A plain guide to the bill

Who pays for biohazard cleanup?

There are four usual sources and none of them is automatic. Which applies depends on what happened, where, and whose property it is. No figures appear here because every job is priced on what the company finds.

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The four usual payers

1. An insurance policy

Homeowner, condo, renter, landlord and commercial policies often treat this kind of cleanup as part of a covered loss. Often is not always. Limits, deductibles and exclusions differ, and only the insurer can read your policy for you. Call them or your agent, describe what happened, and ask two things: is it covered, and what proof do you want.

2. The California Victim Compensation Board

For a crime in a residence or vehicle, CalVCB lists crime scene clean-up among the expenses it can help with. It pays after insurance, not instead of it, and only for cleanup carried out by a company on the state health department's register.

3. The property owner

In a rented home the building belongs to the landlord, so the landlord or their insurer normally arranges and pays for restoring it. A tenant's own belongings fall under the tenant's renter policy, if there is one.

4. The estate

When the person who died owned the home, cleanup is usually treated as an expense of settling the estate. Whoever is acting as executor or administrator should keep the invoice.

After a crime

Using CalVCB without tripping over its rules

You can apply online, on paper or through a local victim advocate (how compensation works). The Board's customer service number is 800-777-9229.

In Ventura County, advocates in the District Attorney's Crime Victims Assistance Unit help victims and families with these claims. Their number is (805) 654-3622.

Two points catch people out. First, hire a registered company, or the Board cannot pay. Second, the benefit is for the cleaning itself. A ruined sofa or carpet is a matter for insurance.

Whoever pays, collect these

Photographs of the affected rooms taken from the doorway before any work, if you can face it. If not, ask the company to take them.
The company's written scope and price, dated before the work.
The final itemized invoice, showing the company's registered name.
A list of what was removed and thrown away, for the contents part of an insurance claim.

Money questions

What decides the price?

The size of the affected area, how long it was left, what the fluids soaked into, how much has to be cut out and hauled as regulated waste, and how hard the place is to reach. Two jobs that sound alike on the phone can differ a great deal on site.

Will the cleanup company bill my insurer?

Some will send their invoice to an insurer and some want payment from you. Ask the company which it does. Whether a claim is paid is decided by the insurer alone.

Does anyone pay when there was no crime and no insurance?

Then it falls to the owner or the estate. Tell the company at the start; some can stage the work so that the urgent part is done first.

Ready when the home is

Hold off until the police and the Medical Examiner's investigator are done with the property. After that, a single call puts a cleanup firm from the Oxnard area on the phone with you. Nothing gets booked unless you say so.

Talk it over with a cleanup company

Begin wherever you like. The story does not have to come out in order, and you may hang up whenever you want.