I Lost Everything in a Natural Disaster — Here’s How Much It Cost To Rebuild My Life
Written by
G. Brian Davis
Edited by
Amber Barkley
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Before the fire, Shelby Rothman had everything: a beautiful home in Burbank, a rich family life with her husband and two kids, and career success as a financial planner at EnJoy Financial.
Fortunately, the fire didn’t take her family or career. But it did take almost every physical possession she owned. “When our home burned down, we lost everything except for our motor home and the camping gear inside it.”
Next, learn how to avoid financial ruin from a natural disaster.
From a Hotel to a New Home
Rothman and her family spent months living in a hotel after the fire. “We spent around $50,000 before receiving our insurance check.”
That included not just the hotel bill but putting down a security deposit on a new home to rent, buying all new furniture and replacing an entire home’s worth of goods and decor.
From cutlery to kitchen appliances, linens to clothing to artwork, most people slowly acquire their belongings over years. But pots, pans, cups, mugs, toaster ovens and all the other trappings of normal life add up quickly when you have to buy them all at once.
Fortunately, Rothman had saved an emergency fund that could cover the costs. “This is why I tell my clients to build an emergency fund with three to six months of expenses. It would have been hard to afford the expenses if we hadn’t had that savings.”
Navigating Major Insurance Claims
Even so, the less money you pay out of pocket before receiving your claim check, the better. You just don’t know how much your insurance company will pay.
“Avoid paying any money out of pocket if you can help it,” Rothman said.
She went on to explain that the insurance company should help you avoid scams. “They will be clear about who is coming to your house and when. When the adjuster comes, you can verify their ID to be sure it’s legitimate and not a scammer.”
She added that most people can’t possibly recall from memory all of the thousands of individual possessions in their home. That means plenty of items never get reimbursed.
“To make the insurance process easier, I recommend creating a one to two-minute video of the inside of your home. Insurance adjusters want to see what you owned and lost,” she explained. “Because I didn’t do this before losing everything in our home, it was difficult to track our losses.”
Her family had to sit down and sift through hundreds of photos of themselves in their home, to jog their memory and write down as many of their lost possessions as possible.
Most homeowners’ and renters’ insurance claims process faster than the Rothmans’. According to insurance company TrustedChoice, claims typically take between a few weeks and several months. Again, it highlights the need for several months’ worth of emergency savings.
Keeping Documents Safe
Not every document is easily replaced. In fact, the experience has changed how Rothman works with her own clients.
“Today, we give our clients fireproof and waterproof bags to keep documents safe. We provide a checklist of items for them to save, like passports, birth certificates, a copy of your driver’s license and more. Keeping these safe will save you a lot of hassle in the aftermath of a natural disaster,” she said.
Working with the DMV or the Social Security Administration is difficult enough even when you have all your documents in order. Imagine the nightmare of trying to prove your identity to them without any documents whatsoever.
Ultimately, the Rothman family was lucky in one way: Insurance reimbursed them for all of their expenses. But they still spent many months with their lives turned upside-down.
“It took us months to fully recover from our loss,” Rothman said. “But now I once again live in a beautiful home with my husband and our two kids.”
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Sources
- Shelby Rothman, EnJoy Financial
- TrustedChoice, “Average Time for Home Insurance Claim to Close.”
