Damage to your home or vehicle can burn a hole in your wallet with repair costs, so you should be able to count on your insurance company to cover your expenses. Unfortunately, some people get into disputes with an insurer, and not just over compensation to fix or restore damaged property. You may have temporary repair costs that you want to account for.
Nerdwallet explains why you may want to make temporary repairs to your damaged property and why saving your repair receipts could be crucial to securing coverage.
The importance of temporary repairs
Sometimes you can wait for an insurance adjuster to examine your damaged property before making repairs. However, you may have roof or window damage that you cannot let sit until an adjuster arrives. In this case, once you have taken pictures and video of the damage, you would temporarily patch up the holes or cracks.
Making temporary repairs may actually help you avoid a dispute with an insurance company. Sometimes damage to property exposes it to further harm. A hole in the roof could lead to further destruction from bad weather or vermin. The insurer might not cover you if you did not take any actions to protect your property.
Keeping your repair receipts
Since you have to conduct temporary repairs because of the damage to your property, you can ask your insurer to cover the repair costs. However, you should retain your receipts as evidence of your expenses. In addition, the insurer will likely want to know why you made your repairs, so you may need to explain the reasoning behind your repair work with documentation.
Insurance disputes can happen for many reasons. Still, providing as much evidence as possible could increase your chances that the insurer will accept your claim and give you all the coverage you need.