What Is a Good Way to Start a Home Insurance Claim?
Document the damage with photos, then call your insurer to report the loss before cleaning up or making repairs.
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Once you report the loss, write down the date and time you called, the name of the person you spoke with, and the claim number they give you. That number is how you track everything from here, so keep it somewhere you won't lose it. An adjuster will usually want to inspect the damage before you fix anything permanent. Temporary measures like tarping a roof or shutting off water are expected, and worth photographing too. Your policy's declarations page shows your deductible, which gets subtracted from whatever the damage is valued at.
If the adjuster's offer feels low, nothing says you have to accept it as final. Policies differ on what counts toward rebuilding costs and how depreciation gets applied. A policy with better claim terms or a higher payout ceiling might have served you better from the start. Comparing what else is available now shows whether your current coverage still fits.
What happens if the adjuster's offer doesn't match what repairs actually cost?
Get your own repair estimates from contractors before you agree to anything. An adjuster's number comes from their own inspection and software, and it can miss damage that only shows up once a contractor opens a wall or gets on the roof. Written estimates from people who actually do the work carry weight, and you can send them to your insurer as part of the claim file.
Ask for the adjuster's worksheet, the itemized breakdown of what they counted and what they valued it at. If something is missing, like damaged insulation behind drywall or a code upgrade your town now requires, point to where the policy or the estimate shows it. A low offer is often a missing-item problem, not a disagreement about price.
If your policy pays replacement cost, part of the payout may be held back as depreciation until repairs are done. That holdback is called recoverable depreciation, and you get it back after you show the work was completed. Check your declarations page or the claim paperwork for whether your policy works this way, since not all do.
When the gap doesn't close, most policies have an appraisal process built in. Each side picks an appraiser, the two appraisers pick a third, and a majority decision on the value becomes binding. It costs something to invoke, since you're paying for your own appraiser, but it exists for exactly this disagreement and doesn't require a lawsuit. If the claim was denied outright rather than underpaid, ask for the denial in writing with the specific policy language cited. That tells you whether it's a coverage question worth appealing or a real exclusion, like flood or earthquake damage, that a standard policy was never going to pay for.
What if the claim gets denied instead of just underpaid?
A denial is different from a low offer, and it's worth telling them apart before deciding what to do next. Ask the insurer to put the denial in writing if they haven't already, with the specific policy language they're relying on. Insurers are generally required to give a reason, and that reason tells you whether there's something to push back on or whether the loss was never going to be covered.
Some denials come down to timing or paperwork rather than the damage itself. A missed deadline for reporting the loss, a form that wasn't filled out, or a required inspection that didn't happen can all produce a denial that has nothing to do with whether the damage is real. If that's the issue, ask what's needed to reopen the claim and whether the deadline can still be met.
Other denials point to an exclusion that was part of the policy from the start. Flood damage and earthquake damage aren't covered by a standard homeowners policy regardless of how the claim is handled, since those require separate policies. Gradual damage, like a roof that failed over years of wear rather than a single storm, is usually excluded too. If the cited exclusion matches what actually happened to the house, there may not be a path to reverse it, and the more useful move is checking whether a different policy would have covered this kind of loss going forward.
If the denial seems to misread the damage or the policy, most states let homeowners file a complaint with the state insurance department, and some policies allow appraisal even on coverage disputes, not just value disputes. A public adjuster, hired independently and paid a share of the payout, can also make the case on your behalf if the claim is large enough to justify the cost. Keep every document from the process, since the paperwork trail is often what turns a denial into a reopened claim.
Before you accept anything
Check your declarations page for your deductible and whether depreciation applies, then compare it against the adjuster's worksheet line by line. A mismatch there is usually worth a second look.
