Colorado Wildfires

 How do you know that your insurance company is paying you everything that the policy allows? On the dwelling coverage, are you fully insured or under-insured? Have you squeezed all of the money out of your policy in either case? 

You may be wondering about the personal property part of your loss. Do you accept the partial payment offer from your insurance company or do you go through the process of providing evidence to support your claim for additional funds? 

Is the insurance company going to pay whatever it takes to replace your property? Depends on your policy. Most homeowner policies are written with actual limits for each coverage type-they are not unlimited.

If you have a Replacement Cost Value policy, will you automatically receive whatever it takes to replace your property? There are limitations in every policy.

If you have a Replacement Cost Value policy and you experience a total loss, will you automatically receive the limits of your policy? The laws of Colorado require the policyholder to prove the amount of their loss.

Should I push for more stringent fire-related building codes? This may be good for preventing this type of disaster from happening again, but will your insurance company pay the additional amount to meet these new building codes? Probably not-policies pay for what you had and the building codes in place at the time of the loss, not what you are replacing it with.