Yes, there are real downsides to hiring a public adjuster. We are one, and we would rather you hear them from us than find out later.
Here is the short list: you will pay a fee, the process is slower than you want, you give up some control over how the claim is argued, and there are claims where hiring anyone is a waste of money. Below is what each of those actually looks like, and how to tell whether they apply to you.
Downside one: it costs money, and the insurance company does not pay it
This is the one people care about most, so we will start there.
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 you sign before we do anything.
On Minnesota residential claims there is also a $200 initial claim review and documentation fee. That covers someone coming on site, getting your full policy from the carrier, reading every coverage, and giving you a straight answer on whether the claim can be won. If we take the claim and win, that $200 is credited toward the final fee.
The part nobody likes: the insurance company does not pay us. If your carrier approves a $20,000 roof, that $20,000 is what the roof costs, and it goes to the roofer. Our fee is a separate, out-of-pocket cost you agree to in writing. We think carriers should have to cover it when they deny a claim that turns out to be owed. Outside of Texas, that is not how the law works.
So the honest question is not "is there a fee" but "is the fee worth it." We wrote up the math on that separately, with a worked example.
Downside two: it is slow, and the first three weeks look like nothing
When you sign with us, the first thing we do is send the carrier a letter of representation and request your full policy. Carriers usually take about two weeks to send it. Then we spend about a week reading it. So there are roughly three weeks where, from your kitchen table, it looks like nothing is happening.
That wait is on purpose. We do not argue a claim before we have read the policy, because the worst outcome is getting a roof approved and then learning about a limitation that cuts the payment by a third.
After that comes the back and forth. Carriers say no many times before they say yes. Twenty or thirty emails on one claim is normal. We have won claims in two emails, and we have fought claims for a year. Nobody can promise you a timeline on an insurance claim, and you should be suspicious of anyone who does.
If it is October in Minnesota, we will tell you on the first call that the chance of your roof being done before snow is low. We cover that in detail in our post on filing a roof claim before winter.
Downside three: you hand over the argument
Once we represent you, the carrier deals with us. You are copied on every email, but you stop talking to the adjuster directly. For most homeowners that is the whole point. For a few, it is uncomfortable.
If you are the kind of person who has already read your policy twice, tracked the storm on the radar archive, and written a well-organized appeal, you may not need us at all. We have told homeowners exactly that on consultation calls. One had a pre-purchase inspection report that proved the roof was clean before the storm, which is the best evidence there is against a "pre-existing damage" denial. She could win the interior portion herself. She only needed help on the roof.
The honest version is that we are good at this because we do it all day, not because there is a secret. The secret is documentation, policy language, and refusing to go away.
Downside four: a bad public adjuster can make things worse
Public adjusting is licensed in Minnesota, but a license is not skill. A public adjuster who inflates an estimate, misses a deadline, or argues coverage the policy does not support gives the carrier a reason to dig in. Then the next person has to clean that up.
Minnesota law gives you a way out if you sign and regret it. 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." We are public adjusters, not attorneys, so for legal advice on your contract talk to a Minnesota attorney. But know that the window exists.
Before you hire anyone, including us, run through the questions we think you should ask and the red flags that should end the conversation. Verify the license with the Minnesota Department of Commerce. Ours is #40939623.
Downside five: some claims are not worth fighting, by anyone
This is the downside that saves people the most money, because it means not hiring us.
Three situations where we usually say no on the consultation call:
- The estimate is close to your deductible. If the carrier found $3,100 of damage and your deductible is $2,500, there is not enough room for a fee to make sense, even if we think they missed some items.
- You have an actual cash value policy on an old roof. ACV means the carrier pays the depreciated value. On a twenty-year-old roof, a $15,000 replacement might net you a few thousand dollars after depreciation and the deductible. We can sometimes restructure how we work on a claim like that, but often the right answer is that it is not worth anyone's time.
- There is no storm to tie it to. A leak from failed flashing or a bad install is a contractor problem, not an insurance claim. We can tell you that in five minutes and save you a season of frustration.
We only see denied claims, so we are jaded about carriers. But we would rather turn a claim away than send an invoice for a result that did not help you.
So when is the downside worth it?
When the carrier has denied or shorted a claim that your policy covers, and the gap between what they offered and what a fair repair costs is large enough that a fee still leaves you far ahead. That describes most of the claims we take.
The duty to prove the loss sits with you, not with the carrier. Most homeowners do not know that, do not have time to do it, and should not have to learn how. That is the job we do. If your situation is one of the three above, we will tell you, and you will have spent one phone call finding out.