Once you’ve filed a claim with your insurance company, you are officially in the pre-litigation/pre-suit phase. This phase is consequential for many reasons, which we’ll discuss below and moving forward. At this stage, it is important to recognize that this is the time and opportunity for you – the insured claimant – to put your best foot forward. An insurance company will investigate the claim thoroughly and ultimately issue a decision on your claim (also known as a “claims determination”).
The investigation is an important step in making sure your claim is processed properly. An insurance company need two things (and sometimes more depending on the complexity of the claim): (1) Request for claim information; and (2) Schedule an inspection.
In the last section, we discussed the first inspection. This is important because it gives the insurance company its first opportunity to document the damages reported. In some instances, an insurance company will schedule a second (and sometimes a third) inspection if a claim is high-value (~over $25,000.00), the damages are unclear, prior claims were reported for similar damages, or if the insurance company suspects any kind of fraud.
For our purposes, it’s important to always put your best foot forward no matter what the reason is. This time around, however, the second inspection will likely be done with a professional with a particular expertise. For instance, if it’s a roofing claim, the insurance company might send an engineer and a roofer to opine and confirm the cause of the loss (to establish liability) and value of the roof replacement (to assess damages). If it’s a cast iron pipe leak, the insurance company might send a plumber and tiling expert to opine and confirm the cause of the loss and value of the tile replacement.
Again, it is always important to be very nice to everyone who attends the inspection. They will play a huge role in your claims adjustment and it will be well worth your time to keep them happy.