This is the number the whole claim was for, and it is the one that decides what you can actually rebuild. It is also the figure the corridor reports on, so recording it accurately is part of showing whether recovery funding worked.

The thing most people get wrong is treating settlement as an event rather than a decision. You can accept, you can keep negotiating, and in most policies there are formal routes between those two. Signing is the point after which nothing changes, so it is worth understanding what you are signing a week before you sign it.

Get the settlement broken into its parts in writing, not as one total. A single figure hides which money is in your hands and which money is conditional, and those are very different things.

Read the release before you sign. Some releases close the whole claim including parts you have not finished documenting, such as business income that is still accruing or a replacement cost holdback. Whether a release is partial or full, and what it gives up, depends on its wording. Not yet confirmed by LAEDC, and worth an hour of a lawyer’s time on a large claim.