How Do Home Insurance Claims Work?

Experiencing damage to your home, theft of your personal property, or a liability suit is stressful. Knowing how to submit an insurance claim can help make a bad situation less difficult.

As a homeowner, you’ve purchased your insurance policy and have coverage in case of accidents or the unexpected. You know that your homeowner’s insurance protects you financially. But if something does happen, how do you file a claim?

Read on to learn what you can submit a claim for, how to file a claim, and ways APOLLO helps make this process effortless.

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What’s Covered by Home Insurance?

While every policy is different and there are specific types of coverage available, most homeowner’s insurance will cover variations of the following:

• Contents coverage, which protects your personal belongings against damages, vandalism, or theft.

• Personal liability, which covers associated legal fees and medical expenses if a visitor to your home gets injured on your property.

• Fire, smoke, and water damage coverages, which protects you financially if a flood or fire spreads throughout your home and destroys your personal items or property.

• Additional living expenses, which covers you from any unexpected costs for accommodation if your home becomes uninhabitable.

Related: What does homeowners insurance cover

How to File Your Home Insurance Claim in 3 Steps

Here are the typical three steps you’ll need to take when filing an insurance claim.

1. Create a report of the incident

If there’s an accident on your property or your home’s been broken into, you’ll want to put together a detailed report as soon as possible. For example, here are a few pieces of information that you may want to consider including in your report:

• An account of the incident: Use this as an opportunity to outline everything you know or remember about the event.

• Make a home inventory: If personal belongings have been damaged or stolen, create a list indicating everything that’s been affected.

• Take pictures or videos: Document any damaged items or accident sites by taking photos or videos.

• Keep your receipts: For personal belongings or property damage that requires immediate repairs or replacements, make sure you don’t lose your receipts.

2. Work with a claims advisor

Get in touch with your insurance company and provide them with your incident report. During this process, you’ll likely need to be in contact with your advisor to confirm details of the event.

At this time, you may also be required to fill out a Schedule of Loss. In this document, you will need to list out any of your personal property that’s been stolen or damaged. You’ll also need to provide information about when you purchased these items, how much you paid for them, and possibly where you bought them.

3. Finalize your claim for closure

In this third and final step of submitting your claim, you’ll work with your advisor to confirm any repair or replacement estimations. This is also likely when you’ll have work scheduled and completed for any property repairs.

How You Will Be Paid for Your Claim

If your home requires construction, insurance providers often have preferred vendors for this type of work. Going through a preferred vendor usually means your insurance company will pay for the costs directly. However, if your work is completed with businesses not affiliated with your provider, you’ll likely have to pay for the expenses up front and get reimbursed afterwards.

To replace damaged items, depending on whether your policy covers actual cash value or replacement cost, you’ll receive partial or full reimbursement for your belongings after you purchase them. Actual cash value will cover the cost of what your item is worth today, taking depreciation into account. Replacement cost, on the other hand, will provide you with the full compensation to buy a new version of that item at today’s value.

Understanding Your Policy Limit and Coverage

It’s also important to understand how your policy limit will impact the amount of compensation you receive on a claim. This limit is the maximum amount of money you can claim from your provider on your homeowner’s policy. This may not cover the value of all of your assets that have been damaged or stolen.

There are also certain items that may not be covered under your policy, or they may have their own specific limit. Personal belongings like jewellery often have their own policy limits.

APOLLO’s Effortless Claims Process

As one of Canada’s leading InsurTechs, APOLLO is on a mission to make insurance effortless. We believe in an insurance process in which computers do the work, so that people can build relationships.

Our advisors are with you throughout your insurance journey, including making a claim.

Here’s how the process works:

Step 1: Event Documentation

Create your report with as many details about the loss as you can. This should include the time it occurred, what was damaged, the cause, and how to prevent further damage.

Step 2: APOLLO Support

Log in to the policy portal and select the option to make a claim. You'll be guided to provide the necessary claim details to begin the process.

Step 3: Claims Submission

APOLLO will submit this information over to our insurance adjusters to open the claim notice, and we will remain actively involved to advocate for you and your claim.

Related: What coverages are included in a homeowner’s policy?

A case study of APOLLO’s proactive customer support

Using available data, APOLLO is proactive in assisting our policy holders in accessing the coverage they need, when they need it.

For example, in 2021, interior BC experienced extreme flooding. APOLLO understood that this would be a stressful time for our clients, so we sent out an alert to our policyholders in the affected regions to help make the claims process effortless.

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