I listened to a family member’s experience with property damages after learning they had quite the scare. The topic came up during a recent conversation about what I do as a public adjuster and when to hire a public adjuster. And in learning of the experience, I hoped she would be willing to share her story with you. Here’s what she had to say:

The moments when life flashes before your eyes are the moments you won’t forget. It was the day following a hurricane. The usual sound of Florida’s Interstate-4 traffic was gone. The air was filled with new sounds: the humming of generators for electricity and the buzzing of chain saws slicing through fallen tree limbs.

 

There is something about the day after a huge storm that is eerie, yet peaceful. It’s as if you’re emotionally spent from worrying during the storm itself and preparing for it, then you’re past the storm and overcome with relief.

 

There I was sitting at my desk that overlooked the front yard, feeling grateful to have weathered the storm with what seemed to be no damage, and watching neighbors clean up tree branches, trash, and other debris from their yards. I took it all in and enjoyed a moment to process the weather event during the calm after a storm. I stood up from my desk, ready to begin my own cleanup process, and noticed a subtle cracking noise from above.

 

As I looked up to the ceiling, that’s when my life flashed before my eyes. It caved in on me. There wasn’t enough time to move. There was barely enough time to cover my head with my arms as drywall and sopping wet insulation crashed onto me. Luckily, I wasn’t hurt. I was soaked, dirty, completely terrified, standing in filth beneath a large hole.

 

‘Had a tree fallen on my roof?’ was the first thought on my mind. But it turned out that our roof had been leaking. The water penetrating the roofing tiles dripped down the trusses, pooled water in the ceiling insulation, and weakened the drywall enough to collapse.

It’s times like this one that you can reach out to insurance and receive compensation to fix the damages. As the insured, you pay an insurance premium throughout the year to provide coverage in case something like this happens. Insurance covers certain perils, an event that causes damage to your home or property, resulting in financial loss. When a loss occurs, you have the right to file an insurance claim.

Many people tackle the insurance claim process alone. Others seek help to navigate the insurance claim process. People that want help with an insurance claim, do so for several reasons. You may find your situation fits into any one or multiple of these reasons when to hire a public adjuster:

• • You don’t have the time. Time is money, and many people don’t have enough of it to manage the consistent interactions and follow up necessary to move along the insurance claim process. Why spend your valuable time dealing with the demands of your insurance company?

• • You don’t have the money. Many people don’t have free cash to pay for damages. Although insurance companies are required to make fair assessments of the damages, many people end up having to spend out of pocket to fully complete repairs. The Office of Program Policy Analysis & Government Accountability (OPPAGA) reported that claims handled by public adjusters result in payments of 574% more than submitting a claim on your own. Working with a public adjuster can help you save money.

• • You don’t want to pay a fee before your insurance carrier decides the claim outcome. Most public adjusters work on a contingency fee basis. At Fair Claim Experts, we work on a contingency fee basis, meaning we don’t get paid unless you get paid by your insurance company. This helps remove any upfront financial barriers to every policyholder. It gives you the benefit of receiving representation throughout the insurance claim process. Additionally, Florida requires that public adjusters cannot charge more than 20% for non-disaster related settlement claims and if the insurance claim is the result of a disaster, no more than 10%. We tell you this so that you know the maximum of what to expect with any Florida public adjuster.

• • You don’t have the expertise in filing a claim. There is no clear-cut process for an insurance claim. Some claims are simpler to navigate, while other claims need appraisal, engineer input, mediation, or even court. Positively, you as the insured are given many avenues to advocate for your home and property to be indemnified, compensated for loss. However, doing so without an expert advocate can leave you frustrated, confused, and without the claim settlement you deserve.

• • You don’t understand the complex language of your insurance policy. The average person is not well versed on their insurance policy or interpreting the policy. It can be easy to misunderstand or even completely miss what you, the policyholder, are entitled to. This typically results in big money being left on the table.

• • Your damage is extensive. Most insurance claims are complex. The larger the damages, the more mistakes can be made. Thanks to estimating software that public adjusters and insurance companies have access to, estimating the cost of individual materials is not the most difficult part of the job. Rather what can be tricky for both public adjusters and insurance companies is documenting and including within the cost estimation all materials and labor covered by your insurance policy. The first round of insurance claim estimates can be missing crucial elements of the repairs. It is up to us as public adjusters to recognize the omissions and provide substantial evidence, typically through photos, that the materials are necessary to fully indemnify you as the policyholder. Thus, when damages are extensive, it is easy to omit items that should be covered.

• • Your insurance claim was denied. Often, insurance companies are unwilling to provide compensation for a claim. In these cases, getting a second opinion from a public adjuster could largely impact your claim outcome. Then, a public adjuster can assist you in submitting a dispute and reopening the claim in hopes to provide you, the insured with fair compensation.

