The Property Insurance Claim Process
From the phone call to the last check, what happens at each stage, how long it should take, and the three points where most claims quietly lose money.
Most people file two or three property claims in a lifetime, so the process is unfamiliar exactly when there is the least capacity to learn it. Here it is end to end, with the places money goes missing marked.
1. Notice of loss
You report it. The carrier opens a file, issues a claim number, and assigns an adjuster - a staff adjuster on a normal week, an independent contractor after a catastrophe.
Do on this call: get the claim number, the adjuster's name and direct line, and the date. Ask what documentation they want and by when. Ask for a digital copy of the policy in force on the date of loss - in Colorado we cite C.R.S. section 10-4-110.8 and follow up with a request for a certified copy within thirty days.
Money leaks here when: you describe the loss too narrowly. "Roof damage" opens a roof claim. "Storm damage to the building and contents" opens the claim you actually have.
2. Mitigation
Your policy requires you to prevent further damage - tarp the opening, extract the water, board the glass. It is not optional, and failing to do it hands the carrier a reason to deny whatever got worse.
Photograph before you cover anything. Keep every receipt: emergency mitigation is a covered cost, paid separately from the repair money.
3. Inspection
The adjuster comes out. This is the single most consequential hour of the claim - what they photograph and write down that morning becomes the estimate, and everything afterwards is you arguing things back in.
Be there. Have your own photographs organized, your contractor present if you can, and a written list of what you want looked at, including the parts that get skipped: gutters, downspouts, fascia, flashing, vents, window screens, the AC condenser, detached structures, code upgrades and any interior damage. How to document it.
4. The estimate
Usually within a couple of weeks: a line-item estimate, typically in Xactimate, with a summary page showing replacement cost value, depreciation, deductible and net actual cash value.
Read the line items, not the total. The total is a conclusion; the line items are the argument. Check for whole missing categories - trades, code upgrades, overhead and profit where three or more trades are involved, debris removal, contents, matching.
Money leaks here when: the summary total looks plausible so nobody reads the twenty pages behind it.
5. The first payment
Usually the actual cash value: replacement cost, minus depreciation for life already used, minus your deductible. The rest - the recoverable depreciation - is held until the work is done and invoiced.
This is the single most misunderstood moment in the whole process, and it is where most of the money is lost, because owners treat the first check as the settlement. The full explanation, and how the deductible interacts with it.
6. Repairs, supplements and the depreciation release
The work starts and reality diverges from the estimate. The decking is rotten, code requires ice-and-water shield, a trade was omitted. That is what a supplement is for: a documented, line-item request to amend the scope, submitted as work proceeds rather than after. How to write one.
When the work is complete, submit the final invoice and request release of the recoverable depreciation. Carriers do not chase you for this. Unclaimed depreciation is, in our experience, the largest single category of money property owners simply leave behind.
7. If it goes sideways
Denied in whole or part: get the complete claim file, answer the stated reason in writing with evidence and a line-item scope. How to answer a denial.
Underpaid: same evidence, framed as a supplement rather than a dispute. Underpaid claims.
Stalled: dated written follow-ups, escalation to a supervisor, and a complaint to Colorado's Division of Insurance if needed. Colorado's statutes on unreasonable delay and denial, C.R.S. 10-3-1115 and 10-3-1116, matter here. More on that.
Coverage agreed, amount disputed: invoke the appraisal clause. It is already in your policy and it does not require a lawsuit.
Sworn proof of loss demanded: treat it as a formal deadline, not paperwork. What it is and how to complete it.
8. Closing
Final payment, depreciation released, supplements resolved. Before you sign a release, read it - a release closes the claim including the parts nobody has found yet. Keep the whole file. Latent damage surfaces, and a policy's suit limitation typically runs one or two years from the date of loss in Colorado, not from the date you discovered something.
The three leaks, in order of size
- Recoverable depreciation never invoiced for after the work was done.
- Categories missing from the original scope - code upgrades, overhead and profit, matching, soft metals, contents, business income on a commercial file.
- A denial accepted at face value because the letter sounded official.
All three are fixable, and all three are fixable after the fact, within the policy's deadlines. If you think one of them is sitting in your file, send it over - the review does not cost anything.
The rest of this guide
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ACV, RCV And Recoverable Depreciation
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