Water Mitigation Invoice Issue

We spoke with a homeowner who is having an issue with All State insurance. The homeowner had a pipe break in the master bathroom and hired an “old veteran contractor” with 50 years of experience in construction to perform the mitigation services. This “veteran” was paid by the homeowner directly. We’ll get to the dollar figure below. The All State adjuster explained that they couldn’t work with the contractor’s two-page invoice because it was not written in Xactimate. The homeowner now needs an estimate re-written in Xactimate for it to make sense to the adjuster. Adjuster’s eat, sleep, and breathe Xactimate. As a rule, they can hardly think outside of its confines. It may sound like we’re being hard on adjusters. But before you reach that conclusion, take this into consideration: The adjuster knows what work was needed and performed. The adjuster has a diagram of all the affected areas with the appropriate measurements. The adjuster has written the reconstruction estimate which includes replacing all the materials that the contractor removed. The adjuster has access to all the applicable estimating data to create the estimate him/herself. And the adjuster has explained to the homeowner that the services performed were worth $25,000. So the adjuster has everything they need to write the estimate themselves… And even has a general idea of how much the services *should* cost. But here’s the kicker: This old veteran charged the homeowner just $10,000. That is $15,000 less than what he could have earned. And All State would have paid his check directly! So what does this have to do with Public Adjusters? Why do we bother to write about this, at all? Because we believe that people should get paid their fair value for their services, and their damages. If not, everyone suffers. Here’s what we mean: That “old veteran’s” business suffers because a business needs cash to function. And having less cash strains a business. The quality of the company’s workmanship declines because he can’t attract top labor. The community in which this homeowner and business owner live and work, doesn’t get the additional capital infused into their economy. And so this leads to less spending and fewer jobs. Meanwhile, the extra $15,000 that All State got to keep will go to straight to their bottom line. It will probably get paid out as bonuses or something like that to someone far, far away from the affected community. So the point is that getting paid fairly is very important. If not, there is a problem — for everyone. If you feel that your claim has been underpaid, call us at 1-800-624-3840 for a free, no obligation consultation with a Licensed Public Adjuster.