02 — How do I file a homeowners insurance claim in Texas?

Additional Living Expense cannot start in a vacuum. It lives inside a claim file. The first job after everyone is safe is to tell your insurance company that the house was damaged. That first call (or app submission) is often called First Notice of Loss, or FNOL. You are not bothering them. This is what the policy is for.

Who to call

Look at the declarations page, the insurance card in the kitchen drawer, the company’s app, or the 800 number on the website of the company that writes your homeowners, condo, or renters policy. If you cannot find the number, the Texas Department of Insurance Help Line at 800-252-3439 can help you locate a company contact. TDI is the regulator, not the carrier; they will not open the claim for you, and they do not have your file.

TDI’s own consumer pages are the map for what happens after you file. Read How do I file a homeowners insurance claim? (PDF) and Steps to getting your home or car insurance claim paid. In plain language, TDI tells you to contact the agent or company right away, to photograph or video the damage if it is safe, to list what was damaged, to make only the temporary repairs that protect the house (a tarp, a board over a window), and to keep receipts. Do not throw damaged items away before the company has a chance to see them, if you can help it.

TDI also publishes the Texas timelines that apply to many claims: the company generally must acknowledge the claim within 15 days, accept or reject it within 15 business days after it has what it needs from you (with a possible 45-day extension if they tell you why), and send payment within five business days after it agrees to pay. Catastrophe weather can change those clocks. Read TDI’s page rather than treating this paragraph as the statute. If a deadline feels missed, ask the company first, then TDI.

What to say on the first call

You need to be accurate, not dramatic. Give the policy number if you have it, the address of the damaged home, the date and a short description of what happened (fire, water from a failed supply line, wind-driven rain, and so on), whether the house is safe to occupy, where you are sleeping tonight, and a phone number that will keep working. Ask for the claim number and the name, phone, and email of the claim professional who will own the file. Write all three down twice.

Ask, without arguing: “Is the home considered unlivable for Additional Living Expense / Loss of Use / Coverage D, and if so, how should we handle the first hotel nights?” That is a question for them. It is not a question for a housing company, a roofer, or a stranger with a clipboard. If they say they need to inspect first, ask where you should stay in the meantime and how to submit the hotel folio.

If the loss is flood, say so clearly. Many homeowners policies do not cover flood. People often have a separate policy through the National Flood Insurance Program. TDI states plainly that NFIP policies don’t pay for additional living expenses. See When do policies pay for additional living expenses? and Chapter 3. If a presidential disaster has been declared, FEMA’s path is disasterassistance.gov or 1-800-621-3362. That is not the same thing as ALE on a homeowners policy.

Keep the claim number private from random vendors

After a fire or a storm, people appear. Some are licensed and useful. Some are fishing. The claim number is a key to your file. Share it with:

• your insurance company and the assigned claim professional
• your mortgage servicer, if they need it
• a housing provider, contractor, or restoration company after you have chosen them and the desk knows who they are

Do not read it through a screen door to someone who says they “work with insurance” and need the number “to get you paid.” Do not type it into a public website, a social-media message, or a form you have not verified. Jubilee will never demand a claim number on a public page. If we are going to coordinate a stay, Jaclyn will ask you — or the desk — to share it privately, the same way you would share a medical record number.

Photographs, a tarp, and a notebook

If it is safe: take photos of every room, the exterior, and anything that is clearly damaged. TDI says to make only repairs that protect the property from further harm. A tarp is protection. A full remodel before the inspection is not. Keep a notebook or a note on your phone: date, who you called, what they said, the claim number, the adjuster’s name. You will be tired, and tired people forget.

The TDI home insurance guide adds a practical point: if you have to move, tell the company how to reach you. A claim that cannot find you is a slow claim.

If you need help that is not us

Questions about whether a company is treating the claim the way Texas law requires belong to TDI: 800-252-3439, and the complaint process if talking to the company has not resolved it. TDI cannot rewrite a policy, and it cannot make a company pay a claim unless a law or the policy requires it. It can tell you the process, look up licenses, and take a written complaint.

Hiring a public insurance adjuster is one option TDI describes; it is not a requirement, and it is not something Jubilee is. Read Public adjusters: what to know before you hire one before you sign anything. Chapter 7 returns to that warning.

When the claim is open and you have a number in your notebook, read Chapter 3 so that “Additional Living Expense” is a phrase you heard from the regulator, not from a housing ad.