Importance of Independent Insurance Professionals

Importance of Independent Insurance Professionals

When informing your Insurance Company after you had a fire or flood. You need to make a claim and the very first thing the Insurance Company will do is to appoint a Loss Adjuster from their panel to protect their interests.

SO WHAT IS A LOSS ADJUSTER?

A Loss Adjuster is sent to protect the insurance company and assess your claims validity. They are not Independent Professionals as they work for the Insurance Company – not for you. The Loss Adjuster will either accept or repudiate (refuse) your claim on behalf of the insurer. They will not prepare or offer advice on what you are entitled to. This is YOUR responsibility.

If your fire, flood, storm or subsidence claim is accepted by them the loss adjuster will usually appoint one of their in-house surveyors to scope the repairs. They give the impression of impartiality. In fact the surveying arm of the loss adjuster’s firm may have a different name but they both are part of the same company.

This allows Insurers to control what they scope and keep costs down for the insurance company. It also gives the loss adjusting firm another opportunity of making money from your claim through management fees paid for by the insurance company.

Is There A Conflict of Interest?

Once the Loss Adjuster’s surveyor is on board the surveyor will then appoint a contractor from their contractor network. Their contractor will pay a commission back to the Loss adjuster. This may appear to be a conflict of interest but the insurance company are happy because again they can squeeze the prices.

Most of these contractors have to work to a price not a quality. These rates which are offered to the contractors are not market rates and are massively lower than what a quality builder should be getting for the job. These contractors rely on quantity of jobs to stay afloat. As a result the quality of work suffers. Experience shows that these main contractors usually passes the work to cheap sub-contractors, which means this sub-contractor has to cut corners to break even.

Bear in mind most Loss Adjusters and Surveyors have between 150 to 200 claims on average, it’s no wonder they are hardly ever available to talk to you when you call and they only visit site when something goes seriously wrong. The loss adjuster contractor’s workmanship is usually very poor and we could write a book with the horror stories that have been seen. Even if you try to complain the adjuster and the surveyor are usually too busy to respond.

Are You Receiving The Full Insurance Claim Entitlement?

The insurance company often exercise their rights to appoint a loss adjuster to assess your claim. However, by law you do not have to use their in-house surveyor or their network contractor.

It is your claim not the loss adjusters. You are legally allowed to appoint a surveyor of your choice and if you check your policy it will state that the surveyor’s professional fees will be covered under the claim.

How can you ensure you receive the service you are entitled to as part of your Insurance Claim?

If you appoint your own independent surveyor you can be sure that the works will be carried out to a high standard as the professional surveyor will use a contractor that fits the quality of work and not the price.

Why Engage A Loss Assessor

Loss Assessors are independent Insurance Claim experts who can take the stress away from your claim. They are experts in Insurance Claims Management and they work only for you the policyholder. Using their expertise knowledge and skills.

Loss Assessors will aim to get everything you are entitled to.  It is important to engage a Loss Assessor as early as possible as they can ensure the entire process proceeds in the correct manner and your claim is not prejudiced negatively.