Sever home damaged - WHY hire your own Public Adjuster

Over the past couple of months, on several blog posts about the coming hurricane storms, I've made repeated comments and also wrote a blog entry [SEE BLOG] about how important it was to hire your own public adjuster.  BUT, in a conversation last night with an AR member, I realized, I never explained the WHY it was so important.  As a victim of Hurricane Charlie [SEE BLOG], I will explain in layman's terms, since I am certainly no expert in this insurance system and how it works, but from the public viewpoint from me to you I learned the hard way why it was so important.  Here is a simplistic scenario, but it will give you the explanation of WHY it is so important.

Insurance adjuster comes out to inspect your home.  S/He has their little notebook out writing all details, talking to you while looking over the home.  Taking pictures, measuring.  Then they are done.  In THEIR notes and paperwork, they determine you have $100,000 in damages....BUT Mr/Mrs Jones, according to my figures, I have determined you have $35,000 damages, and if your contractor needs any additional money, call me at 555-1234.  You look, you have NO IDEA, your not a contractor, and you do not know how much it will cost to rebuild.  Plus you don't know all the loopholes in your policy and additional damages that you can claim and get reimbursed for, so you say good, and take the money.  Your contractor comes out and say, this will be $55,000 to fix.  OK, so dial Mr/Ms Insurance Adjuster, and tell them, hey, I need $20,000 more money to rebuild.  OK Mr/Ms Insurance Adjuster says no problem, and send you a check for the additional money.  A couple weeks later, your builder informs you they have encountered a few more problems, so it will be $5,000 more, so you call up Mr/Ms Insurance Adjuster again, upset, but you need a little more money.  They say no problem again, and send you a check for the additional request.  Now you realize some more furniture is damaged that you didn't see before - but rest well assured the insurance adjuster saw it!!!  You say it will be $5,000 to replace some of the damaged furniture.  Again, call Mr/Ms Insurance Adjuster again, saying you need more money, again, no problem.  So here is the recap:

• $35,000 original payout
• $20,000 in builder additional charges
• $  5,000 in additional damages discovered by the builder
• $  5,000 you see in additional furniture damages
• $65,000 now paid out on your claim that they saw $100,000 in damages.

You walk away thinking your back in your home and done.  Whew.  BUT, this is where I got DISGUSTED!!! Did you know......the Insurance Adjuster gets a cut of the amount of money SAVED from damages to payout.  THAT is why it is so important to hire your own adjuster, as they will say NO right in the beginning and say, I have totaled my worksheet and have $100,000 right from the beginning.  And because that is the damages that you have, they must payout that amount.  While hiring your own adjuster will take 10-15% usually, you then have more money to completely rebuild and replace everything damaged at least as good as what you had.

SO PLEASE, if you or someone you know has damages from any event (fire, tornado, hurricane, anything) HIRE YOUR OWN PUBLIC ADJUSTER!! 

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