We are going to use a public adjuster as suggested by folks on this site. The insurance adjuster knows the public adjuster we are going to use. I did inform the insurance adjuster today and he wasn’t too pistitive towards the public adjuster. Anyway, I’m looking to see how long of a time frame I should be looking at while dealing with the I surnce company. The boiler room received the damage that measures 8 by 3. The boiler is shot, the electrical panel will need to be replaced, rock cleaned or replaced, vents going outside for venting, maybe the chininey for boiler the system and some painting that is directly adjacent to boiler room.

Dealing with an Insurance Company, also maybe a mortgage holder/bank, contractors, City, permits, etc -- things are going to take time. If you think this is a 60 day occurrence/job, think again. Maybe 3 to 4 months.

You should be able to get a small check from the insurance company within a few days of the case being assigned to one of their adjusters. The rest of the money won't come until the claim is settled & you sign the required paperwork. For my last major loss I got 25K within a week & the balance of 503K took another 8 months. The long time frame was due to not being able to agree on the extend of the actual damages & the cost to repair them. My public adjuster & I finally agreed to settle for an initial amount of 528K followed by another 36K once the work was completed & a occupancy permit obtain. Other than the advance check all other checks will be made out to the insured as well as any mortgage holders, lien holders, board up company, etc. You will need to have them endorse the checks before you can cash / deposit them.

In addition to this I also collected over 90K in loss rent. FYI you won't collect the actual rent amount. They will deduct any expenses that you won't incure as a result of the vacancies. Things such as W&S charges, owner's utilities, rubbish, cleaning, maintenance, etc will be deducted from the gross rents. If your building was not occupied prior to the fire, I'll be curious to find out how your loss of rent claim goes.

We had a fire at a SFH in Feb 2017. Insurance adjuster offered $7,000 and "added funds as needed if more work is required." Insurance company mailed us a check without us even asking for or accepting it. I had the funds in hand within 2 weeks of the fire. I held onto it, "just in case". Didn't want to trigger some kind of final acceptance of their settlement by depositing the funds right away.

We asked a second opinion of a local restoration expert, not a public adjuster, but just as good knowledge-wise. He's the guy who has a crew that actually does the restoration work.

He came back in about 3 days with a very detailed scope of working and justified a total cost of $31,000+. He spoke with the original adjuster. Our policy capped at $30,000, and insurance didn't even argue. They sent another check for $23,000 which I had in about 5 days.

Start to finish, less than 3 weeks. We opted not to do the restoration because it would've cost us another $1000+ or so out of pocket, and the house would've been sparkling new in a hood of 50+ year old homes that hadn't been kept up well. I tried to pay the guy who gave the second opinion for his time, but he refused. He was a friend of a friend....good relationship. I've recommended his company to several other folks, so hopefully he's getting some business in return for his excellent customer service.

We sold the burned out house to another rehabber for $8,000.