A first offer of $1,872 on a fire that settled at $163,282.
The loss
An electrical fault in the stairway wiring started a fire in a Hamtramck home in November 2024. The insurance company's first offer on the claim was $1,872.
A fire had damaged the house. The offer would not have covered the cleanup, let alone the repair.
The first pass
- A first offer of $1,872.
- A walkthrough, not a measurement.
The full claim
- The structure, measured room by room.
- Contents the fire and smoke reached.
- Mitigation, and the vendors who performed it.
- A final replacement cost of $163,282.
What we did
We scanned the property with DocuSketch to produce a measured, room-by-room record of what the fire and smoke had actually touched, and brought in the vendors whose work the claim would have to pay for so their numbers were in the file rather than estimated around.
The offer had been written against a walkthrough. What we presented was built against measurements, and measurements are harder to argue with.
The outcome
The settlement reflected the whole loss, including the mitigation and vendor work the first offer had not accounted for. About seven months passed between the fire and the settlement.
Identifying details are limited to protect client privacy. Figures are the insurance company's documented position and the final settlement on that claim. Every claim is different, and past results don't predict the outcome of any future claim.
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