It is against the law and fraudulent for a contractor to offer any form of assistance with your deductible. Avoid doing business with contractors who offer any form of assistance with your deductible. Such offers include credits for placing a sign in your yard or rebates for referrals.

Most of the time, the first check you receive will have an amount withheld by your insurance company for what they call "depreciation". In order to recover this amount of money, you must send in a completed invoice from your contractor showing the work that was completed and for what price. Upon receipt of this completed invoice, your insurance carrier will send a final check to you to be paid to your contractor. This is one way your carrier will make sure that you pay your deductible to your contractor.

Because your carrier has withheld an amount for depreciation, upon seeing that you paid your contractor less than what they paid you, your carrier will simply deduct the difference from the remaining check that is owed to you for the depreciation amount they are withholding.

Yes. A good contractor and adjuster can work together to make sure that all items needing repair have been accounted for and paid for up front. Many times if the contractor and the adjuster do not talk, the process can slow down and become very painful.

The most important thing you can do is find a contractor you trust. Dealing with an insurance company can be very time consuming and difficult. The most amount of money you should be out of pocket when dealing with an insurance claim is your deductible. A good contractor will be able to review your insurance paperwork with you to help ensure your were paid for everything you should have been paid for. If you do not share your paperwork with your contractor, you are running the risk that a substantial amount of money for legitimate repairs was unaccounted for. Remember: if you don't show your contractor your paperwork, and they provide you with an estimate less than the insurance company, you do not get to keep the difference.

Depreciation accounts for the decrease in the value of the property over a period of time due to wear, tear, condition and obsolescence. A portion of, or all of this amount is typically eligible to be issued to you upon the completion of the project and the receipt of the completed invoice by your contractor.

In the event additional insurable repairs are found, that were not accounted for by your insurance carrier, your contractor will submit a "supplement request". This is a standard procedure whereby your contractor issues documentation for the repairs. Once approved, another check will be issued

This depends on the insurance carrier. Some carriers have a period of six months to a year in which you have to file your claim and some carriers have no time limitation. You should check with your carrier to know the exact amount of time you have to file your claim.