If your house was damaged and you intend on filing a claim with your insurance company, the first step is to speak with the insurance adjuster. They will come to your house and give you an estimate as to how much it will cost to fix it.
The next step is for you to find a contractor that will make the repairs. You should get at least three estimates from contractors and make sure you check their references. The local newspapers are already reporting that many scammers are going door to door in hard hit areas and trying to rip people off.
Once you have your contractor lined up, your insurance company will issue you a check. In most cases, the check will be made payable to you and your mortgage company.
Call your bankruptcy attorney and make sure they are aware of every step in the process. If you have temporarily moved to another location, I need to know so that I can forward you any notices we may receive from creditors or the Court.
At this point, we want to file a Motion To Distribute Insurance Proceeds with the Bankruptcy Court. In this motion, we need to know the amount of insurance proceeds that you will receive and the total cost of repairs. It will usually take 30 to 45 days to get approval from the Court. Once an order is signed by the bankruptcy judge, everything can move forward.
If you don’t get court approval of the distribution of the insurance proceeds, most mortgage companies will not sign the sign the check. As a result, this can cause a major headache and slow things down for you and your contractor.
When you do it correctly from the beginning, you will save yourself some time and things will flow much more smoothly.
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