What to Do After Your House Has Been Vandalized
Coming home to find that your house has been vandalized is usually going to be a pretty traumatic experience.
While you might initially try to react in a purely instinctive way to assess the damage that has been done to your home, you should not enter your house alone.
In fact, you should not enter it at all, even if there are several other people with you.
If you are already inside your house before you realize that any damage has been done, leave the house right away and call the police.
Once the police have arrived, they will go through your house to make sure that no one is still there.
They will also need to collect any evidence that may exist and take some photographs.
Once they have determined that your home is safe to enter, you need to go through each room very carefully in order to determine what has been damaged (or what may be missing).
Create a list for both the police and your insurance company, remembering to make a copy for yourself just in case.
As you are taking a detailed inventory of the damage to your home, you will also need to contact your insurance company.
The sooner you report the damage, the better, as the company will need a bit of time to send someone to your home to assess the damage for your insurance claim.
Make sure that you do not clean up any of the mess until after the police tell you that it is okay to do so.
If you clean something up too quickly, it might turn out to have been an important piece of evidence.
There are a few other things that you should keep in mind when trying to restore your home after it has been vandalized.
Never try to operate electrical appliances that appear to have been tampered with or damaged by the vandals.
It is best to wait until after the equipment has been thoroughly checked out by a professional before you attempt to plug something in or use it.
Do not attempt to clean up any chemical stains, as this can prove to be very dangerous.
Also, do not use traditional household cleansers on your carpeting or other fabrics.
Only try to clean up the smallest pieces of debris; and you should only do this after the police have completed their investigation of your home.
You will probably also need to contact a qualified insurance restoration contractor to properly do the clean up for you.
Of course, this will largely depend on the extent of the damage that was done, but your insurance agent or appraiser should be able to provide you with the proper advice regarding this.
If your insurance company recommends a particular restoration contractor, you should choose that person or company.
Always do what your insurance company advises when it comes to these matters so that you can be sure that you are reimbursed for any monies that you have to spend to get things taken care of; or, so that you can be sure that the insurance company will pay the contractor promptly without squabbling about the bill.
The sooner you can get your house repaired and back to normal, the sooner you will be able to move forward and try to put the incident behind you.
While you might initially try to react in a purely instinctive way to assess the damage that has been done to your home, you should not enter your house alone.
In fact, you should not enter it at all, even if there are several other people with you.
If you are already inside your house before you realize that any damage has been done, leave the house right away and call the police.
Once the police have arrived, they will go through your house to make sure that no one is still there.
They will also need to collect any evidence that may exist and take some photographs.
Once they have determined that your home is safe to enter, you need to go through each room very carefully in order to determine what has been damaged (or what may be missing).
Create a list for both the police and your insurance company, remembering to make a copy for yourself just in case.
As you are taking a detailed inventory of the damage to your home, you will also need to contact your insurance company.
The sooner you report the damage, the better, as the company will need a bit of time to send someone to your home to assess the damage for your insurance claim.
Make sure that you do not clean up any of the mess until after the police tell you that it is okay to do so.
If you clean something up too quickly, it might turn out to have been an important piece of evidence.
There are a few other things that you should keep in mind when trying to restore your home after it has been vandalized.
Never try to operate electrical appliances that appear to have been tampered with or damaged by the vandals.
It is best to wait until after the equipment has been thoroughly checked out by a professional before you attempt to plug something in or use it.
Do not attempt to clean up any chemical stains, as this can prove to be very dangerous.
Also, do not use traditional household cleansers on your carpeting or other fabrics.
Only try to clean up the smallest pieces of debris; and you should only do this after the police have completed their investigation of your home.
You will probably also need to contact a qualified insurance restoration contractor to properly do the clean up for you.
Of course, this will largely depend on the extent of the damage that was done, but your insurance agent or appraiser should be able to provide you with the proper advice regarding this.
If your insurance company recommends a particular restoration contractor, you should choose that person or company.
Always do what your insurance company advises when it comes to these matters so that you can be sure that you are reimbursed for any monies that you have to spend to get things taken care of; or, so that you can be sure that the insurance company will pay the contractor promptly without squabbling about the bill.
The sooner you can get your house repaired and back to normal, the sooner you will be able to move forward and try to put the incident behind you.
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