Updated On: July 11, 2011
When the unthinkable happens and your home or property is damaged or lost due to fire, flood or any other act of God your initial reaction after the shock is where do I start first. The first thing you need to do is make sure your Insurance Policy covers you. A public Adjuster can take a lot of the stress from you in dealing with the Insurance Company. After you have established your coverage, the next thing is to find some Disaster Recovery Solutions.
There are companies available that only specialize in Disaster Recovery Solutions; while you may look at the chaos and feel at a complete loss these companies will be of a great service to you and your family it doesn’t have to be a total loss. With the specialized restoration skills they have for fire and flood you may be surprised just how much of your property can be restored.
You have many local services available to you, such as maid services carpet cleaners to name a few that deal specifically with fire or water damaged situations some even offer sewage clean up. Disaster Recovery Solutions can often cover a wide range of services. The main concern is to minimize your loss, relieve your stress as much a possible with a plan of action, and get your life back to normal as soon as possible. This is all attainable by hiring the right people who are understanding and sympathetic to your problems and offer a professional service with knowledge and expertise.
Although you need to get your home dried out as soon as you can to prevent further damage, it is also imperative that you get an adjuster out to view the damage before you start any work. It can be a catch 22. If you wait too long for the adjuster from the Insurance Company to come out, you may find the Insurance Company will only pay for a portion of the damage due to the fact that you didn’t protect the property adequately by getting the problem taken care of. If on the other hand you get someone in immediately to repair or restore the damage to prevent further problems such as mold for example you may have the problem that the Insurance Company doesn’t want to pay because their adjuster didn’t see the damage prior to any Disaster Recovery Solutions.
When faced with Disaster Recovery Solutions you would be well advised to have an Adjuster as an advocate to represent you. I myself have faced this exact same scenario with an Insurance Company. I was advised by the Insurance Company not to touch anything until their Adjuster had an opportunity to inspect the damage. When they finally came out and submitted their report back to the Insurance Company, the Insurance declined the claim saying I had waited too long to repair the damage, therefore; the water damaged carpet, and the subsequent mold in the ceiling was due to my negligence. I acted on the Insurance Company’s request and ended up in a huge fight with them only adding to my stress.