Guides
Two things to understand before your first claim.
The rest of this site is reference material: tables, statutes, state rules. It only helps once you know what you are looking at. These two guides are the frame the rest hangs on: what the contract says, and what happens in what order once a loss occurs.
General education, not advice
This guide describes how these documents and rules are generally structured. It is not legal or claims advice and it is not a statement of the law in any state. Specific claims are governed by the policy itself and by the statutes and regulations of the state involved. Follow the citations, read the originals, and confirm anything you intend to rely on with the regulator or a licensed professional.
Full disclaimerStart here
Reading the policy
The policy is the contract, and disputes with a carrier are ultimately disputes about what it says. A general orientation to how these documents are structured and which parts tend to decide claims.
- What each part of the policy does, from the declarations page to the endorsements
- Named peril against open peril, and what "all risk" generally means
- The conditions that often decide claims: duties after loss, appraisal, suit limitation
- Actual cash value against replacement cost, and where the withheld money goes
Then this
The life of a claim
A claim moves through the same eleven stages almost everywhere. What changes state to state is the clock on each one, so pick your state and the deadlines fill in from the reference tables, each with its citation.
- The order of events from the loss to the last day suit can be filed
- Which duties are yours and which are the carrier's, stage by stage
- What each state's published rule says at every stage, linked to its source
- Where appraisal fits, and where it stops being the right tool
Once these make sense, the reference tables answer the same question for all fifty-one jurisdictions at once, and your state guide covers the licensing side.