Getting insurance to cover potential losses to your home, car or other belongings is not just smart, in many cases it's the law. The good thing is you are covered in the event of a problem. The bad thing is how much it costs for the insurance.
Insurance is just that. It's something you have just in case something happens. So when that something does happen, it's time to make a claim, right? Well, not exactly. It's not always that simple. There are some important factors to consider before you decide whether or not to file that claim.
For instance, you may not be ready to file a claim as soon as an incident occurs. Maybe you are waiting to see if the water in the basement has caused damage that isn't showing up right away. You may be ready to do the clean up yourself thinking the problem is minor so it's not worth making a claim.
But what happens if a few weeks or a month down the road, you notice mold starting to show up? If you wait too long to file a claim the insurance company may be hesitant to approve it. That's because any delay in reporting the incident can hamper the insurance adjuster's ability to investigate and assess loss and damage.
Can you prove that you ripped out carpet and threw out an older couch? Can you prove that you did everything you could to keep the damage to a minimum when the problem occurred?
At the very least, take pictures of the damage before you do any clean up and keep a careful record of anything that you threw out because of water damage. But even at that, you should contact your insurance agent to at least let him know about the incident, so it's on record as to when it occurred.
By trying to avoid a claim you could even end up having the claim denied. The insurance company may be within their rights to do that on the grounds that they were prevented from properly dealing with the loss when it occurred. It's unfortunate that there are times when not making a claim creates problems. So what can you do?
The bottom line is to consider carefully how serious the problem is right now while at the same time trying to decide if there is the potential for further problems in the future. If there is, it may be smarter to make a claim, so you are covered.
Florida Auto Insurance
