An Insurance adjuster is an employee of the Insurance company; An independent Insurance adjuster is a subcontractor hired by the Insurance company.

Both have a legal and fiduciary responsibility to protect the financial interest of the Insurance company, not you!

A PUBLIC INSURANCE ADJUSTER, or PA, has a legal and fiduciary responsibility to the insured. We work for you and never the Insurance company

If your home has experienced any kind of damage covered by insurance, just contact us. We gladly provide free claim reviews for insurance claims in the following areas: burst pipes, collapse, explosion, fire/smoke, flood, frozen pipes, hurricane, mold, roof damage, sinkhole, hail damage, tornado, water, and wind.

We don’t get paid until you get paid. We work on a contingency basis which means we only get paid if we recover proceeds.  Our percentage is based on funds recovered after any prior payments and/or the deductible.

Call us immediately after any damages or losses. It is best if we are involved with the entire claims process from the beginning to ensure the best possible outcome for you.

Policyholder Advocacy Group serves policyholders across Florida. Right now our focus is the Panhandle counties hit by Hurricane Isaias: Walton County, Okaloosa County, Bay County, Santa Rosa County, and Escambia County. Alachua County, Baker County, Bay County, Bradford County, Brevard County, Broward County, Calhoun County, Charlotte County, Citrus County, Clay County, Collier County, Columbia County, DeSoto County, Dixie County, Duval County, Escambia County, Flagler County, Franklin County, Gadsden County, Gilchrist County, Glades County, Gulf County, Hamilton County, Hardee County, Hendry County, Hernando County, Highlands County, Hillsborough County, Holmes County, Indian River County, Jackson County, Jefferson County, Lafayette County, Lake County, Lee County, Leon County, Levy County, Liberty County, Madison County, Manatee County, Marion County, Martin County, Miami-Dade County, Monroe County, Nassau County, Okaloosa County, Okeechobee County, Orange County, Osceola County, Palm Beach County, Pasco County, Pinellas County, Polk County, Putnam County, St. Johns County, St. Lucie County, Santa Rosa County, Sarasota County, Seminole County, Sumter County, Suwanee County, Taylor County, Union County, Volusia County, Wakulla County, Walton County, Washington County. 

YES. Most claim fights never need a courtroom, but you should know the rules changed.

In 2023, Florida repealed the law that made insurers pay your attorney’s fees when you beat them in court. Before that, carriers had a financial reason to settle fairly. Now they do not. That is the honest reality, and it is why documenting your full loss matters more than ever.

Start with the wording. Read the exact policy language the adjuster is relying on. Carriers sometimes read their own policies in their own favor, and the wording does not always say what the adjuster claims it says.

Keep a claim diary. Save every letter, estimate, and photo, and put your requests in writing. If the carrier will not move, Florida gives you steps that come before a lawsuit. You can file a complaint with the Florida Department of Financial Services, request mediation through the state program for residential claims, or use the appraisal clause found in most Florida policies, where each side appoints an appraiser and the appraisers and an umpire set the amount of the loss.

Our job is to document the full loss so completely that the carrier runs out of room to argue. That is where most claims are won. If a claim does need a lawyer, we work alongside yours. Do not accept a denial or a low offer as the final word until the loss has been fully documented and reviewed.

NO. Many claims are paid fairly and on time, and we hope yours is one of them. Problems cluster after hurricanes, when carriers are flooded with claims and the first estimate gets written fast. The failures we see most are delays, incomplete estimates, and claims closed with no payment. If any of those happen to you, the claim is not over. It is under-documented.

Insurance companies are profit-making businesses and their employees are not social workers. Their goal is to close your claim quickly and without paying a dime more than necessary. Your adjuster may be friendly but he or she is not your friend. Insurance companies are naturally trying to control their payouts after a devastating disaster. There is a lot of confusing wording and legalese in insurance contracts and there are laws to protect you from getting taken advantage of. Many insurance companies are reading their policies with a bias that is too much in their own favor and against their policyholders.

Florida regulators are paying attention right now. The state fined one major carrier 1 million dollars for mishandling Hurricane Ian claims, and members of the United States Senate have asked the largest insurers to explain why so many claims are closed with no payment at all. Get a second opinion before you accept a rejection. You paid for this coverage.

Get a second opinion before rebuilding on an existing slab/foundation. Concrete can “fail” due to damage that an untrained eye won’t see. Most adjusters have no training in concrete science.

Labor and material costs always go up after disasters due to supply, demand and greed. Your insurance company owes you for what it will cost in real life, not on paper (up to your policy limits). Guideline pricing is something insurance companies use to predict how much materials and labor should cost. This system is often a problem because reality demands flexibility.

After a storm like Hurricane Isaias, local labor and material prices move faster than any pricing database. Take plywood for example, its price fluctuates wildly and can vary from $12 per sheet up to $25 per sheet after a major storm. That doesn’t make it right, but it’s not fair or legal to make you wait until things stabilize to start repairing or rebuilding your home. Roofs are a highly contested item. If the insurance company’s pricing is $150 per square foot but the market price is $240, keep all receipts and demand the difference along with all amounts the insurance company held back due to ACV rules. If your pricing increases, you can go back with a supplemental claim and they should pay the adjusted price.

