Two invoices
Emergency drying and rebuilding are two jobs with two prices.
Emergency mitigation — extraction, equipment, readings, removal of what cannot be saved — is one job with its own invoice. Repair and rebuild follows later with different numbers. Keeping them apart is what makes each of them settle.
- 00Ask for mitigation to be itemisedBy equipment and by day. A single total is where arguments about drying time begin.
- 01Ask what the daily equipment rate isAir movers and dehumidifiers are charged for every day they stand in the house.
- 02Ask what the target reading isDrying ends at a number, not on a date. Without the number there is nothing to hold anyone to.
- 03Keep repair as a separate conversationIt does not have to be agreed while the floor is still wet.
Goes to an independent contractor. Nothing is booked until you say so. Calls may be recorded.
Why mitigation is invoiced on its own
Because it happens under time pressure, before anyone has decided anything, in discharge of your duty to prevent the damage growing. An adjuster reads it as exactly that when it arrives on its own, itemised. Buried inside a rebuild quote, it reads as part of a negotiation.
Equipment days are the usual dispute
Equipment is charged per day it stands in the house, and the common argument is whether it needed to stand that long. A drying log turns that from an argument into a chart: the readings either kept falling or they did not.
It cuts both ways. A contractor with a log can show why a long dry was necessary, and an owner with a log can see when it was not.
What the contractor may not do with your claim
Document their own work in any amount of detail, yes. Negotiate the value of your loss, interpret your coverage or deal with the adjuster on your behalf, no — that is public adjusting and it is licensed in several states.
The practical reason it matters to you: a contractor negotiating your settlement is negotiating the size of their own invoice.
Who signs for what
Emergency work still needs someone with authority.
- 01You own and live hereAuthorise mitigation today and open the claim the same day. Keep both conversations in writing.
Ask them: is anything you want signed today a contract for the whole job? - 02You own and let it outA tenant cannot authorise work on your building. Give a managing agent standing authority before you need it.
- 03You live in a flatMitigation inside your unit is usually yours to authorise even when the source was not.
- 04You rentReport it and let the owner authorise. Do not sign for building work; you may be held to it.
Goes to an independent contractor. Nothing is booked until you say so. Calls may be recorded.
Where these figures come from
Published by someone other than us. Each link goes to their own words rather than to our summary of them.