If your home or business property suffered damages and you filed an insurance claim, the mortgage company will be listed as a payee if you have a mortgage. Your lender has a financial interest in your property and your mortgage company is listed on your homeowner’s insurance policy as the lienholder. Therefore, your Florida insurance carrier will include the mortgage on checks usually $2,500 and up. The check will also include whoever is listed on the insurance policy so if you need to make changes to who is on your policy, you will need to call your insurance agent and get the correct mortgage company and insureds, otherwise, they will be listed on the insurance check.
You may receive more than one check during your insurance claim process. Read this article about undisputed payments.
How do I get my mortgage company to sign the check?
First, make sure you have the correct mortgage company on your insurance check since mortgage companies can change from time to time. Also, you may need what the insurance company calls an “Adjusters worksheet”, and that is the estimate from your carrier and/or the estimate from your Public Adjuster.
Second, call your mortgage company and ask for the loss draft department and let them know you have an insurance check and need their endorsement. Each mortgage company is different, but they will most likely have you send the insurance check to them, they will sign it and send it back to you. That is only if your insurance check is under $40,000 (this does not apply to all mortgage companies).
If the check is over $40,000 the mortgage company will most likely cash the check and put the monies into an escrow account and will issue payment in increments to fund repairs. Once the repairs are finished, the mortgage company will do an inspection. If the repairs pass the inspection, then they will release the remaining funds to you.
If your lender is a large company, such as Bank of America, Chase, Wells Fargo, etc., you can go to the bank and talk to the mortgage specialist and ask them to sign your check. They will explain their process if they do not sign or if your check is larger than a certain amount per their policy.
Ready to cash your insurance check?
IF YOU HAVE A CHECKING ACCOUNT WITH CHASE, they will not deposit checks with multiple parties on the insurance check. Your options would be to open a new checking account with a bank that does not have this rule such as Bank of America, Wells Fargo, PNC and etc. If you hired a public adjuster, call them, and see if there are other options for getting your insurance check cashed.
Help! What if my insurance check was lost, expired, or incorrect?
No worries! Your insurance check can be reissued from the carrier. If your check was lost, call your public adjuster first, or if you don’t have a PA call your insurance company and ask them to stop the check and have it reissued. Do the same if your check has expired.
If your insurance company has the wrong insureds or mortgage company listed on your check, then you need to call your insurance agent and ask them what you need to do to correct the names or lienholders on your policy. Then you will need to give the updated policy to your Public Adjuster or insurance company and ask them to reissue your check.
