Timeline for filing a sinkhole claim

Step 1: File claim on telephone

Step 2: Call from insurance adjuster assigned to your file. Schedule time for adjuster to visit your home. Typically 2 to 10 days after filing claim

Step 3: Adjuster visits home, inspects, takes pictures. Typically occurs within a week after first being contacted by your assigned adjuster.

Step 4: Call from adjuster or testing company to schedule first tests. Typically about 1 to 2 weeks after adjuster visit.

Step 5: First testing company visit. One or two testing company employees will visit your home to survey it, inspect it, and conduct tests. They will measure your home and draw a survey of it, measure your floor slab to determine if it is level or not, inspect, document and take pictures of the damages they observe, dig two to four holes with a hand auger, typically three to five feet deep, and dig a "test pit" - a hole along an exterior wall of your home to measure how far your foundation is embedded into the ground. They will additionally perform GPR and/or ER. GPR stands for Ground Penetrating Radar, and a "box" is dragged in lines across your yard which shoots a radar signal into the ground to map a partial picture of the soils below ground. ER stands for Electrical Resistivity testing, in which a computer measure the time it takes an electrical arc of current to move between two or more test probes in the ground - which can tell the types of soil conditions below ground. This typically will occur three to four weeks after the adjuster’s visit, but it may be as long as eight to ten weeks in the fall and spring.

Step 6: Second testing company visit. About a month after the first testing company visit, the testing company will come back out a second time. This time the testing company will bring a heavy mud drill rig, and will drill two to four deep bore drill holes in different spots around your property. They will drill down anywhere from ten feet to over a hundred feet, and take soil samples every five feet. This test provides a picture of the soil conditions and soil density below the ground. This happens approximately two to three months after first filing the sinkhole claim.

Step 7: Wait. After the testing company drills the deep bore holes (also called SPT or standard penetration test borings), the testing company will analyze the test results and prepare a report. Florida statutes require the testing company to send the report to both the homeowner and the insurance company, but they never do - they only send it to the insurance company. Typically the insurance company receives the report about a month after the drilling is completed. Sometimes the insurance company will automatically send the report to the homeowner, other times the homeowner must ask for it.

Step 8: Decision time! The insurance company now has the test results back. Throughout the testing process you may have received regular correspondence from the insurance adjuster requesting you send certain documents and information, or they might not have requested anything - it depends on the insurance company. Your insurance company, now armed with the test results and the opinion of a licensed geologist or professional engineer, will decide whether to extend coverage for the damage at your home. This can happen as quickly as three or four months after you file your claim, or the insurance company can delay making a decision for well over a year.

Step 9: You receive a letter in the mail from your insurance company either DENYING your claim, or CONFIRMING your claim.