Water damage to lower units is a common insurance claim we frequently see in condominium communities. Believe it or not, this can become a complicated claim depending on where the leak originated, the specific damage that was caused by the leak and if the cause of the damage is the result of someone’s negligence or just faulty plumbing. We came across a good overview of this situation in a Herald Tribune article and encourage you to read it. Regardless, make sure you quickly contact all parties if this type of insurance loss occurs and consider putting a public adjuster on your team to avoid claim denials and proper compensation.

Here is an insurance claim question that we recently were asked to weigh in on as a contributing member of insurance claim experts for United Policyholders who advocates for property owners. 

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.