Our Guidelines

The ANSI/IICRC S500 is the authority on water mitigation and restoration. Being trained and certified by the IICRC, Fusion Flood and Fire is intimately aware of the global standards for water damage. Often times insurance companies try to cut corners in order to save money, even when that poses a risk to your property or your health.

Fusion Flood and Fire does not work for the insurance companies, we work for our clients, you. That means your health and restoring your property are our main concern. Sometimes, this can put us at odds with your insurance company because:

They would rather have their discounted rate "preferred vendor" come in to do the bare minimum, focusing only on cost instead of quality.
Often times they want you to wait so they can "approve" everything before work gets started; even though that is in direct conflict with the IICRC S500 (see "Rapid Response" below)

Our goal is to restore your property to the "pre-loss" condition guaranteed to you in your insurance policy, as quickly and efficiently as possible while focusing on quality and strict adherence to the guidelines of the IICRC S500.

Insurance Billing Process

Work Authorization

Our Work Authorization is effectively a time and materials agreement, allowing us to perform the water mitigation and restoration on your home. This document is standard and necessary for the restoration process. This is also an exercise in the legal authority granted to you by the State of California to choose your own contractors/vendors under an insurance claim.

Direct Payment Agreement

The Direct Payment Agreement gives Fusion Flood and Fire the authority to send the bill for the water mitigation and restoration services performed directly to your insurance company. It also allows us to communicate, negotiate, and get paid directly from your insurance company, saving you the headache of being in the middle.

The "Estimate"

We prepare our invoice or "estimate" in Xactimate, the industry standard software and the same software your insurance adjuster uses. With thousands of line items and codes it can get tricky, but that's why we have Xactimate certified estimators on our team to make sure that everything affected in your loss is accurately and appropriately considered for repair or replacement.

Payment

Once the invoice for the work performed on your home is negotiated with your adjuster, our collections team follows up with your insurance company regarding payment. As soon as our collections team verifies that payment has been issued, and to whom, they will notify you of the status and the process for picking up the insurance check from you and/or collecting any deductibles if applied to our invoice.