I don’t go a week without hearing how frustrating it is when a contractor reviews an estimate provided by the insurance company doesn’t come close to paying for full replacement of what a customer lost.

More often than not, the insurance estimate doesn’t include any overhead or profit, either. These inadequacies impair a contractor’s ability to provide what is needed to get the customer back to enjoying life again.

Worse yet, the contractor and customer can’t do much about it. Their hands are essentially tied and the insurance company gets away with inferior assistance.

ONE EXAMPLE I ENCOUNTERED RECENTLY

Just the other day, I had a contractor named John call me, facing this same challenge with his customer. John has been a professional builder for over 20 years and knows his business inside and out. He was referred to a customer looking for a good contractor to work with in repairing their home after an attic fire.

The customer received an insurance estimate for $14,000 to repair the home. Immediately upon review, John knew this wouldn’t be enough to sufficiently complete the job. After having this estimate professionally corrected, it had a $7,000 increase! This sounds great, right? Sadly, it will more than likely be denied or settled at a much lesser payout because neither the contractor nor the customer can hold the insurance company accountable.

John could easily school the insurance adjuster on why their estimation was inferior to his own estimate. But in reality, he can’t do this because he isn’t allowed to represent the customer during an insurance claim settlement. It’s illegal for him to do so. The customer could legally argue for the increase, but unless they can professionally dispute the situation, they will likely be unable to successfully contend for the monetary increase.

Contractors love public adjusters because we can legally represent the customer, effectively contend for the superior estimate and quickly bring accountability to the insurance company.

If you are a contractor and have faced challenges such as that in the example above, the best move you can make is to refer your customer to a trusted public adjuster as quickly as possible. The benefits of hiring a public adjuster will benefit both the contractor and customer. The sooner we gain control of the situation, the more likely we will obtain an optimal and successful outcome.