An insurance company has a large staff of highly trained professionals who do a variety of jobs. Some of the jobs, such as claims representative, are designed to interact with customers to help customers get the best possible coverage. Other jobs, such as insurance adjusters, work on behalf of the company to try and cover a client’s claim without overpaying.
What Does a Homeowner’s Insurance Adjuster Do?
A homeowner’s insurance adjuster is hired by an insurance company to put a financial value on damage to your home and help to close a claim. Most insurance companies give adjusters the leeway to not only come up with an amount that they feel would be fair for your claim, but they can also cut a check for you on the spot.
How Does an Adjuster Work?
Most insurance companies try to have adjusters available in every metropolitan area to be able to reach as many customers as possible. If the damage to your home is an isolated incident, then you can expect a personal visit from the adjuster to look over the damage. If your area was hit by a major storm and many homes were affected, then many adjusters do their work over the phone. In either case, a homeowner’s interaction with an adjuster will be very brief and follow-ups by the adjuster almost never occur.
Who does the Adjuster Work For?
Most large insurance companies hire adjusters directly and put them on the company payroll. Some smaller insurance companies that have customers outside of their immediate geographic region might outsource their adjuster needs to a professional contractor.
Can You Fight an Adjuster’s Estimate?
Homeowners are encouraged to get at least three written estimates from professional contractors to offer to an adjuster. In most cases, the adjuster will take the average of the three estimates, or the lower estimate. If your home has been one of many damaged by a storm, then you can challenge an adjuster’s estimate, but you should be prepared to have it take a while for your claim to be closed.
Insurance adjusters are there to give a fair estimate to a homeowners claim that can close the claim and cost the company the least amount of money possible. Adjusters tend to work in a specific geographic region, and they are usually very busy professionals. Before calling an adjuster to look at damage to your home, you can help your case by already having three contractor estimates for the adjuster to consider.
Jim Treebold is a North Carolina based writer. He lives by the mantra of “Learn 1 new thing each day”! Jim loves to write, read, pedal around on his electric bike and dream of big things. Drop him a line if you like his writing, he loves hearing from his readers!