A fire claim is decided by what you do before the site is cleared.
Once people are safe, almost everything that decides a fire claim happens in the next three days: what is preserved, and what can be evidenced.
What loses itClearing up. The debris is the evidence of what was there and how much of it there was, and a cleared site turns a provable loss into an argument about your word.
- Make it safe, then stop clearing upOnce people are safe and the fire is out, stop. The instinct to clean is the most expensive instinct in a fire claim. Nothing goes to the scrap dealer, nothing is swept, nothing is repaired.Immediately
- Tell the insurer todayAn email with the policy number, the date and time, the premises and one line on what happened. It does not need to be complete. It needs to be today.Same day
- Start the official recordsThe fire brigade report, and the police report where there is any question of cause. Both take time to obtain and every insurer will ask for them, so request them before you are asked.Day 1
- Photograph before anything movesWide shots of the whole area first, then close shots of individual damaged items, then the parts that survived. Photograph stock as it lies. Walk the site on video, narrating what each area held.Before the survey
- Assemble what proves the valueStock statements, purchase invoices, the last stock declaration given to your bank, the fixed asset register, production records, GST returns. A fire claim is won or lost on whether the value at risk can be evidenced.Days 1 to 3
- Meet the surveyor with your papers readyTheir report largely decides the claim and it is written from what they are shown on the day. Walk the site with them. Do not leave them to form a view alone and correct it later.At survey
- Keep salvage until you are told in writingDamaged stock and machinery still belong to the claim. Do not sell, scrap or dispose of salvage without the insurer's written agreement on what happens to the proceeds.Until settled
- Record the business interruption separatelyIf you carry it, loss of profit is a distinct claim with its own evidence. Start the record of lost production and lost orders on day one; it cannot be reconstructed convincingly later.From day 1
The quiet oneUnderinsurance. If the sum insured is below the value actually at risk, the average clause reduces the claim in proportion however well the rest of it is run. Check where you stand. It takes three numbers and nothing is stored.
Marine Cargo Claim
Goods damaged, short-landed or lost in transit by road, rail, sea or air.
Machinery Breakdown Claim
A machine has failed electrically or mechanically and stopped production.
Still standing in it? Ring the desk before you clear anything.
Whoever placed your policy, and whatever stage the claim has reached.
Three deadlines
- Tell the insurer now, not after the assessment.
- Notice to anybody else responsible the carrier, the contractor, the police, within the time your policy sets.
- Every document within the time the insurer asks for it.