DISASTER STRIKES: NOW WHAT?
Tragedy strikes when you least expect it. It happens in a flash and sometimes without warning. In the United States, a house fire is reported every 96 seconds, which results in 329,500 homes lost every year. When a fire occurs in a home, it happens in seconds—leaving items and belongings damaged or destroyed. No matter the severity of a fire, there is always loss.
Over the last 40 years, Welbilt Homes has helped families rebuild after a house fire. Our staff has helped many families who have lost everything and loved ones.
After a fire destroys their home, people are left stunned and in shock. The last thing they are thinking about is building a new home. If you find yourself in this position, you need someone to advocate for you, stand with you, and walk you through the process.
After the smoke clears, the first step is calling your insurance company. When the lenders get involved, this is where it gets tricky. The last thing a home insurance company wants you to get is a public adjuster. Public adjusters tend to better represent you as a policyholder and do more thorough evaluations. Depending on the insurance agent that is working with you, sometimes it's necessary. We never advise people to get a public adjuster because it will cost you money; sometimes it's necessary.
If your policy includes replacement insurance coverage, that is instrumental. Insurance companies will go through your home room by room and give you money based on how your policy was written. The insurance company will also go through the appreciation and depreciation of your home. There are a few things people don't realize when rebuilding their home after a house fire. For example, if your home was a small two-story built in the 1930s, it didn't have insulation like it does today. If you didn't like the floor plan of that house, you don't need to rebuild exactly what burned down. You can build or replace whatever is covered by your insurance policy. Other things that might be covered by your policy are plants or a sidewalk.
Story from Fran Reinert, Vice President:
“The other situation I had that was not too long ago, a couple of years ago, we had a partial burn down, and we went over, and it was a family not too far from our office. When I got out of the truck, the lady was standing on the sidewalk with her children in hand. And it was so sad because the insurance company didn't do or the company the insurance company hired didn't do a very good job at securing the house. Their curtains are blowing out of the windows, and the siding's flopping alongside the house, and you know stuff is literally blowing out the windows of this house.
This woman is standing there with her two children watching her life blow out the windows, and she said the insurance company wants us to fix this house. When you looked at it, it was a two story with the whole burned off on the one side. How do you do that? How do you fix all that?
And because things were not done the way they should have been done for these people. I went in, and I called a couple of people who I work with, and I had my engineer go out there, and I said, 'Look, we got to do something here. This house is not fit to be rebuilt because somebody didn't do their job properly. The house was never secured down. It was never tarped, and now it just rained in it. There was snow and ice all over the top of the second floor, which was what remained of it, and it was just dripping down in there. And that's just an infestation from mold and everything else that goes along with it.'
And so we battled that, and it came down to it that we, because being well versed in the business, you're only a percentage away from brand new to reconstruction. The insurance company made a decision, unfortunately, to reconstruct a house that was 85% burned down. Well, that's when you have to have somebody speak up for you. And that's what we did. I got on board with the township. I got on board with an engineer, and we got on board with the bank, and we made it work.
It takes effort. It's a lot of work, and it's a lot of heartbreak because, you know, you try to keep people elevated, try to keep them on the upbeat, and people just keep kicking them down.”
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Reach out and our team would be glad to help you rebuild a home after a house fire.
