If a public adjuster promises a result, pushes you to sign today, or cannot give you a license number, walk away. Those three alone will keep you out of most of the trouble. The rest of this list covers the other warning signs we see when homeowners come to us after a bad experience.
We should say up front that most public adjusters are honest, and a license is the floor, not the ceiling. Plenty of licensed people are still a bad fit, and a few should not be in the business.
Promises and pressure
1. They guarantee a result. No one can honestly promise a result on an insurance claim, and you should be suspicious of anyone who does. A dollar figure, a percentage of denials overturned, or "we will get your roof paid" before anyone has read your policy is a sales line, not a forecast.
2. They promise a timeline. "You will have a check in 60 days" is not something anyone controls. After you sign, expect about three weeks where it looks like nothing is happening. Most claims take months of back and forth, and some take a year. Anyone who promises a date is guessing, or selling.
3. They pressure you to sign on the spot, or on the roof. A real agreement can wait until tomorrow. If the adjuster says the carrier's deadline is tonight, ask which statute or policy clause says so. Take the paperwork home and read it.
4. They cannot produce a license number. In Minnesota, you can verify any license with the Minnesota Department of Commerce. A good adjuster gives you the number before you ask. Ours is #40939623, and we are licensed in 11 states. If someone hesitates, you have your answer.
Money and conflicts of interest
5. They say the fee comes out of the insurance check. The insurance money pays for your repairs. A public adjuster's fee is a separate, out-of-pocket cost you agree to in writing. Any adjuster who blurs that line is hiding something about how they are paid. Our post on who pays a public adjuster lays it out.
6. They are also your contractor, or they take referral payments. Minnesota law bars public adjusters from paying for referrals and from holding an interest in a construction, salvage, or appraisal firm. That is Minn. Stat. § 72B.135, subd. 4. We're public adjusters, not attorneys, so for legal advice talk to a Minnesota attorney. The point to remember is that an adjuster paid by the repair company has a reason to push the repair, not to argue your claim.
7. They will not put the fee in writing. Our fee is a percentage of the approved value of each trade we take on for you (roof, siding, and so on), and we only charge it on a trade if we get the insurance company to approve more than it already had. No increase on a trade, no fee on that trade. The exact percentage is in the written agreement. If an adjuster cannot say how the fee works in a document you can read, do not sign.
8. They inflate estimates. A padded estimate is easy to spot: every line is at the top of the range, and nothing points to documentation. Carriers know the pattern, and it hands them a reason to dig in on the legitimate items too. An honest estimate is priced at fair market value and ties each line to damage you can see.
Paperwork and attitude
9. They badmouth your contractor. Your contractor is often the person who first told you the damage was real. A good public adjuster works with them, because the roofer knows the roof. If an adjuster tries to drive a wedge between you and your roofer, ask why. We wrote about how the two roles split in why your roofer cannot just handle your claim.
10. There is no written agreement, or you cannot get a copy. Everything should be in a document: who does the work, how the fee is triggered, what happens if nothing increases, and your right to cancel. Minn. Stat. § 72B.135, subd. 1 says an insured "has the right to cancel the contract within 72 hours after the contract has been signed." Do not sign anything that does not tell you that.
A fair word about the profession
We are jaded about insurance companies because we only see denied claims, and we are biased about our own field for the same reason. Even so, these red flags are not common. Most public adjusters we know are hard-working and straight with homeowners, many of them former contractors or carrier employees who want to fix something about how claims work.
The ones who cause damage are usually easy to spot in the first conversation. They talk about what they will get you and not about what the policy says. They have a story for every question and a pen ready for every answer.
What to do if you see one
Slow down. Ask for the license number and verify it. Ask for the agreement and read it. Ask the twelve things in our list of questions to ask a public adjuster, and compare two or three firms before you pick. You can find more on our FAQ page.
If you already signed and have doubts, remember the 72-hour window in the statute above. After that, the agreement controls, so read it again.
The honest answer
A good public adjuster explains the policy, puts the fee in writing, answers your questions without pressure, and tells you when a claim is not worth pursuing. If you are not getting that, keep looking. The honest ones will still be there tomorrow.