• The name and contact information for their preferred fire clean-up and protection company. Even after a fire, you are still the owner of what is left of the home and are required to secure the premises, protect your possessions, and secure the home from additional damage. Contact and hire the insurance company’s preferred contractor to do the initial clean-up, recovery of valuables, and protection of the property. This will alleviate you from having to worry about screening and negotiating a price with a contractor. As the chosen contractor of the insurance company, you will not be responsible for any charges and the insurance company will help resolve any potential problems.
• Ask them to verify how much they allow for temporary housing, food, clothing, toiletries, medical supplies, and other life necessities. It is very important to establish with your insurance company what your policy does and does not cover.
• The expenses will add up quickly, so ask them for an advance to cover your temporary expenses.
• Most likely, you do not have a copy of your insurance policy, so I would request that they send you a copy of the insurance policy and all endorsements via email. You will need it.
• Make sure you get a claim number and the name of the adjuster who will be assigned to your claim.
• Request them to send you a list of items you are responsible for after a fire loss. You want to be clear on your responsibilities versus theirs. They typically have pamphlets that provide this information that they can email you.
• Ask them to update your contact information as necessary. Provide them a current mobile number and email address, so they can contact you as needed.

For the time being, this may be a hotel or family member’s house. Just make sure it is suitable for you and your family as you may be there for several days to a few weeks until you can find more suitable semi-permanent housing.

There will be procedures to follow, but this is common enough that they will have protocols for you quickly getting the medicines you need.

You will be surprised at how much you lost that will need to be replaced, but several trips to the grocery and department store will help alleviate this for the short term. Make sure you keep careful track of your expenses, or you will not be reimbursed by the insurance company.

These might include a driver’s license, passport, credit cards, checks, bank ATM cards, and birth certificates.

You will want to include the report as part of the claim documentation submitted to the insurance company.

If not done already, you will need to return to your home to recover essential documents, irreplaceable items such as photos, heirlooms, and other possessions that were not destroyed. In most cases, you can complete this task with the help of the fire protection and clean-up company.

You will need to notify banks, credit card issuers, utility providers, mortgage company, and other vendors of your new contact information or discontinue service. Although you can forward the address through the post office, it is not very reliable, and slow.

This will be the basis of your claim for personal items, so inventory everything right down to the salt shaker.

Typically, they are paid a percentage of the claim but usually, you will recoup much more than their fee as their sole job is to deal with the insurance company and make sure you get everything that you are entitled to under the policy.