My second floor toilet overflowed and sent waterfalls cascading through my kitchen can lights. I’m still not sure of all the damage. The fans and dehumidifiers left today. My home is 1904 Victorian with some lovely amenities but also in need of much work. My kitchen cabinets are perhaps from the ’60’s and functional but not in great shape. The water dripping over the wood cupboard fronts did additional damage to already sad cabinets. Can I, or should I, claim this damage? A couple of the drawers ended up full of water and messed up, do need to be fixed. The people who dried us out did not want to pack up my antique china, art glass, etc., etc., there were a lot of very fragile items an a shelf that surrounds the entire upper walls. It took me a week to fit this in my schedule along with work to get them packed and the space ready for drying. My adjuster told me that they pay $15 an hour labor. Is that fair? I cannot imagine the dry out folks charging $15 an hour to pack things up. The evening of the water damage we spent 6 hours sopping up water and getting our things out of the way. I did not know I could call someone to help. Is this claimable hours? My house was to noisy to inhabit the kitchen during dry out. Should I have asked for meals out to be reimbursed?
United Policyholders Staff asked 4 years ago 
Rich Csaposs Expert answered 4 years ago The damage caused by the water dripping over the wood cupboard fronts should be claimed. In regards to a fair labor rate, you can ask the restoration company what their hourly rate is to do a pack out and request compensation from the adjuster since you did their job by packing up the valuable items. You can also request compensation for the water removal and contents manipulation done during the 6 hours immediately after the loss at the rate charged for hourly labor by the restoration company. You should be covered for the increased cost to eat out as compared to cooking your own meals. Normally, you can estimate your normal food cost to cook and subtract that cost from the eating out cost to calculate the increased cost. This increased cost is considered an additional living expense covered under your policy since you lost use of your kitchen.