Public Adjusters: How do they make their fee on Fire Insurance claim?

Question

Shouldn't the homeowner's insurance pay you _ONLY_ the cost of repair? If so, how can someone make a 10% commission? Does the insurance pay additional fees if there is a public adjuster - specifically for the adjuster (versus appraising damage at higher rate)?

Answer 1

Public adjusters get their fee by overwriting the estimate both in scope and unit prices and under delivering on repair.  The Insurance company owes for the damages only. Not the fees assessed by the P.A.(Public Adjuster)  

Now, the reality of the situation is when a P.A. is involved in a claim, the insurance company is invariably going to pay more than if the P.A. was not involved but this is not to pay the 10% fee assessed and this is not to say that the Home owner is going to reap the benefit of the additional money paid by the insurance company.  

The P.A. represents you against the Insurance company. The operative term being "against".  You don't want to be in an adversarial position against your insurer.  When there is a P.A. involved the insurance company invokes formal claim handling and is less reluctant to give "you" the benefit of doubt.  The insurance adjuster is barred from discussing any aspect of the claim directly with you so if you have questions and your P.A. is non-responsive or you feel that the P.A. is not looking after your best interests then you're S.O.L.  

The only benefit of a P.A. is if the customer is foreign and the P.A. is fluent in the customer's language or if the customer does not understand concepts well and the P.A. is there to reinforce what the insurance company says.