I am in the middle of a large loss fire claim. My sentiments pretty much echo juliatallmadge's (wish I could reach her to find out how it all turned out). Mine was a high-end single family residential rental. The renter was at fault, so not only do I have the experience of dealing with my own insurance company (State Farm), I will be getting experience dealing with the renter's TWO insurance companies (one is for the general renter's policy and the other is for a general liability umbrella policy). All I can say is, it has almost been one year and the house is still standing unoccupied and untouched. The inside of the home was completely smoked out and partially structurally damaged. Only now is the claim being subrogated by my insurance company, which has paid to term limits, to the tenant's insurance company. As juliatallmadge stated, it looks like the tenant's insurance companies will try to micro-negotiate everything, so I am in the process of shopping attorneys. Since the fire was the fault of the tenant's, I deserve to be compensated for my loss. But I get the distinct feeling at this stage this will not happen without legal representation and quite possibly a legal battle that may go all the way to court. I will know more as this situation unfolds in the next 2-6 months. I can only say that State Farm has been wonderful. But be very certain to read your policy thoroughly, because even your claims adjuster can make big mistakes that you might catch. We caught a 90K mistake in our favor. Also, DO NOT make the very common mistake of being underinsured. If we had not been underinsured, we would already be started on the construction while waiting for the tenant's insurance companies to settle with us. Take pictures and videos of EVERYTHING. Open your drawers and cabinets and shoot pictures. Shoot every single feature in your house. And then store those someplace safe outside of your own home. Also, because I saw it happen, keep your computer backed up on a hard drive and store it outside of your home or in a fire/flood proof vault, as well. In my opinion, $1,200 a year for homeowner's insurance is chump change. I was paying more than that and was still underinsured.

update. March 23rd, 2 weeks exactly after my dishwasher exploded, I received an estimate in the mail. I am quite plased at how little depreciation there was. The letter says that a check has been mailed, for the actual value of my loss. The amount of the check is value, minus my deductible. I am thrilled that the adjuster counted *everything*, so I don't have to skimp. Each item is broken down, line by line, and they have accounted for painting my walls that have water damage, and even replacing the insulation in the floors, which I was afraid wouldn't be covered. What I do think is silly, is that the cabinets are being replaced, but not the uppers. My home is a 1978, so the cabinets are old. No chance of matching them, so I'm supposed to have old cabinets on the top, and new on the bottom? A bit silly. We are thinking of replacing the floors ourselves, and are really happy to see that the first check will be enough to cover the materials. It's only $450 or so in depreciation for the floors and cabinets. Not too bad, considering. I still don't understand how I would go about getting the 2nd check for replacement. Do I call and ask? Send them pictures or the completed repair? Have the adjuster come back out and look again?

Danny, I'm in Canada, so we have different insurance companies up here. I didn't hire a lawyer as my thought was that the lawyer would end up with all the money. I had a flood--and i waited a fair bit of time for the water to do the damage that it was going to do. ie. Cracking of my wooden california shutters, rust forming around the pot lights. This type of damage takes time to appear and the insurance wanted to get out fast and not cover these items. It was difficult to get them to acknowledge the damage. The restoration company that they wanted me to use, and who assessed the damage, was definitely "in bed" with the insurance company and kept denying all of the damage. They kept telling me that the cracks were "pre-existing" condition. This was garbage. I had just moved into the condo 6 months prior to the flood, so I had all the photos from the real estate company. One tip: Take lots of photos--including photos of your premises BEFORE you have a flood/fire. I was so frustrated with the contractor/insurance adjuster that I started to cry when they were here and denying all the damage--which was very apparent. This wasn't meant as a "tactic"--it was tears of frustration and anger. Well, once I started to cry, they actually approved the blinds (which were quoted at about $10,000 to replace) and 1/2 of my kitchen cupboards--where there were gaps and cracks forming in the doors. Luckily, most of my condo was wallpapered and they finally agreed that the wallpaper was ruined. (replacement cost to purchase wallpaper was around $8000). That added a fair bit to the claim. What started off as a $30K offer from the insurance ended up being a $120K claim. So I feel that my perserverance paid off. Once the insurance agreed to the damage, then they would pay for a quote that i proved them for materials, ie. the blinds, wallpaper, but they would not "up" their price for labour. It was crazy. They were offering $50 total for labour to wallpaper my large bedroom. Go find a guy who will do a huge room for $50. Trust me--it was a frustrating exercise. I had switch many of my trades to find people who would do the work for a more reasonable price. I can tell you that the other people in my building who sustained damage in this large leak who had insurance with Chubb had no issues with Chubb. During my 18 months of being out of my condo, i had lots of time to google insurance issues. It appears that people are unhappy with all insurance companies! I was not "under-insured", but I have increased my coverage since this incident. I had $150,000 out of home coverage--which covers living in a hotel while you are out of your place and moving costs. The insurance company told me to go a furnished suite near my home in a very fancy part of Toronto. It was over $5000 per month. So, after 18 months, the 150K was depleting quickly. I also never factored into my calculations how much it would cost to do the work needed immediately following the flood--removing the carpets, bringing in fans and water extractors, etc etc. So be sure when you calculate how much insurance coverage you need, that you add extra for these type of things. My insurance really wanted me to use their contractor--but my friends who had claims were very unhappy with the work of the insurance contractors. Plus, the insurance told me that their mandate is to restore everything back as it was before. If you decide that during the process you want to change something, they will not do it. So I decided to hire my own trades people and make some changes/improvements to the condo. I hope that this helps!

@vinmarks Interesting with the line of sight point. But from what line? You can see it in the first photo which is standing near the fridge, but you wouldn't see it from the other side of the island. I'm for sure going to fight it, but likely a public adjuster would know best. I figured a few people here might have some more knowledge than I.