Fire insurance is a type of property insurance. Most every fire policy will include four areas of coverage. The first area is for the dwelling. This includes insurance coverage for the damages that your home directly suffered. The second area of coverage will cover any other structures on your land. This can include things like detached garages, guest homes and barns. This can even include coverage of gazebos or sheds. The third area of coverage is for personal property. This will include objects inside of your home or separate structure that were lost or damaged in the fire. The fourth area of coverage is typically called “loss of use,” or something similar. This would cover the cost of living elsewhere while repairs are being made to your home.
Even if the fire that damaged your home was put out quickly, the lingering smoke can render many belongings irreparable. Smoke damage is actually incredibly serious, and gets worse the longer it sits. Depending on the severity, you may have to have your walls, fixtures and floors completely replaced. The nature of a fire makes damage assessment, and particularly the value of damaged goods, very difficult. Adequately lining up the long list of little claims, many burned and unidentifiable, can be just as difficult a task as claiming the larger, more obvious items.
When the adjusters-representatives hired by insurance companies to assess the validity of the claims-are brought onto the scene of a fire, they will attempt to adjust the claim. In the case of fire damage, an insurance expert with a list of all the personal belongings in the house is a crucial part of your claim. Some insurance companies will only cover damages up to a certain amount of money, depending on the type of fire insurance policy you are paying for. Some insurance agencies will also cover things like personal liability or medical liability. You may have been responsible for the fire damage to your home. In this case, it is important to make sure that you have a policy that covers personal liability. Your company may be attempting to change the terms of your policy in order to short-change you out of your deserved insurance benefits. Call a professional from our firm to ensure that this doesn’t happen.