On Property Insurance Claim Tips Blog

As the old saying goes, when the Florida legislature is in session, no one is safe.  Even with a decade of no major storms or Cat losses, a lot of things are going on in Tallahassee involving property insurance. Because of their potential impact, I am going to dedicate a few blogs on some of these issues as I think the outcome may in some cases negatively impact Floridians and in others bring about needed change and reform. Read More

On February 2^nd at the Windstorm Insurance Conference in Orlando, I along with Janet Brown, Esq., Boehm, Brown & Harwood, P.A.; Wayne Taylor, Esq., Mozley, Finlayson & Loggins, LLP; and Art Newman, Belfor USA will be conducting the 4 hour WIND Certified Umpire Recertification® class. If anyone in the insurance space has any knowledge regarding situations or problems related to appraisal or umpiring that we could re-purpose as a question for the class, we would appreciate it if you could share it with us. You can send the information to me at: tutwiler@publicadjuster.com.Read More

First a little background, an umpire in the insurance property world has nothing to do with baseball except that a baseball umpire and an umpire in a property insurance dispute have one thing in common--both have to make a decision. The baseball umpire will have to make a decision quickly, where as an umpire in the appraisal dispute resolution forum should take as much time as needed to make a decision based on all the facts. A good umpire will thoroughly review of all the materials provided to him or her by the two appraisers (representing each side of the dispute) who agreed to his or her appointment. This can and often should include a visit to the loss site (if the property in question is still standing) along with the two appraisers and the policyholder if they want to understand the opinions as to why the initial adjustment was wrong.

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