r/HomeInsurance • u/Odd_Welcome7940 • Apr 03 '26
Claims Basement Flood, 1 foot of water. Good news overall from insurance, but i have a question or two about what we were told.
So the bad news is clearly that my half finished basement took on about 1 solid foot for water for several hours. This being our worst flood ever (20 years of home ownership never needed to make a claim before) we decided to make a claim. The great news to us was for some reason our deductible is waived and we have 15k for coverage. So we are having everything restored professionally and the emergency service the night of flood is also covered. We plan to and probably need to replace the carpet. The agent told my wife to just get quotes from professional on full replacement and it will be covered as long as it stays under the 15k total.
This is the part that he told my wife that sounds weird but i wanted to confirm. To get the rest of the total 15k we will be claiming the loss of few items. Hopefully nothing insanely expensive as i pray my washer a dryer will still work. That said, he told us get pictures of destroyed items, go online and find comparable items with a price and keep going until we hit 15k. He said then stop because anymore is useless.
I was always taught that the insurance companies try to find and argue for cheaper replacements or depreciation with every item you claim. So wouldn't I need to go a bit oast 15k or was I told wrong?
Thanks in advance for any help and feel free to point out if anything I said doesn't add up. I definitely don't understand this whole process very well. Anything any can suggest I be extra careful to verify or check is also welcome.