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What To Do When Your Insurance Company Uses Their Own Contractors to Inspect Damages to Your Home
Stop Them in Their Tracks and Hire a Public Adjuster
When your home incurs damages – by a catastrophic natural weather event, a plumbing leak, or fire – whatever it may be, your insurance company can send whomever they wish to inspect your home. They can send a plumber roofer, contractor or engineer to inspect your damages. And they can do this as often as they think is reasonable, even if you think it is unreasonable. Do you have time off from your job to meet first with their adjuster, then with their roofer, then with their plumber, then with their engineer and anybody else they want to send out to your home or building?
What may surprise you about this, is the fact that all of the investigative reports are usually deliberately kept secret from you! Once the insurance company decides whether or not to pay your claim, you will get a letter with a summary of their findings, but you usually won’t get a complete report from their experts.
Now, ask yourself a question. If the insurance company is sending out a general contractors to give them a price for your insurance damages, who does the general contractor actually work for? Who does the plumber work for? Who does the roofer or engineer work for? You? No! They work for the insurance company, which gives them hundreds of leads a week. And most of them work for more than one insurance company! Do you think this is putrid? We think it stinks to high heaven!
The insurance policy states that you have to prove your damages. So, how, if they don’t share the reports with you, can you possibly prove anything? Your insurance company isn’t obliged to share that information. Does this also mean that you’ll have to hire your own contractors to report their findings? Perhaps! That’s because the insurance company isn’t on your side!
There are only two categories of professionals in Florida that are licensed to assist you in filing your insurance claim – an attorney or a public adjuster. You may end up needing an attorney if it gets to that point, but the immediate answer is a public adjuster. Attorneys’ fees can be prohibitive. A public adjuster is your first line of defense to help you to prepare your insurance claim. They may need to arrange for professional contractors to inspect your damage, but you will have full access to their detailed reports.
Remember, don’t wait until your insurance claim is in shambles before you hire a public adjuster.
