What Should I Do After My House Burns Down?
Get everyone safe, then call your insurer to start the claim and ask about advance funds for housing.
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Where you sleep tonight
Your policy's additional living expenses coverage pays for a hotel, short-term rental, meals above your normal food cost, and other costs while the house is unlivable. Keep every receipt. Ask your adjuster whether they can issue an advance so you're not covering costs out of pocket.
Dwelling coverage and rebuilding
The dwelling limit on your declarations page is what pays to rebuild the house, not what it would sell for. If the fire destroyed the home, ask how your policy handles a gap between that limit and actual rebuilding costs, since some policies add extended or guaranteed replacement cost coverage.
Your belongings and proof
Personal property coverage pays to replace what burned, but you'll need to document what you owned. Walk through each room from memory, photograph what's salvageable, and keep damaged items until the adjuster says you can dispose of them. Insurers often provide a worksheet to help.
What a wildfire changes next
A fire claim, especially from a wildfire, can affect your next renewal or your insurer's willingness to keep covering the house. Insurers weigh wildfire risk by location, and some areas now see non-renewal notices. Your state sets how much notice an insurer must give before that happens.
If this claim leads to a non-renewal or a renewal price that jumps, the policy that made sense last year may not fit now, and a house in wildfire country can get a very different quote from one insurer to the next. Once you have a sense of the dwelling limit and ALE payout this claim is drawing on, it's worth seeing what coverage would cost elsewhere.
How the claims process actually works from here
Once the claim is open, an adjuster gets assigned to your file. For a total loss or a major fire, expect them to visit the property or arrange for a local inspector to do it. They're assessing the structure, what's salvageable, and the scope of damage to put a number on both the dwelling claim and the contents claim. You don't have to accept their first figure. If you have estimates from a contractor or a sense that rebuilding costs run higher in your area right now, say so and ask how they arrived at theirs.
Expect paperwork beyond the inventory of belongings. The insurer will likely ask for a signed proof of loss, a formal statement of what was damaged and its value, within a window set by your policy, often around 60 days though it varies. Missing that deadline can complicate the claim, so ask your adjuster early what's required and when it's due. If you're working with a public adjuster or a contractor who handles insurance paperwork, confirm they're sending documentation directly to your insurer and keep your own copies of everything.
Money tends to arrive in stages rather than all at once. You may get an initial payment for immediate needs, then additional payments as the scope of rebuilding or replacement becomes clearer. If your policy includes replacement cost coverage on the dwelling, you're often paid the actual cash value first, then the remainder once rebuilding is complete and receipts are in. That gap can be significant on a full rebuild, so ask your adjuster how your policy structures these payments and what you need to submit to trigger the final amount.
If the house is a total loss, you'll also be deciding whether to rebuild on the same lot, buy elsewhere, or sell the land. Your policy's dwelling coverage is usually tied to rebuilding, so using the payout differently, buying a different house outright, for example, may pay out at actual cash value instead of the full replacement figure. Ask your insurer directly how the payout changes depending on what you decide to do, since this varies by policy and matters before you sign a purchase agreement or a construction contract.
What if you disagree with the adjuster's numbers
Every policy includes a way to challenge the insurer's figures if they come in low. Start by asking the adjuster to walk through how they reached their number, line by line, for both the structure and your belongings. If their estimate for rebuilding doesn't match what local contractors are quoting, or their value for a damaged item doesn't match what it would cost to replace it today, say so in writing and attach whatever documentation backs you up.
Most states let you hire a public adjuster, someone who works for you rather than the insurance company, to build a competing estimate. They typically take a percentage of the claim payout, so this makes more sense on a large claim than a small one. Some policies also include an appraisal clause, a formal process where each side picks an appraiser, the two appraisers pick a neutral third, and the group settles on a figure that's binding. Check your declarations page or ask your insurer whether this option is available before you assume the first number is final.
Keep a written record of every call and email with your insurer, including dates, names, and what was said. If a disagreement drags on, this record matters, whether you're escalating within the company, filing a complaint with your state's insurance department, or eventually involving a lawyer. Most disputes resolve without going that far, but insurers move faster when they know you're tracking the process closely.
Timing matters too. Depдепends on your state, you may have a limited window, often one to several years, to file a lawsuit over a denied or underpaid claim, and that clock usually starts from the date of loss or the date of denial. If the claim is contentious, ask your insurer or a local attorney what your state's deadline looks like well before it becomes relevant, since missing it can close off options you'd otherwise have.
Before you do anything else
Find your declarations page and check the dwelling limit and ALE coverage against what this claim is actually costing. That gap, if there is one, is the clearest reason to see what another insurer would offer.
