information and send a direct email to faq-info@majoradjusters.com   we would be glad to answer your question directly.