You may have heard your insurance restoration contractor use the term “Supplements” when they are reviewing your insurance scope of work or during the restoration process. This term can seem confusing to those outside the insurance restoration industry. If you have ever been involved in a remodeling project you might have heard the term ” Change Order” used by your contractor when a change is made in the original contract that was entered into for the project.
Unlike a retail remodeling project such as a kitchen remodel or an addition to your property where a contractor reviews the project and gives you a price for the project, Insurance estimates are first written by an insurance company claims adjuster. Often after a large storm event and even during their daily claims handling of wind, fire,water or mold, adjusters will be very busy and have a very small window of time to inspect a property. A lot of adjusters that are performing inspections for damages at your property have little to no construction experience which also leads to items being missed on the original estimate that has been prepared by the insurance company. The Supplement estimate prepared by your NIRC Certified Contractor is how you bring these additional items to the attention of the Insurance Company.
The Supplement process involves a contractor preparing an estimate utilizing the same estimation software that is utilized by the insurance company adding the appropriate and necessary line items that the insurance company left of of their original estimate to achive a fair market price to perform the repairs needed to restore your property. The cost of the additional work is agreed on between your insurance company and your contractor before the work commences. One of the key items that your contractor should be knowledgeable on is the building code requirements that need to be included in the insurance estimate for repairs. Any work that is completed needs to be done to the requirements enforced by the local building departments. Most of the supplementing process revolves around addressing building code requirements and building processes missed by the insurance companies adjusters. Building codes vary from state to state and out of state adjusters may not be familiar with the code requirements that need to be included to reach the local standards of construction. The other problem is that insurance companies have been proven to purposely omit certain line items, use incorrect city price guides and not honor customary charges like the contractors overhead and profit on a project to devalue an estimate for repairs needed to do the job correctly and return you to a pre loss condition. A NIRC Certified Contractor will be able to spot the missing items and bring them to the insurance companies attention. Depending on the complexity of the supplement due to the items left off by the insurance company in their estimate for repairs, this process may add a few day to a few weeks before resolution is achieved. Although this slows down the building process for everyone, it is the difference between a project that is done the right way and your property being fully restored, and a project that not all items have been fixed the correct way.
The art of successful supplements is more then simply writing an estimate. It is in the presentation, the follow-up, the educated conversations that your contractor has with the insurance company. It is also timing, when the supplement is sent, at which stage of the restoration the supplement is submitted and it is very important that the customer supports their contractor. The insurance company is very skilled at driving a wedge between the contractor and their customers to prevent supplements from being approved.
What supplements accomplishes is the ability to get a proper estimate for repairs needed to restore the property to a pre-loss condition. One that realistically takes into account all the damages and allows for a fair market price to cover the costs of the repairs, and allows for a quality job that you are entitled to per your insurance policy.
