One of the most common questions we at PubAdjuster are asked by our clients and prospective clients is why do insurance companies discourage retaining a public adjuster? Homeowners are often told by their insurers that they do not need public adjusters to represent them in connection with their homeowner’s insurance claims. Another question many homeowners who have already filed a claim with their insurer before retaining a public adjuster ask us is why the insurer suddenly becomes much harder to reach and more difficult to deal with once the insured has retained a public adjuster. It is as if a flip has switched at the insurer once the insured has retained a public adjuster to assist the homeowner with his or her insurance claim. The answer to both questions, however, is quite simple: the insurer is resigned to the fact that, if a public adjuster is working on behalf of the insured, then the insurer is going to have to pay more to resolve the claim. The insurer knows that a claim without a public adjuster involved is typically cheaper for the insurer to resolve.
If you have suffered any type of storm damage, a burst pipe, a fire, or any other type of damage to your home, then the best move that you can make is to retain an experienced public adjuster like David Flaks of PubAdjuster. This is not because, as your insurer may try to convince you, that a public adjuster drives up the cost of a claim because his or her compensation is typically based upon the insured homeowner’s recovery. Instead, this is simply because homeowners are at a disadvantage when dealing with their insurers with respect to any type of homeowner’s insurance claim. This often results in the insured homeowner leaving money on the table when it comes to the resolution of the claim. The reason for this is simple. The average homeowner has no idea how much a new roof costs or whether the storm damage that the homeowner’s roof suffered as a result of a hurricane can be replaced through spot repairs or instead will require an entirely new roof. In addition, given that many types of both roof tiles and flooring that may need to be replaced because of some type of loss may have been discontinued since the initial installation, it can often be extremely difficult for a homeowner to know and understand exactly how much money from the insurer it will take to make the homeowner whole for whatever damage he or she suffered.
Your Insurer May Try to Convince You That Retaining a Public Adjuster Will Result in You Walking Away With Less Money
Insurers often try to convince homeowners they may be better off without a public adjuster because they will pay the same amount of money for your claim regardless of whether you are represented by a public adjuster or not. As any insured homeowner who has tried to negotiate with an insurer over the resolution of a claim and then hired a public adjuster in frustration when the insurer becomes unreasonable or refuses to offer the type of money that will compensate the homeowner for the damage that he or she suffered, the insurer’s behavior changes significantly when a public adjuster becomes involved. This is simply because the insurer knows the negotiations will become much more difficult and much more involved when a a public adjuster is involved on behalf of the insured.
If You Do Not Know the True Damage to Your Home or What It Is Worth, You Should Retain a Public Adjuster
A homeowner also may think the insurer is going to put its highest offer out there first, which never happens. Instead, the insurer will typically offer the lowest possible amount it thinks it can get away with offering and see if the homeowner will accept that amount. Even if the insured homeowner is smart enough to negotiate with his or her insurer, then the final number will still likely be far below what an experienced public adjuster would advise the insured homeowner to accept. If you have no experience with what it costs to fix a roof, then you may accept an offer of $15,000 from an insurer and think that will cover everything when in reality it may not even cover the cost of materials to replace your entire roof, leaving you to come up out of pocket with the costs of labor and other costs associated with replacing your roof as a result of storm damage.
Public adjusters also simply have access to tools that many homeowners may not. Many public adjusters use the same estimating software to come up with their estimates as the insurer’s adjusters utilize in order to determine what the insurer believes to be the damage that an insured’s home suffered as a result of a storm, a burst pipe or some other form of loss. This enables the public adjuster, and in turn the insured, to be able to compare apples to apples and determine whether or not the insurer is either trying to say the damage is less than the property actually suffered or if the insurer’s adjuster is trying to use artificially low numbers for estimating the damages to the insured homeowner’s property.
Contact David Flaks of PubAdjuster To Maximize Your Recovery
Regardless of what type of loss you have suffered to your home, whether storm damage, a burst pipe or otherwise, PubAdjuster is here to assist in maximizing your recovery from your insurer. From our offices in Boca Raton, we serve clients in Broward and Palm Beach Counties and throughout Florida with a wide variety of different types of insurance claims. We will work with you to ensure that you maximize your recovery from storm damage or any other type of loss. Call (561) 212-0239 or email us at david@pubadjuster.com for a free claim review today.