What Should You Do If You Have A Water Leak In Your Home?

Washing machine overflow

The first thing you should do is always protect yourself and others and if possible, find the source and stop it and always check for hazards!  Move materials at risk to a dry area.  If items are already wet, move items from soon to be affected areas first.  In addition, don’t open, unfold or unfurl anything wet.

Next, notify your insurance carrier about the loss and try to prevent any further property damage.  Don’t throw any damaged items away until the adjuster has viewed the damages and take pictures if possible.  Also, keep receipts for any out-of-pocket expenses that you may incur trying to prevent any further damage.  As always, only your insurance carrier can verify if your water loss is covered by your insurance policy.

Further, filing a claim with your insurance carrier should take under 30 minutes and you should be contacted by a claims handler in under one hour.  Your claims handler will make arrangements to asses the damage to your home.

Drying should begin immediately!  One or two days of delay can cause the cost of a water damage claim to climb by 100-200% or more.  Structures which have suffered water damage must be properly dried as quickly as possible to minimize liability, reduce severity and protect the health of occupants. Most common water losses will be dry in 72 hours.