[bergen16]

Hi-

I recently claimed on my home insurance after a dish washer leak ruined my kitchen (cabinets, counter tops and floor). The insurance company paid for the damage and kept back 10% or roughly that for recoverable depreciation.

Does anyone have an opinion on IF i can get that back given the fact that 1) I decided to do the work myself and don't have a contractor and 2) I ripped it all out and started from scratch and put a whole new kitchen in, different layout, basically everything different... So we didn't restore it back as it was.

Am I in a grey area here? Any idea on how I should approach my insurance company?

Any help would be much appreciated!

 

[IslandGuy]

The ins. Co. valued the kitchen at say, 10k minus 1k for it's age and apparent wear and tear. That's your settlement, what you did with it (hired out or DIY'd it) is irrelevant.

 

[GottaFixIt]

The ins. Co. valued the kitchen at say, 10k minus 1k for it's age and apparent wear and tear. That's your settlement, what you did with it (hired out or DIY'd it) is irrelevant.

Maybe true. Depends on your policy. The concept it called indemnity - to make whole or to give equal to what was lost. It's one of the most important concepts they taught us in agent training (I'm a licensed insurance producer).

If you have an ACV (actual cash value) policy, then you'll get cost to make whole (cost of repair) minus depreciation. Period.

If you have a RCV (replacement cost value) policy, then you can also be reimbursed for the depreciation up to the actual cost to make whole.