After a House Fire or Burglary

If you're reading this after a fire or break-in, I'm sorry. The disorientation you're feeling right now is completely normal. Your home is supposed to be the one place where you do not have to think about safety, and that got broken. Take a breath. We'll walk through the next steps together.

There are really two audiences for this article. If you're reading it after something happened, skip ahead to the section you need. The checklist is built so you can act on it today. If you're reading it before anything happened (maybe you just saw a news story that rattled you), the last section is for you, and honestly, future-you will be grateful you kept reading.

What should you do in the first 24 hours?

Your brain is going to want to do everything at once. Don't. There's an order of operations here, and it matters.

Make sure everyone is safe and accounted for. This sounds obvious, but shock does strange things. If this was a fire, do not re-enter the building until the fire department clears it. If this was a burglary and you think someone might still be inside, stay out and call 911.

Get the official report. For a fire, the fire department will generate an incident report. For a burglary, you need to file a police report. Do this immediately, even if you think nothing of value was taken. These reports become foundational documents for your insurance claim. Without them, you're starting on the back foot.

Call your insurance company within 24 to 48 hours. Most policies have reporting windows, and missing them can complicate your claim or give the insurer grounds to reduce your payout. When you call, write down the claim number, the name of the person you spoke with, and what they told you. Every phone call, every interaction: document it in writing from this point forward.

Ask about ALE immediately. Additional Living Expenses coverage is built into most homeowner's and renter's policies. If your home is uninhabitable, your insurer should advance money for a hotel, meals, and other basics while your claim is processed. Don't be shy about this. It's coverage you've been paying premiums for. Ask for the advance on this first call.

Secure the property. Board up broken windows. Tarp damaged roofs. Lock what can be locked. Your policy almost certainly requires you to prevent further damage, and if you don't take reasonable steps, the insurer can use that against you later. Keep receipts for any emergency repairs; these are reimbursable.

What should you document before cleanup?

This is the single most important piece of advice in this entire article: do not throw anything away until the adjuster has inspected it.

I know the instinct. You want to start cleaning up. You want to get the ruined stuff out of your house and start putting your life back together. But every item you throw away before documentation is an item you'll have to fight to get reimbursed for. The insurance company needs to see the damage.

Photograph everything. Walk through each room and take wide shots that show the overall damage, then close-ups of individual items. If something is burned or broken, photograph it where it sits. If water damage has warped your floors, photograph that. Video works too. More is better. You cannot over-document.

Get copies of the fire department incident report and any police reports. Request them in writing if they're not immediately available.

If the adjuster hasn't visited within a few days, call and push. You're allowed to push. Damaged items sitting in a house (especially water-damaged items after a fire) will deteriorate further, and you don't want the insurer arguing that the additional damage happened because you waited too long. The tension between "don't throw anything away" and "prevent further damage" is real. Document the condition, then do what you need to do, but try to keep the adjuster in the loop.

How do you rebuild your inventory without receipts?

This is the hardest part of the entire claims process, and it's where most people leave money on the table. The average American household contains somewhere around 300,000 items. After a total loss, your insurer wants you to list them.

This is the part where having a home inventory eliminates the problem entirely. If you already have a room-by-room inventory with photos and estimated values, you hand it over and move on to the negotiation phase. If the damage is water-related, our flood documentation guide walks through the specific steps for water damage claims. If you don't have an inventory (and most people don't), here's how to reconstruct one.

Do it in 60 to 90 minute sessions with breaks. This is emotionally and mentally exhausting work. Trying to power through it for eight hours will produce a worse inventory than working in focused chunks over several days.

Go room by room in your mind. Start at the front door of your home and mentally walk through each room. Visualize opening cabinets and closets. What was on the kitchen counter? What was in the junk drawer? What was hanging in the hall closet? Write down everything, no matter how small. A $15 spatula doesn't seem worth mentioning until you realize you had 40 kitchen items at $15 each.

Mine your financial records. Pull bank and credit card statements going back as far as you can. Amazon order history is searchable by year. Check Walmart, Target, Home Depot, and any other retailer where you have an online account. These aren't receipts in the traditional sense, but they're transactional evidence your insurer will accept.

Search your phone photos and social media. You'd be surprised how much of your home shows up in the background of photos you took for other reasons. Birthday party photos capture your living room. Kitchen selfies show your appliances. Holiday posts show decorations, furniture, and electronics. Go through your camera roll and your social media posts methodically.

Check wedding registries and gift records. If you were married or had a housewarming in the last decade, the registry often still exists online and shows what was purchased.

Sworn statements work as a last resort. For items where you have no documentation at all, a signed statement under oath describing the item, when you bought it, and what you paid is accepted by insurers. It's not as strong as a receipt, but it's better than nothing.

What is the ACV vs RCV difference?

Your policy pays out in one of two ways, and which one you have changes your claim significantly.

Actual Cash Value means the insurer pays you what the item was worth at the time it was lost. That five-year-old couch you paid $2,000 for? ACV might value it at $800 after depreciation.

Replacement Cost Value means the insurer pays you what it costs to buy the same item (or equivalent) new, at today's prices. That same couch gets valued at $2,200 because furniture prices went up.

If you have RCV coverage, there's a catch: most policies pay the ACV amount first, then reimburse the difference once you actually buy the replacement. So you need to actually replace items to collect the full amount. Keep every receipt from every replacement purchase.

