If your home was damaged or destroyed by the fires in Los Angeles, the most daunting challenge may still be ahead: Getting your insurance company, or the federal government, to give you the money you’re entitled to receive.

The report — put out by the Republican members of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party and the House Committee on Education and the Workforce — also recommends stricter guidelines around federally funded research, including significantly curtailing the ability of researchers who receive U.S. grants to work with Chinese universities and companies that have military ties.

That process can be infuriating and baffling, and it comes during what is already an incredibly stressful moment in your life. Worse still, the stakes are enormous. You can’t afford to get it wrong.

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The New York Times asked experts what to do, and what to avoid. Their advice boils down to two points: You don’t need to settle for whatever your insurance company or FEMA first offers you. And you don’t have to fight them alone.

Document everything

Photograph the damage to your home as soon as you can. Every time you speak to anybody from your insurance company or from a government agency,betpk app make notes about the conversation, including whom you spoke with, when it happened, and what the person said.

If you spend money on repairs or supplies while you’re out of the house, keep all receipts.

Your insurance payout won’t be easy

Your main source of money for repairing or rebuilding your home is your insurance company. Recovery depends on getting the most money allowed under your policy. And that won’t be easy.

“People have to be prepared to fight to have the terms of their contracts met,” said Douglas Heller, director of insurance at the Consumer Federation of America.

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