• • Your insurance carrier offers repairs and not full replacement of damages. A repair is offered when the insurance company recognizes damages, but not enough damages. Depending on the type of damage, you may be able to dispute a repair and receive a full replacement. Here are two examples: Under the Florida Building Code Section 706.1.1, a roof must be replaced if over 25% of the roof is damaged. This is referred to as the “25% rule”. Public adjusters can dispute a repair under this rule and receive full replacement for the policyholder if the rule applies to the damages. Additionally, Florida’s matching statute, Section 626.9744, essentially protects policyholders from mismatched roofing tiles or shingles. The statute takes into account quality, color, size, manufacturer design changes and products that are no longer in production. Understanding the intricacies of the laws designed to protect you and your assets is helpful when dealing with the insurance company.

• • Your insurance carrier did not fulfill their due diligence throughout the damage assessment process. When a representative for the insurance company, whether it be an adjuster or engineer, takes time to assess damages, you’re expecting a complete assessment of the damages. Fair Claim Experts team has witnessed firsthand insurance representation not accessing the roof on claims filed for roof damage, not inspecting interior damages on claims filed for water damage, etc. These errors and omissions do not provide a fair assessment for the insured.

• • Your insurance carrier settlement offer does not cover the damages, according to the provisions in your policy. Unfortunately, insurance representatives do not always act in the best interest of you, the policyholder. While insurance adjusters and carriers are under legal obligation to assess damages fairly, things can be overlooked. These “fair” assessments are intended to limit financial exposure in claims as part of the insurance companies’ for-profit business model, leaving you with insufficient money to cover the cost of work to be done. Don’t settle for less than what you as the insured are owed.

• • Your insurance carrier is offering a quick payoff. A speedy resolution is appreciated by you, the policyholder, and often is an attempt for the insurance company to get you to settle for less money. Take your time to understand each detail and the impact an agreement can have on you and your property remediation.

• • Your insurance carrier appears to be delaying your claim. All insurance companies are required by each state to respond to you and process your claim within given timeframes. It’s unusual for an insurance company not to meet such deadlines. However, claim delay often happens following major catastrophes due to an influx of claims. To meet deadlines, insurance companies will fly in adjusters from out of state to complete adjustments in a timely manner. The concern is out of state adjusters tend to be less familiar with the state laws to fully indemnify a policyholder in the timely manner that you are legally entitled to. Learn what you are entitled to, keep documentation, and reach out to a public adjuster for additional help.

• • Your insurance carrier is discouraging you from hiring a public adjuster. You need to be the one to decide if hiring a public adjuster is worth it. Yes, OPAGGA found that including a public adjuster is proven to lengthen the claims process. However, the 574% increase in average Florida insurance claim settlements reveals a huge gap in fair assessments to policyholders.

Any one of these reasons are why homeowners decide to hire a public adjuster to assist them with an insurance claim. Additionally, if you are wondering when to hire a public adjuster vs. an attorney or when during the claim process you should hire a public adjuster see additional details below.

Hire an Attorney or Public Adjuster

Policyholders get confused about when to hire an attorney vs. when to hire a public adjuster to file their claim. Both can handle claims, and both have valuable advocacy roles in the claims process. Fundamentally they have different skill sets that are complimentary throughout the insurance claim process.

Public adjusters are helpful at the initial stages of a claim by ensuring that the full extent of property damage is identified and properly valued, typically working through the mediation process. If a resolution does not occur during mediation, an attorney’s skill set is utilized best to continue a claim into the courts.

You will want to consult an attorney once your insurance claim has been denied while utilizing a public adjuster, when insurance claim rights have been put at risk, or other legal issues arise that the public adjuster cannot handle. Additionally, if you have worked with a public adjuster and are dissatisfied with the resolution of your claim, you should speak to an attorney who can work with the adjuster to comprehensively review your insurance claim.

Learn what a public adjuster is here.

When During the Claim Process can a Public Adjuster be Involved

You are allowed to contact a public adjuster any time before you file a claim through, to even after the insurance carrier decides your claim outcome, especially if you attempted the claims process alone.

It’s a question we hear often… when to hire a public adjuster during the claim process? We suggest the best time for when to hire a public adjuster is early on during the process. The sooner we can assess and document damages through photo evidence, the better we can represent you from the start.

If you settled a claim with the insurance company and were not satisfied with the outcome: maybe you were denied or the settlement did not cover the cost, you still have options. Florida Statute 627.70132 allows settled claims to be re-opened within 2 or 3 years from the date of loss that occurred, depending on the type of claim.

You no longer have options after the deadline set by Florida Statute or after signing a “Release of all Claims” form. It is a document that absolves the insurance company of any additional liability from what has been agreed upon. Those are the only two times you would be unable to receive help from a public adjuster on an insurance claim.

Contact Our Office Today

If you are impacted by property damages in Florida, our team of experienced public adjusters can help. People that use a public adjuster like Fair Claim Experts save time, save money, have a better understanding of their claim actions, remove stress, and gain peace of mind. Let us help you get your property back to the condition it was in before damages occurred. We serve clients from all areas across the state of Florida: Tampa, St. Petersburg, Orlando, Miami, Miami Beach, West Palm Beach, Ft. Lauderdale, Jacksonville, Tallahassee, Gainesville, The Villages. Click here to begin your free consultation.