FAQ

You can definitely contact your agent to file a claim. Although we suggest you have one of our professional claim specialists walk you through the process of filing your claim. We can guide you directly to the source in your home owners insurance to file your claim, which makes the process move a lot smoother and faster.

The inspection is for us to gain knowledge on the current status of your home from the recent catastrophe, then provide you with professional advice going forward with repairs or potentially calling in a claim on your Home Owners Insurance.

I know we briefly mentioned 3-6 months above. There are a lot of factors on the time it takes to handle the details of the claim and then make repairs. Everyone's length of time will very. We understand that it is your home and you want it repaired as soon as possible. It is in our best interest as well to move the process as quickly as we can. Our professionals will stay in close contact to inform you step by step how we are moving forward.

Just to give some examples of possible time frames:

• A simple roof replacement claim with no issues on receiving preliminary funds (meaning they are "not" held up by a mortgage or supplementing the initial insurance estimate) can take anywhere from 1-6 weeks. That is all money paid in from your insurance, and a brand new, No leaks, warrantied roof.
• How about multiple trades; roofing, siding, gutters, interior work, etc. Again, this also includes any preliminary hold on funds, but now we are adding different trades. It takes time to coordinate different tradesman to make repairs to your home, especially in an area where the whole community has damage to their properties. We always want to move ahead as quick as possible but these particular situations can take anywhere from 3-6+ months.

This is one of the most common questions. Whenever we want to purchase anything we in most cases look for estimates. Although we wish it was that easy, when dealing with an insurance claim, the process is bit different. 99% of insurance companies (this is not an exact measurement. It is mainly to get our point across) use an estimating software that comes up with what we call a "fair amount" for your repairs. We are dealing with human nature, where there is always room for error. After your insurance company approves your claim they will write an "estimate" to make these repairs. In most cases, it will be missing items to allow Committed to make required repairs and make your home whole again. At that point, we will go into the same software your insurance company used and rewrite the estimate to make sure you get all the monies needed to make correct and efficient repairs to your property.

Important.. One thing to remember is your insurance company is trying to make you "whole again," that does not mean "Upgrading you" to a better status prior to the storm. It is in Committed's best interest to do everything we can to get your home back to, but in most cases, better than pre-storm conditions, and that is what our professionals shoot for.

I know for some, in certain claim situations like an auto claim. The deductible is billed into the repairs. Or there are many companies that offer "no deductible payment needed." This is where you as a consumer should steer clear! If insurance companies didn't want there clients to pay deductibles it would be built into your policy. It is in fact "Illegal" for any company to charge your insurance company full rate on the estimate that is agreed and not bill for the deductible. However, in many cases when looking over all the items needing repair you decide to decline all repairs that are recommended, then those monies maybe moved to cover your deductible.

Important... When you decide to decline certain repairs and keep those funds. If ever there were future damage to that same item, your insurance will decline second time payment.

This depends on a lot of factors. If you have not filed many claims in the past, this should not cause an increase in your policy. In *Most* Home insurance policy's they consider weather related claims to be an act of God/Mother Nature which is out of your control. However, if you have filed many claims in the recent past this may lead to an increase or possible cancellation of your policy.

One more thing, when we say "filed claims" that doesn't always mean "filed" it means "accepted." If you have taken "payout" on these past claims that is what mostly counts. Also, we are merely giving you this information based on years of experience dealing with insurance claims. Every insurance company has their own specifics in writing policy's and we cannot completely vouch for how your homeowners policy was written.

ACV stands for "Actual Cash Value." What that means is, at the current state of your home whether its 10/20/30 years old will determine how much those specific items (meaning roof, siding, etc.) are worth.

RCV stands for "Replacement Cost Value." Key word there is "Replacement" which means, once all the items in the estimate have been "Replaced" with new/non damaged items, your insurance will release the final funds.

As long as your insurance policy states that it is a Replacement cost policy, you will know they are paying to replace those agreed damaged items. If it states you have an ACV clause, then even though they agreed for replacement does not mean they will give you all the funds needed to make those repairs. You would only receive the amount that your current roof, siding, gutters are currently worth.

The one thing we hate to hear... There are many reasons that can lead to a denied claim. This is another important reason to have one of our professionals do a detailed inspection. We don't want you to file a claim on your homeowners insurance unless we are confident in the damage that you potentially have or if its to preventively help you in case damage to your property progresses in the future from the reason catastrophe.