If your home, condo, or business suffers damage or a loss, it can be really difficult. As an insurance claim can be super stressful as you are faced with dealing with the cleanup, finding contractors, managing the repair process, while still maintaining your "regular" life. Even if you usually handle things well, when something bad happens, it can be overwhelming. People who own businesses or homes often don't know how to handle complicated insurance claims, and they're usually too busy to figure it out. That's where a public adjuster can help.

 

It is always best to get professionals involved as early in the process as possible. But professional help does come with a cost and many policyholders (the insured) make the decision to handle their claim themselves..

 

Some insureds are successful, but most become bogged down in the process and are never really sure they received the proper settlement amount. With insurance claims, a policyholder should not agree to or sign anything presented to them by their insurance carrier that they are not totally comfortable with.

 

Consider turning to a public insurance adjuster (PA) when one or more of the following conditions exist:

 

• You don’t understand your policy and what it covers.

Your policy is written this way for a purpose, to leave you uncertain what is and what is not covered.

 

• You don’t have the skill or expertise.

Filing an insurance claim (especially with extensive and complicated damages), properly documenting and scoping the damages, creating the very detailed estimate that is required (most contractor estimates lack this feature), and negotiating with the field and desk adjuster can be very challenging. Get help if you are confused. Otherwise you will typically make mistakes that might affect your settlement.

 

• The insurance carrier appears to be delaying your claim.

This often happens when major catastrophes such as hurricanes create claims back logs. The insurance companies bring in adjusters from out of state who do not understand that state's construction building codes or insurance laws. In all states, insurance carriers are required to respond to you and process your claim in a specified time period. If you are getting the run-around (not returning your phone calls, asking for additional estimates as they don't like your contractor's estimate, asking you to provide the same documentation over and over again, etc.) - GET PROFESSIONAL HELP.

 

• The insurance carriers estimate appears to be a low ball offer.

Unfortunately, insurance company adjusters and company management do not always act in the best interest of their policyholders. Remember your insurance company is not your friend, and is not your neighbor. The insurance company is there to manage your claim the best way for them to maximize their profit. Their first offer is made low so you will have to fight back and forth to get what is truly required to restore you to pre-loss condition. A building or general contractor will typically have a difficult time trying to get the insurance company to pay. One of the reasons are  the contractor does not use the 'right' estimating software, and does not provide enough detail and photographs to back up their estimate. Preparing an estimate that is acceptable to the insurance company requires much more detail, and time to enter the line items with supporting notes, than a typical restoration estimate. A public adjuster is experienced with this process, has the correct software and devouts the necessary time to "play" this game with your insurance company. 

 

• You don’t have the time to deal with the claim.

Often times the desk adjuster will create arbitrary demands or hurdles to jump through. Most people already have busy lives. They work, have family commitments and may not want to deal with the stress of trying to get a claim paid and then manage the construction process as the insurance company wants to save the 'overhead and profit' expense. Or the desk adjuster will not agree with your contractors estimate as it is too expensive; they will ask you to get two more estimates. To date Gregory Siviur has never reviewed a policy that requires you to get 'two more estimates'. This is just another arbitrary demand to delay and wear you out. The desk adjuster gets paid to "play this game" - you do not.

 

• The adjuster is discouraging you from hiring a public insurance adjuster.

This may be another red flag, as the adjuster just wants you to accept what they are offering and just go away. You should be the only one determining if hiring a public adjuster makes sense and is worth the cost.

 

Most people that use an experienced public insurance adjuster such as Gregory Siviur will tell you the time saved, stress removed and peace of mind restored when working with a public adjuster is well worth the fee.