I’m living in a beach area in FL and we just got hit hard by hurricane Helene. The storm brought in about an 8-foot storm surge, and our new house, which is only 5 months old, had 3 feet of seawater mixed with sewage inside. We lost almost everything we had just bought for the house.
I filed claims with both Wright Flood Insurance and Citizens for our homeowners insurance right after the storm. But I haven’t heard from an adjuster at Wright yet.
I’ve never done this kind of repair work before, but I’ve already taken everything out of the house and cut out the damaged drywall. I’m planning to remove the lower cabinets and the drywall behind them tomorrow.
I’m a bit anxious about doing all this before an adjuster shows up. I’m also worried that we might have to fight our insurance company to get what we’re owed. Does anyone have any advice on how to make sure we get a fair settlement, or tips for dealing with the adjuster when they finally come?
Hey, I’m also in Florida and had a big loss during Ian. You should get a public adjuster. Since we’re in a state of emergency, their fee is capped at 10% of your claim. The issue is, insurance companies will try to mess you over every chance they get.
I went into my claim thinking everything would be straightforward. I had a big-name insurance company, a lot of coverage, and even got remediation started within 48 hours. I thought I had everything under control.
Then the adjuster came out. At first, it seemed like he got the scope of the damage and was ready to pay. He said we’d need to add more as we discovered more damage, which sounded reasonable. But when we came back with real numbers that were 10 times more than their first offer, they brought in an engineer and denied everything.
Without a public adjuster, you won’t really know the value of your claim or what the law says. A lot of these insurance adjusters aren’t from Florida, so they might not know Florida law very well. Ours didn’t.
If your adjuster gives a low estimate, you’ll have to fight to get it higher. But if your PA presents the first number, it’s on the insurance company to try and bring it down. In situations like this, you want to be the first one to make an offer.
Another thing is that the insurance company isn’t going to go looking for all the damage. Your PA can help find things they might overlook.
It’s been 2 years for me and I still don’t have a check. But people who had a PA were paid faster. Go check out the latest 60 Minutes episode, they covered this recently.