How Long Does An Insurance Company Have To Settle A Homeowner’s Claim?

Unfortunately, there is no federal law mandating the insurance providers to pay claims in a set period of time in the USA.

Some states have laws in place that dictate how much time an insurer has for paying claims.

However, this must also be kept in mind that every case of insurance claim is unique and different time is required by companies to deal with each case.

This can take anywhere between some weeks to several months for a company to settle the claims.

Every Insurance Claim is Different

According to insurance experts, every case of property damage is unique. This is one of the major factors towards there being no law mandating companies to pay insurance claims within a said period of time.

Even in the cases where the nature of the damage is the same, the two cases can be totally different. This influences the time it takes insurance companies to settle claims.

Factors Contributing Towards the Time Taken to Settle Insurance Claims

There are a number of factors that can affect the time it takes for insurance companies to settle claims. The most important ones of them are:

• The type of damage to the property.
• How the damage happened.
• The terms and conditions of the insurance.
• Legal aspects of the claim.
• Who's proving the damages to the insurance provider.
• The laws of the state where the damage happened.

Before we look into how long an insurance company has to settle a homeowner's claim, let's see how the claim is processed by insurance companies.

How a Claim is Processed by the Insurance Companies

Suppose Jack loses the roof of his house to a storm. Here's what happens next:

• Jack informs the insurance company about the damage.
• The insurance company asks Jack to provide proof of the damage.
• Now, Jack can either prove the damage with the help of a Public Adjuster like ACI Adjustment group or can ask the insurance company to provide their own agent to prove the damage.
• The insurance company then reviews the case which can take some weeks.
• If the insurance company decides that Jack is entitled to the claim money, the claim is approved.
• The claim money is then released by the insurance company which can take some more weeks.

How Long Does an Insurance Company have to Settle A Homeowner's Claim

As there is no federal law dictating how long an insurance company has to settle the claims, some states have their own laws for this, and some don't have any at all.

Here are some examples

• The state of California mandates insurance companies to pay the insurance companies to pay insurance money within 30 days of acceptance of the claim.
• Insurance companies in Kansas have 30 days to accept or reject a claim and then another 45 days to settle the claim once they have accepted it.
• In Texas, insurance companies are given 15 days to acknowledge a claim filed by an insured person. Then they are given another 15 days to accept or reject the claim. Settlement for the accepted claims must be paid within 5 days.

Regardless of the state, it takes 30 days on average for an insurance company to settle the claims.

If your property has suffered any sort of damage, you can get the services of the ACI Adjustment group to speed up the claim process.

Hiring a public adjuster cannot only speed up the process but can also help you get as much as 700% more settlement money than you would without one.