Check your declarations page to see which one you have. If you don't know where your declarations page is, your agent can send you a copy. We wrote a longer breakdown of the ACV vs. RCV math, and a separate piece on how the 80% rule and sub-limits leave most homeowners underinsured before any claim is even filed.

How do you work with your adjuster?

Here's something no one tells you upfront: the adjuster works for the insurance company. They may be perfectly nice. They may genuinely sympathize with your situation. But their employer's financial interest is to pay you less, and the adjuster's performance is measured accordingly. This doesn't make them your enemy, but it means you shouldn't treat them as your advocate.

Be present at every inspection. Walk through the property with the adjuster and point out damage they might miss. If they're moving fast through a room, slow them down. "Did you see the water damage behind this wall?" is a reasonable question.

Get independent estimates. For structural repairs especially, get your own contractor bids. The insurer's estimate is just that (an estimate), and it's often lower than what the work will actually cost. Two or three independent bids give you leverage.

Keep everything in writing. Follow up phone conversations with an email that says "Per our conversation today, you confirmed that..." This creates a paper trail. If the adjuster tells you something verbally that later gets walked back, you want documentation.

Do not accept the first offer. The first settlement offer is often negotiable. Review the offer line by line, identify items that were undervalued or missed, and submit a written counter with documentation.

Consider a public adjuster if the claim is large or complicated. A public adjuster works for you, not the insurer, and handles the entire claims process on your behalf. They typically charge 9 to 15 percent of the settlement. For a $20,000 renter's claim, that fee probably isn't worth it. For a $300,000 fire loss where you're overwhelmed and the insurer is lowballing you, it can be the difference between a fair payout and a financial disaster. Ask around for referrals and check that they're licensed in your state.

What mistakes cost people money?

Throwing away damaged items before the adjuster visits. I said it above but it bears repeating. This is the number one mistake, and it's the hardest one to undo.

Accepting the first settlement offer without reviewing it. Line-item review almost always turns up errors or omissions. A 2025 survey of LA wildfire claimants found that 50% received initial offers they considered lowball. Half. That's not an anomaly. That's the system working as designed.

Failing to track Additional Living Expenses. If you're displaced, every hotel night, restaurant meal, laundry visit, and gas receipt for your longer commute is potentially reimbursable. People forget to keep these receipts because they're in survival mode. Use a dedicated folder or envelope from day one.

Closing the claim too early. Once you sign the final release, it's extremely difficult to reopen a claim if you discover additional damage later. Structural issues, mold, and smoke damage in HVAC systems can take months to appear. Don't rush to close.

Not having an inventory before the loss. This isn't a mistake you can fix after the fact, which is why it stings the most. Data from the 2025 LA wildfires tells a stark story: 62% of claimants were underinsured, 57% had to reconstruct their entire inventory from memory, and 51% experienced significant communication delays with their insurer. The people who had pre-existing inventories moved through the process faster and reported higher satisfaction with their settlements.

How long does a claim take?

Set your expectations now so you're not blindsided later.

Fire claims typically take 4 to 12 weeks for settlement, though complex total losses can stretch to six months or more. The timeline depends on the severity, whether there are disputes about cause, and how responsive both parties are.

Burglary claims are generally faster (4 to 8 weeks is typical) because the damage is usually less extensive and the investigation more straightforward.

In both cases, the biggest variable is you. Claims where the policyholder submits thorough documentation, responds promptly to requests, and follows up regularly close faster than claims where the policyholder is passive. You don't have to be aggressive, but you do have to be organized and persistent.

How do you prepare before it happens?

Everything above is harder than it needs to be. Not because the process is bad (though it could be better), but because the process assumes you can prove what you owned. After a total loss, proof is exactly what you don't have.

A home inventory takes a few hours to build and a few minutes a month to maintain. Walk through your home, photograph each room and its contents, note approximate values, and store the record somewhere that isn't inside the home itself. If you're renting, the process is slightly different. Our renter's inventory guide covers the specific blind spots. Cloud storage, a family member's house, a safe deposit box: anywhere that won't be destroyed by the same event that destroys your stuff.

This is what Manifest is built for. You photograph your belongings room by room, and the app builds an organized, searchable inventory with values and categories. If you ever need to file a claim, it generates an insurance-ready PDF packet that contains exactly what your adjuster needs. The reconstruction process I described above (the 60 to 90 minute sessions, the mental walkthroughs, the mining of old bank statements), that entire section becomes unnecessary. If you're weighing options, we compared the best home inventory apps for insurance readiness.

FAQ

Should I clean up first? Only after you have documented the damage and the adjuster has had a chance to see it.

Can I throw damaged items away? Not until the adjuster has inspected them or told you it is okay.

Do I need a public adjuster? Only if the claim is large or complicated enough that the fee makes sense.

What if I am a renter? The same documentation rules still apply. Your policy still needs proof.

I realize the irony of ending a crisis checklist with "you should have prepared earlier." If you're in the middle of a claim right now, I hope the checklist above helps you get through it with a fair settlement. If you're reading this from the comfort of an undamaged home, take the hint. An hour of documentation now is worth weeks of reconstruction later. The best time to inventory your home was before something happened. The second best time is today.