Filing a large homeowners ins. claim Any ins people on here

[AdRock]

On the 15 last month we had a house fire. Not a huge one but it hotboxed the house really bad. The whole house is down to concrete and framing on the inside. It;s going to have to be completely rewired, all new windows, maybe replumbed, to bring it up to current code. It's also going to need a new roof. It's a late 50's house. What I'm not 100% sure of is the whole process. Who does what on what timeline. I still need to find a good contractor. My mortgage company ( Wells Fargo) needs the first check before they'll open a claim file and escrow.

I'm looking for someone who has had to go through a rebuild like this dealing with the insurance, mortgage company, and contractor. I know I can ask the adjuster and my agent (State Farm) for all the info but I also want to get the info from someone who's been on my side of this. I've never done this stuff before and it's quite overwhelming.

If you've gone through this before, what were those details that you said to yourself "If I knew that before hand I would have done X different"

I hate not knowing exactly how to handle some of this stuff and I ratheer get info from an unbiased party before I get more info from the adjuster or the ins agent. Any and all info is very much appreciated.

[Baron Von Crowder]

State farm should have a catastrophe team, and if they do it like they used to, a couple of fire resto companies will come estimate with the adjuster, independent.

My dad had a fire restoration company about 15 years ago, and worked with several insurance companies in that way. I can still smell that smell, it haunts me. Sorry to hear you're going through that.

[AdRock]

Thanks. Yea, we had a team come out to clean everything and do a hydroxl treatment on what can be saved. There was a contractor that came out with the adjuster. The adjuster isn't an independent, he's a State Farm employee. He and the adjuster were kind of buddy buddy and acting like it was just a given that he would be doing the job. That kind of rubbed me the wrong way.

And yes, the smell sticks with you. I drove past a house where the people were barbequing and got a wiff of the smoke. My blood pressure shot up immediately and I was tense as hell for about 20 minutes.

Here a thread I made in the photo forum with some pics http://www.dfwmustangs.net/forums/sh...93#post1474593

[Baron Von Crowder]

I worded that poorly, the adjuster should be a state farm guy, the contractor independent.

We were friends with the adjusters that were estimated with, since we saw most of them a few times a month, and generally dealt with them throughout the repair. I don't expect any different, but if he rubbed you wrong, then I don't recommend you hire him. This all takes time, and it's your home you are putting in their hands, you'll be dealing that contractor for everything. You need to get a warm fuzzy from them.

[mardyn]

We had a pipe break upstairs and flooded our home in 2013. Adjuster was kinda' a hard ass, but eventually we got it all repaired and the Ins Co. paid off in full... mostly.

We kinda' got screwed on our personal property settlement portion in that they were not going to pay for everything damaged...only what we replaced and could provide receipts for.

Be sure you are very generous to yourself when you estimate value of your personal property damaged or destroyed.

They gave us 50% of our estimated value and held 50% back until said items were replaced. In the end, we probably screwed ourselves out of 5000.00 cause we didn't want to replace some of the old junk we had, but that didn't mean we didn't want to be paid for it.

mardyn

[akfodysvn]

Thanks. Yea, we had a team come out to clean everything and do a hydroxl treatment on what can be saved. There was a contractor that came out with the adjuster. The adjuster isn't an independent, he's a State Farm employee. He and the adjuster were kind of buddy buddy and acting like it was just a given that he would be doing the job. That kind of rubbed me the wrong way.

And yes, the smell sticks with you. I drove past a house where the people were barbequing and got a wiff of the smoke. My blood pressure shot up immediately and I was tense as hell for about 20 minutes.

Here a thread I made in the photo forum with some pics http://www.dfwmustangs.net/forums/sh...93#post1474593

I would try to get anything and everything replaced that is not sentimental. The amount of carcinogens is pretty high based on how our furnishings are made these days.