Frustrating delays, rotating adjusters, wrong information about what’s covered and what’s not, “lowball” repair estimates and settlement offers, (lowball means unfairly low – rip-off), and what many people describe as a “second nightmare” of being treated badly by the company they trusted for many years.

This is a common problem with some insurance companies and it’s unfair and in some states – illegal. Overhead and profit, (“O & P”) is a known expense that all contractors charge, usually at a rate of 10% and 10%. An insurer that holds back O & P until repairs are completed puts the property owner in an impossible financial position. It is wrong for your insurance company to hold back O & P until your home is completely repaired. If you have a flood insurance policy, check the NFIP bulletis for specific items that are covered.

Depreciation is subjective – not a science. Each adjuster makes his or her own decisions on how much and which items they depreciate. That means it’s up to you to argue for more reasonable numbers. And, not everything in your home is subject to depreciation. For example, paint, vinyl and roofing are exposed to the elements so of course they deteriorate and aresubject to depreciation. The underlying materials that held your home together – studs, cement, rebar, framing – are not. Studs can last 200 years – don’t allow your adjuster/insurer to depreciate those items. Adjusters and insurers rarely volunteer to tell you that if you submit receipts for items you replace they must pay you the difference between what they paid you for the item’s Actual Cash Value (ACV) and what it actually cost you. (If you have a Replacement Cost, not strictly ACV policy)

NO. Your insurer owes to restore your property to its pre-loss condition subject to the dollar limits of your coverage. The appearance of your home after repairs have been made is legally supposed to be “uniform and consistent”. Florida law backs you up. Florida Statute 626.9744 says that when replacement items cannot be matched in quality, color, or size, the insurer must pay for reasonable repairs to the surrounding areas so the finished work has a reasonably uniform appearance. That rule covers roofing, siding, and interior finishes. 

If you’re planning to rebuild/repair and stay in the area and are willing to live in a trailer, negotiate with your insurer to “cash out” your ALE coverage limits so you can buy a trailer or motor home with your ALE policy limits instead of using the money to pay rent. Insurers have not been offering this option but they should be. With a disaster of this size – you’re going to need every penny of ALE coverage and then some to cover your living expenses while you’re out of your home. Negotiating a cashout gives you flexibility and saves you from having to submit more receipts and paperwork to your insurance company.

This is a very, very common problem. If you’ve submitted all the information your insurance company needs to pay your claim, written follow up letters and made phone calls to managers in the company but nothing’s worked, consider “Mediation” or “Appraisal” to resolve the difference. Mediation is an informal way of resolving problems without going to court. Insurance Appraisals are like mini-trials without a jury.

Almost every homeowners’ policy has an Appraisal section that is supposed to help resolve disputes over repair estimates. If you and your insurance company are far apart on the amount you’re owed for repairs, consider using the appraisal process to settle the dispute. If you decide to use the process, make sure you get help from experts who don’t work for the insurance industry or you’ll be wasting your time and money.

Photograph and video everything first, before any cleanup. Every room, every roof line, and every damaged item. Walk the whole property slowly and narrate what you see. Keep damaged items until the carrier has seen them, or keep clear photos and samples if an item must be thrown out for safety. Cover openings and tarp damaged roof areas to stop more water from coming in, and save every receipt for that work. Write down dates, who you spoke with, and what was promised. The claim you can prove is the claim that gets paid.

 Florida law gives you one year from the date of loss to report a hurricane claim to your insurer, and up to 18 months to file a supplemental claim if more damage turns up later (Florida Statute 627.70132). Do not run those deadlines down. Damage found late is harder to prove, and carriers work on their own legal deadlines once a claim is open. Report the loss, document everything, and get the claim on record early.

Two different things, and the invoice should split them. Removing the tree from the structure so the building can be repaired is part of the covered repair work. Hauling debris away from the yard is usually a separate, smaller capped amount in the policy. Get the tree company’s invoice itemized that way before the work starts, and photograph the tree on the structure before anyone cuts. If the invoice lumps everything into hauling, the carrier will try to pay all of it at the small capped rate.

Most Florida homeowners policies carry a separate hurricane deductible. It is a percentage of your insured value, commonly 2 to 10 percent, not the flat dollar amount of your regular deductible. It is triggered when the National Hurricane Center issues a hurricane watch or warning for any part of Florida, and it applies once per calendar year, not once per storm. On a 400,000 dollar home with a 2 percent hurricane deductible, the first 8,000 dollars of hurricane damage is on you before the carrier pays anything.

No. Claim reviews are free, and after a storm we provide a free 21-point storm inspection of your property. We document the damage, explain what your policy should cover, and tell you plainly whether your claim needs a public adjuster. If it does not, you owe us nothing.

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