Top 5 Reasons Why You Should Not Rely On Private Insurance Adjusters

If you’re currently filing an insurance claim, your insurance carrier will most likely send one of their private insurance adjusters to inspect your home and assess its damages.

Don’t trust them. Yes, they will examine your property’s damages, but their report will be biased in favor of your insurance company. 

Private insurance adjusters are hired by insurance companies to investigate the claims of their policyholders. For example, if you’re filing a claim for fire damages, your insurance company’s private insurance adjuster will look at your scorched walls and furniture in order to calculate how much money you’ll need to repair them.

Likewise, if you’re filing a claim for flood water damages, they will look at the damages left behind by the floodwater to calculate how much it will take to repair them. 

Theoretically, insurance adjusters are supposed to be impartial specialists who perform their jobs with strict neutrality. Unfortunately, this isn’t the case.

As associates or employees of insurance companies, private insurance adjusters have an incentive to side with their employers rather than policyholders like you, and this is true for all types of claims.

Private insurance adjusters will always be biased in favor of their employers, which means that you cannot trust them to present the facts of your claim in a fair and honest manner. 

How Do Private Insurance Adjusters Manipulate Their Reports? 

Private Insurance Adjusters use all kinds of tricks to manipulate their findings and reports. 

• They May Ask You to Sign Documents That Will Undermine Your Claim – Private insurance adjusters often trick policyholders into signing various documents that could be used against their insurance claims. 

For example, let’s say that you’re currently filing a claim for fire-related damages. A private insurance adjuster may try to trick you into signing a document that will allow them to review your house’s safety records.

They will then use those records to prove that your home has always been vulnerable to fire, and they will use such findings to undermine your claim.

1. They May Try to Trip You into Admitting that the Damages Were Your Fault – Certain Private Adjusters may try to trick you into admitting that the damages to your home were your fault. So beware of any insurance adjuster who actively tries to record his or her conversations with you. 

For example, let’s say that your home has sustained flood damages and some of your electronic devices were damaged or destroyed by the floodwater. In this situation, a private adjuster may ask you why you didn’t move the devices to higher ground.

They may also ask you why you didn’t store the devices in a safer part of your home. If you provide the wrong answers, the insurance adjusters may use your testimony to paint a picture where you’re at fault. 

1. They May Delay the Claims Process – Whenever a policyholder is desperate for money, private insurance adjusters will use time to their advantage.
   Their strategy is to delay the claims process to the point that the policyholder is willing to accept smaller damages as long as they get the funds immediately. 

For example, if your roof was recently destroyed by a hurricane, meaning hurricane damage, the private insurance adjuster may present you with a sum that is somewhat lower than the full claim you’re entitled to receive.

If you decline the offer, the insurance adjuster will tell you that processing your full claim will take weeks or even months, which means that you won’t be able to repair your roof until the funds are released.

So if you’re desperate to fix your roof right away, you may have no choice but to accept their smaller offer. 

1. They May Try to Conceal Vital Information from You – Some private insurance adjusters will try to hide important information from you, and they will only reveal them once the information can no longer help you in your claim. 

For example, if your home has a mold infestation and you’re trying to file an insurance claim that will cover your mold remediation expenses, the private insurance adjuster may conceal the full extent of the infestation, so that you’ll only be aware of those parts of your home which are obviously infested by mold.

Meanwhile, the mold spores have actually spread to other parts of your house, but you won’t be able to factor them into your claim because you’re not even aware that they exist.  

1. They May Try to Reclassify the Damages to Your Property – Private insurance adjusters will occasionally try to reclassify various types of property damage in order to reduce the total amount of money that insurance companies will have to pay to their clients and policyholders. 

For example, let’s say that your home was recently devastated by a fire. If the private insurance adjuster finds several walls and objects that have only sustained minor damages, he may reclassify some of them as smoke damage in order to reduce the total amount of money owed to their clients. 

These situations can happen to any policyholder, which is why you shouldn’t rely on private insurance adjusters to present your case for you. At the end of the day, these guys work for insurance companies and they will side with their interests rather than yours. 

What Can You Do? 

If insurance companies have their private insurance adjusters then you should hire an insurance adjuster who represents your interests. What you need is a public insurance adjuster. 

Public insurance adjusters don’t charge fees. Instead, they are paid a small percentage of all the claims that their clients receive. Because of this, public adjusters have an incentive to maximize their clients’ claims. 

More importantly, public insurance adjusters are also not affiliated with insurance companies, and unlike private insurance adjusters, they have no reason help them. So when you hire a public adjuster, you’re not just hiring an expert to calculate your damages. You’re also hiring a professional who is devoted to protecting and serving your interests.