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Uniform appearance is always a topic of concern in our industry. Did the insurance company pay for some of your flooring but not all of it? Did they replace some of your cabinets but not all of them? The term uniform appearance is so widely used. Below you will see the language from the California Department of Insurance.

Section 2695.9. Additional Standards Applicable to First Party Residential and Commercial Property Insurance Policies

(a) When a residential or commercial property insurance policy provides for the adjustment and settlement of first party losses based on replacement cost, the following standards apply:

(1) When a loss requires repair or replacement of an item or part, any consequential physical damage incurred in making the repair or replacement not otherwise excluded by the policy shall be included in the loss. The insured shall not have to pay for depreciation nor any other cost except for the applicable deductible.

(2) When a loss requires replacement of items and the replaced items do not match in quality, color or size, the insurer shall replace all items in the damaged area so as to conform to a reasonably uniform appearance.

The real explanation behind this is, technically your insurance policy only pays for that ONE damaged tile, or that ONE bank of cabinets. The DOI (department of insurance) comes in and provides the uniform appearance language which is why you can make the argument to replace all the cabinets or flooring “as to conform to a reasonably uniform appearance.”.