The words that decide your claim
The handful of terms that decide what you get paid, in plain language
Claim paperwork is written in a dialect. Most of it is ordinary English doing unusual work, and a handful of terms carry almost all of the money. Here they are, roughly in the order you'll meet them.
What your damage is "worth"
Replacement cost is what it costs today to repair or replace what you lost, with materials of like kind and quality. Actual cash value is that same number with a deduction for age and wear. Which of the two your policy pays is one of the most consequential lines in it, and it's worth knowing before you need to know.
Depreciation is the amount deducted for that age and wear. On many replacement cost policies it is recoverable: held back at first, then paid once the work is actually done and documented. Depreciation left unclaimed is money the policy already owed you.
What is actually being paid for
Scope is the itemized list of what gets repaired or replaced, room by room and line by line. Nearly every serious dispute is a scope dispute wearing a different coat. Not "we disagree about the price of drywall" but "your list is missing half the drywall."
Xactimate is the estimating platform most of the industry prices that scope in. A claim written in it arrives in the insurer's own language, line by line, which makes it much harder to wave away.
A supplement is a request to revise the estimate when the first one missed something, which is routine once walls come open and the real damage shows itself. A supplement isn't a complaint. It's how claims are supposed to work.
The paperwork with a clock on it
Proof of loss is a sworn, signed statement of what you are claiming. It's a formal document with a deadline attached, and it should reflect the complete documented loss rather than an early guess. Getting this one right is one of the most valuable things professional help does.
A release is the document that ends the claim. Cashing a partial or undisputed payment usually doesn't close anything. Signing a full and final release does. Read carefully which one is in front of you.
When you disagree
Appraisal is a process written into most policies for settling a dispute about the amount of the loss without a lawsuit: each side appoints an appraiser, and an umpire decides where the two can't agree. It resolves numbers.
A coverage dispute is a different animal: whether the policy owes anything at all for this loss. Those are legal questions, and they belong with an attorney rather than an appraisal panel.
Two smaller ones that move real money
Ordinance and law, sometimes called code upgrade coverage, pays the extra cost of rebuilding to today's building code rather than the code in force when the building went up.
Additional living expenses covers the cost of living elsewhere while your home is unlivable: the hotel, the meals above what you'd normally spend, the laundry. It reimburses what's documented, which is why the receipts matter from day one.
If you remember one word, make it scope. Ask for the full line-item estimate behind any number you're given. A figure you can't see the arithmetic of is a figure you can't check.
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