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Claim Position Check
Eight questions. It tells you which deadlines are running against you, converts your wind and hail deductible into an actual dollar figure, and flags the two things that most often cost homeowners money at this stage.
Your answers stay in your browser. Nothing you enter is uploaded, stored or logged, and there is no email wall on the result. To be exact rather than absolute: the page itself loads two typefaces from Google Fonts, so Google sees your IP address the way it would on most of the web. Your answers do not go there, or anywhere else.
The reference behind the check
The four things this check is actually looking at.
1. Your wind and hail deductible is probably not what you think
In most storm-exposed states, wind and hail claims carry a separate percentage deductible, usually 1 to 5 percent of your dwelling limit, not the flat dollar amount on the front of your policy. On a home insured for $400,000 a 1 percent wind and hail deductible is $4,000. At 2 percent it is $8,000. At 5 percent on a $500,000 home it is $25,000. The figure is calculated from the insured value of the house, not from the size of the damage, so it does not shrink for a small loss.
This is the single most common financial surprise in a storm claim. The "$1,000 deductible" most homeowners believe they have applies to fire, theft and water leaks. Percentage deductibles for wind and hail are standard in Texas, Florida, Oklahoma, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, South Carolina and North Carolina. Full explanation, including where to find yours.
2. A deadline is running, and it is not the one you think
Two separate clocks run on a storm claim. The first is the duty to give prompt notice of loss, which is why waiting to report damage weakens a claim. The second is the suit limitation period written into the policy itself, which is frequently shorter than the general statute of limitations in your state and which begins at the date of loss, not the date of denial. Missing the second one ends the claim permanently regardless of how strong it was.
3. Money is often left behind after the first payment
On a replacement cost policy the insurer pays actual cash value first, withholding depreciation, and releases that withheld amount only after the work is completed and the final invoice is submitted. Homeowners who never submit the final invoice never receive their recoverable depreciation, and the money stays with the carrier. Separately, when a job requires a general contractor to coordinate three or more trades, ten percent overhead and ten percent profit is customarily owed and is a common omission from a first estimate.
How recoverable depreciation works and how to claim it
4. Two offers after a storm create legal exposure for you
A contractor offering to "waive", "cover", "eat" or "build into the estimate" your deductible is proposing insurance fraud, and in most states a homeowner who accepts becomes a party to it. A contractor asking for more than roughly a third of the job up front is outside normal practice: the BBB reports that twenty percent of roofing complaints involve stolen deposits, a share that is rising as payments move to peer-to-peer apps with no buyer protection. The full storm chaser screen.
The check tells you where you stand. The File tells you what to do about it.
Eight modules and nine documents covering the evidence standard, policy decoding, the adjuster inspection, line-by-line estimate review, and the supplement, reinspection and appraisal ladder.
One payment, 60-day unconditional refund, no cut of your claim.