Action 9 News in Orlando recently did a story about a homeowner who experienced a water loss and quickly hired an emergency contractor who tore out the damaged portion of the kitchen and then kept the insurance proceeds without finishing the job. The conclusion of the report was to strongly recommend that folks that have an insurable loss not sign an all-inclusive right to proceeds contract with a contractor. 

Our blog of August 5, The Unlicesed Practice of Public Adjusting – The Claims Keep Rolling In  continues to receive comments from many viewpoints and we appreciate the feedback and dialogue in hopes of responsibly addressing the issue. In an attempt to give fair and balanced coverage to the issue, we publish below a comment from Mr. Ron Reese of First General Property Restoration who operates out of Idaho.  I thank Mr. Reese for the time he put into the reply.

As we've reported to you on this blog, Citizens Insurance of Florida is allow by the legislature to play by different rules. For example, they are exempt from bad faith laws that other private insurance companies must follow. That sometimes means it allows them to act in ways that are not in the best interest of the property insurance policyholder. What is perplexing is that if private insurance companies acted in this manner, they would be subject to sanctions, fines and legal action.

Last week when I published the blog: The Unlicensed Practice of Public Adjusting, the Insurance Claims Keep Rolling In I apparently hit a nerve with a number of professionals from various parts of the property insurance industry that sent some very helpful comments that I’d like to share. Hopefully this may get a dialogue going that addresses this matter in a mutually beneficial manner.

You can bet at any gathering of a group of Florida licensed public adjusters, the conversation will start off with the question of how many Florida public adjusters currently exist. No question about it, Florida saw an explosion in the ranks of the public adjusting profession since the big four storms of 2004, as compared to the historical record.  And this does not include the hundreds of non-resident licensed public adjusters who fly into this State to solicit and handle claims.  In the past few years however, the actual number of in-state licensed public adjusters has started a precipitous decline because of several factors.

From Brad Barrett

We want to thank Orlando Public Adjuster Brad Barrett for authoring this insurance claim blog. Is there any future for Independent Adjusters? Some insurance companies would want you to believe that you should only see them from behind a glass window in a museum display.  Although we Public Adjusters sometimes have a contentious relationship with them because we represent the policyholder while they are paid by the insurance company, Independent Adjusters still provide a very important service in the claims handling process.

Several significant milestones recently passed, so I thought I would share a few of them with you. Most importantly is the adjournment of the 2014 Florida Legislative Session. As the old saying goes, no one is safe when the legislature is in session! While it was predicted, not much earthshaking legislation passed, given the upcoming fall election cycle. That proved to be mostly true with at least insurance issues.

Since October of 2013 our office has been cranking out claim packages for all of our clients so they fully comply with the terms and conditions of their flood policies.  One of those tasks is the filing of the Proof of Loss, which to the layman can be as complex as building a house with no construction experience.  

For a third time, FEMA has extended the deadline for filing Superstorm Sandy NFIP flood policy claims, 6 months to October 29, 2014. This is allowing policyholders who have supplemental claims or who have had repairs delayed due to code issues or other situations to gather the proper documentation.