You just had an insurance claim at your home and you are not happy.  Your house is in shambles and there is nothing you want more than to be able to be in your home under normal circumstances.  The thought of dealing with your insurance company makes you cringe and you just HOPE that the process goes well.  Next, you just got off the phone with the insurance claims center that seems to be located 100’s of miles away from you and they say “Your adjuster will be in touch with you in 24 hours.”  Okay, okay you can deal with that, you know your not the only claim that happened today.

The cell phone now is permanently attached to your belt and you wait patiently.  I bet you even called once before the 24 hour window was up just to make sure they got the claim through.  The claims office says “Yes your claim has been entered and the adjuster will contact you.” Okay, your a little irritated, but you still remember that the 24 hours isn’t up yet.  What do you do now?  Probably stay at a family members house, or if you have an on going water damage you deal with your restoration company.

36 hours has passed and a ring to the cell phone has never sounded any better.  The adjuster wants to set up an appointment with you for the next day.  The sarcasm in your voice is definitely noted by the adjuster and he/she knows its not going to be pleasant when they arrive. We definitely understand your feeling.  You are sitting in devastation and your insurance company is not doing what they said they were going to do.  Now, your confidence has just dropped and your ready to raise hell on the adjuster that will come to the door.  Here are some reasons why you shouldn’t take it out on the adjuster.

1. Insurance Adjuster Territory

An adjuster has one of the most driving required jobs.  The territories they are responsible for seem to be getting wider and wider. One adjuster might have the responsibility to cover multiple counties that can stretch for miles.  There are some insurance companies that might only have 5-10 adjusters to cover an entire state!  One claim can take the adjuster one day to go and see the loss and come back.  This is very time consuming and can cause major delays.  So don’t be alarmed or upset if they only set one appointment with you and don’t come back throughout the process.

2. Amount of Claims To Handle

This one kind of goes hand and hand with the first.  If you look at the territory they handle this only could mean that there are a lot of property claims to be responsible for.  This is not to justify why your claim is taking so long to be processed. We want to give you knowledge to hopefully understand it may not be the adjusters fault.  An adjuster might in one particular area for days if it got swarmed by a storm. This would restrict them from getting to other claims in other areas.

During the Insurance Claim

Next, you FINALLY have the claim started and you’re rolling with your contractors plan to get the work done.  Half of the work is completed on your home and you are feeling great…until you get a call.  Your contractor has been working hard to get the work completed but they have financed the entire job up to this point.  They were promised a down stroke check to help finance job.  Cash makes the world turn and doing work for free doesn’t really help your business.  Your contractor has to stop doing work because they are taking a stance.  You can understand, it’s like you spending $20,000.00 to replace unrestoreable personal property out of of your pocket but you never received the money from the adjuster.  But, sometimes this is not your adjusters fault.

3. Adjuster Management Approval

Adjusters have certain guidelines to follow throughout the claim.  This could be from paperwork flow to time frame to check authorization.  Adjusters have limitations to follow when it comes to writing a check for a claim.  Some of this can be based on how long the adjuster has been employed with the company or strictly the insurance companies rules.  The check will have to wait for management approval when the dollar amount exceeds the allotted authorization the adjuster has.  Now, your in waiting pattern until the manager has gone through all of the other authorizations and problems the have come before your claim.  The only thing you can do is wait or call and try to put a bug in the managers ear.

4. Catastrophes Happen

There are so many adjusters in the field to handle claims in a particular area which can be trouble when a catastrophe happens in other parts of the country.  Hurricanes, tornadoes and earthquakes can cause a high demand for adjusters.  This will cause your adjuster to be temporarily relocated to help in the catastrophic area.  Now your left with an adjuster with a voice mail box full from other clients looking for him.  Please understand that these things happen and are not planned. Give a little extra time in your mind for your own claim to be completed.  This will vary from each insurance company.  Some insurance companies don’t relocate adjusters, instead they hirer independent firms to handle catastrophe claims.  Some even have a catastrophe claims department.  These are adjusters that only handle CAT claims and travel all the time.  But there are times it doesn’t matter, there are some catastrophes that need all the adjusters they can get ie; Hurricane Katrina.

We realize that sometimes the adjuster is at fault.  Usually, these mistakes are heighten because now it is effecting a homeowner in a devastating need.  We all, in our own jobs, have made mistakes and have slacked off.  If you need help ask for manager assistance.  Be careful how you compose yourself and give your two cents.  Don’t take it out on the adjuster if in deed it is not his/her fault. Ask first why there is a problem and direct your displeasure with the right people.