Santa Maria area
Questions and answers
The questions below come up on nearly every call. The answers are short on purpose. Follow the links where you want more.
Phone answered all day and all night, seven days a week
Before anything is cleaned
When is cleanup allowed to begin?
After the scene has been released. Following a crime that is the police department's decision; following a death it also involves the Sheriff-Coroner's staff. Ask the officer in charge, and write down the name and any report number.
Is it against the law to clean it myself?
California's registration rule applies to businesses that do this for pay, not to a family in its own home. The reasons to hand it over are different ones: the risk from blood and body fluids, what it does to the person cleaning, and the fact that soaked materials have to leave the house as regulated waste.
Should I open the windows or run a fan?
Leave the room shut and ask the company when you call. They will tell you what helps and what spreads the problem.
What should I not throw away?
Anything, for now. An insurer or the state compensation board may want to know what was damaged, and the cleanup company documents what it removes.
About the company
How do I know the company is legitimate?
Ask for the exact name it is registered under and look for that name on the state health department’s list of registered practitioners. Also ask for proof of insurance. This website does not vet companies, so that check is yours to make.
Will they arrive in a marked truck?
Practices differ. If privacy from the neighbours matters to you, say so on the phone and ask what the vehicle and the crew will look like.
How long does a job take?
It depends on how many rooms are affected and how much time passed before anyone knew. One room after a fall is a different job from a whole house. Ask the company how long it expects to need once it has seen the place.
Do I have to be there?
Someone has to let the crew in and agree the scope. After that many families prefer to wait elsewhere, and that is normal.
Money and paperwork
Does homeowners insurance pay for this?
Some policies do, some do not, and deductibles apply. Phone your insurer or agent, describe what happened and ask. Nobody but the insurer can tell you what your policy covers.
What is CalVCB?
The California Victim Compensation Board. When a crime happens in a home or a vehicle, it can repay whoever paid for the cleanup, up to a limit, provided a registered company did the work. Its page on crime scene cleanup has the rule, and customer care is at 800-777-9229.
Does this website charge me?
No. You pay the cleanup company for its work if you hire it. The company or a referral network may pay this site for the introduction, which the referral disclosure explains.
Can the company bill the estate?
That is for you and the company to agree. Tell them at the start who will be paying, whether that is you, an estate, a landlord or an insurer, so the paperwork is made out correctly.
Whenever suits you
Hand the room to people whose trade this is
Two sentences about the situation are plenty. You then hear how the firm would tackle it and what it would bill. Yes or no is yours alone to say, today or next week.
The number for Santa Maria and the valley
Whoever picks up belongs to a cleanup firm that takes jobs from Guadalupe up to Grover Beach. It is a separate business from this website. Name your town, say what sort of place it is, and ask anything.
Call (805) 362-1926Phone answered all day and all night, seven days a week
The call may be recorded. How this works is set out in the referral disclosure.