First Notice Of Loss (FNOL)

A pipe bursts in your house, filling it knee-high in sewage. (That's a lot of sewage...what was going on in that pipe?) You need to collect money from the insurance company to start the cleanup.

First step: First Notice of Loss. The FONL represents a fancy way of describing the panicked phone call you made when you first saw the brown sludge all over your floor. It kicks off the formal claims process.