Our regular columnist, Mom2KG, is back to update us on recovering from a flooded basement, dealing with the insurance company and lessons learned.

I’ve been absent from TMW for a few months, but happy to be back, especially upon reading of the blog’s nominations for Best of the Money Blogs in the Globe and Mail. Congrats to TMW! (TMW: Thanks, clearly there weren’t enough hanging chads in my favor! Haha).

This month’s post is an update on the flood our family dealt with in several months ago. We have now cleaned up the basement, re-finished it and finalized everything with our insurance company. It was a really, really long haul and took a lot of work, and so I have a few tips.

Be diligent. We got pretty tired of cataloguing lost things and pricing them out online for replacement. I suggest setting aside time at least once a week to do this, until it is completely done. Once we had a nice Excel spreadsheet of items, we felt a little more in control.

Be proactive. When trying to replace the washer/dryer, we were directed to some company that could get us supposed deals because they partner with a major retailer. The customer service was awful, though, and it didn’t take long to figure out their discounts weren’t so hot, nor did they help arrange delivery. It took dozens of phone calls. We eventually asked our insurance agency why we had to use this company. Turns out, we didn’t. We did much better going to the stores ourselves and negotiating. Never feel you have to deal with poor customer service.

Also be proactive with your insurance company – call them when they don’t call you, and you should even call once in a while just to ensure everything is moving along.

Clean up everything. We found out what had caused the flood and had it fixed. We also made sure, in re-finishing the basement, to paint very carefully to obscure any obvious traces of the flooding.

Understand what you’re entitled to. We had “replacement insurance.” I thought this meant we would total up the original cost of everything we lost, and get a cheque. Not so. It means you get the cost of the lost item, if you replace it with something of approximately equal value. If you choose not to replace it, you get a percentage in cash of the original value. So, when replacing our stereo system, the new speakers were completely covered, even though they were high-end items. A random children’s book we did not re-purchase, we got a few dollars for, even though the original cost over $20. There are other insurance options, so you should understand what your policy covers you for.

Be reasonable. We did not try to fleece the insurance company out of anything. For example, we did not claim to have lost a priceless art collection that did not exist. I’m not sure we’re the norm, however. We provided the insurance company with quotes for replacing a number of big-ticket items, and they approved them right away, saying “Wow, you guys are being really reasonable!” I think our approach really smoothed the way and got us what we needed as early as possible. Or, maybe we’re suckers.