Claim Your Ground

Your home just survived a disaster. Now comes the other disaster: the insurance claim.

Whether your house was damaged by fire, hurricane, flood, hail, or another catastrophic event, the homeowner's insurance claim process that follows is one of the most complex, adversarial, and consequential experiences you will ever navigate. The insurance company knows exactly how this process works. You probably do not. That gap costs policyholders billions of dollars in underpaid claims every year.

Claim Your Ground: The Complete Homeowner's Guide to Surviving a Major Insurance Claim gives you the map to territory that is deliberately unmapped by the people who benefit from your not knowing it. This comprehensive, heartfelt, practical guide covers every stage of the major property insurance claim process -- from the critical decisions of the first forty-eight hours through documentation, adjuster negotiations, supplemental claims, contractor fraud protection, dispute resolution, the rebuild process, and the policy review that will make the next disaster less devastating.

You will learn what to do -- and what not to do -- in the first forty-eight hours after a disaster, when the decisions you make will set the foundation for everything that follows. You will learn how to read your policy with the specific lens of someone who needs to use it, understanding the difference between replacement cost value and actual cash value, the hidden deductibles that shock policyholders after a major event, the exclusions that eliminate coverage for significant damage categories, and the conditions that must be met to preserve your rights. You will learn how to document your loss comprehensively enough to support your claim through every stage of the process. You will learn how to work with the insurance company's adjuster productively while understanding their incentives and limitations. You will learn when to hire a public adjuster or an insurance attorney, how to find the right one, and what to expect from the professional relationship. You will learn how to identify and protect yourself from contractor fraud, which is rampant in post-disaster markets. You will learn how to file supplemental claims for damage that was missed in the initial assessment, how to invoke the appraisal process when the insurance company's settlement offer is inadequate, and when litigation may be the only path to a fair result.

Through the stories of four composite homeowners -- Maria, navigating the aftermath of a hurricane that destroyed her home of nineteen years; James and Karen, confronting a total loss from a wildfire; Robert, a retiree learning the hard lessons of the flood insurance claim process; and Sandra, a single mother whose partial claim turned out to be far from complete -- the book brings the insurance claim experience to life with honesty, specificity, and the kind of dark humor that is sometimes the only thing that makes an impossible process bearable.

You paid for insurance because you knew, someday, you might need it. That day has come. This is the book that tells you how to actually use it.