Public Adjuster vs. Insurance Company Adjuster: Who Works for You

After a hurricane, a roof leak, or a sudden water loss, one of the first people you'll meet is an insurance adjuster. What most Florida homeowners don't realize is that the word "adjuster" can mean very different things, and the person who shows up first almost never works for you. Understanding who represents whom is the single most important thing you can learn before you accept a check or sign anything.

The Three Kinds of Adjusters

In Florida, there are three distinct roles, and they answer to different people:

• Company (staff) adjuster. A salaried employee of your insurance company. Their paycheck comes from the carrier.
• Independent adjuster. A contractor hired by the carrier to handle claims, often after a major storm when company staff are overwhelmed. Despite the name "independent," they are retained and paid by the insurer.
• Public adjuster. A licensed professional you hire to represent you. A public adjuster's only client is the policyholder.

The first two work the same side of the table. The third works your side. That's the whole story in one sentence, but the consequences run deep.

Who the Carrier's Adjuster Actually Works For

The company or independent adjuster is competent, often friendly, and may genuinely want to help. But their job is to evaluate your loss on behalf of the company that has to pay it. That built-in tension shows up in predictable ways:

• Valuation choices. They may price repairs off insurer paper price lists rather than real-world local labor and material costs.
• Matching disputes. Florida requires repairs to restore a uniform, consistent appearance for items like siding, roofing, and carpet. A carrier estimate may patch one slope of a roof or one wall of siding instead of restoring a consistent look.
• Withheld overhead and profit. When a job needs a general contractor, overhead and profit (commonly 10% and 10%) should not be stripped out upfront.
• Depreciation holdbacks. The gap between Actual Cash Value (ACV) and Replacement Cost Value (RCV) is recoverable, and depreciation is subjective. Structural materials such as studs, framing, rebar, and concrete effectively don't depreciate, yet they sometimes get marked down anyway.
• Causation arguments. Under anti-concurrent-causation language, a carrier may deny wind damage by blaming an excluded flood. The cause that triggered the damage matters, and it can be challenged.

None of this means the carrier's adjuster is dishonest. It means their loyalty is, by design, to the company. You should never assume the first estimate is the final word, and you should never accept an early lowball offer.

What a Public Adjuster Does for You

A public adjuster is licensed by the Florida Department of Financial Services and represents the policyholder, not the insurer. The job is to read your full policy, document the loss thoroughly, build an estimate grounded in real local pricing, and negotiate the claim on your behalf. Practical work includes:

• Inspecting and documenting damage with photos and detailed scope.
• Identifying coverage you may not know you have, such as ordinance-or-law (code upgrade) coverage and mold remediation, which Florida policies commonly cap (often around $10,000, sometimes higher by endorsement, and usually only when the mold stems from a covered water loss).
• Pressing matching, overhead and profit, and the recoverable depreciation holdback with supporting receipts.
• Documenting and challenging the ACV valuation contemporaneously. Under Bailetti v. Universal Property (FL 1st DCA, October 2025), a carrier can satisfy its ACV duty by paying one reasonable ACV estimate, which shifts the burden to you, so you should document and dispute valuation early rather than wait.

The Clock Is Already Running

For policies issued under the 2022-23 reforms, Florida law sets firm deadlines (older policies may follow older timelines):

1. The insurer must acknowledge your claim within 7 days and begin investigating within 7 days of your proof of loss.
2. A physical inspection, if needed, must happen within 30 days of proof of loss.
3. The insurer must pay or deny within 60 days from the notice of claim (not from your date of loss).
4. You must give notice of a new or reopened claim within 1 year of the loss, and notice of a supplemental claim within 18 months (a hard bar).
5. A breach-of-contract lawsuit has a 5-year statute of limitations.

If your storm involved flooding, file your NFIP flood claim within 60 days. A standard homeowners policy typically covers wind-driven rain through a compromised building envelope, tree and roof damage, and similar wind-triggered losses, while storm surge and standing water fall under flood (NFIP) coverage.

A Note on Attorney Fees

Many homeowners still believe that if they sue and win, the insurer automatically pays their legal fees. That is no longer true for property insurance. The one-way attorney-fee statute (627.428) was repealed by HB 837 in 2023, so winning does not guarantee fee recovery. A few narrow paths remain, such as offer of judgment and statutory bad faith, but no one can promise you automatic fees. This is exactly why building a strong, well-documented claim from the start matters more than ever.

If You Hit a Dispute

When you and the carrier disagree, there's an orderly ladder before any lawsuit:

1. Written escalation to the carrier, supported by your claim diary.
2. Mediation under F.S. 627.7015, which the insurer must offer before appraisal. It is state-funded and free, with a conference within 21 days.
3. Appraisal for valuation disputes, with each side naming an appraiser plus a neutral umpire. It is binding and costs are split.
4. A complaint to the Department of Financial Services, then experts, and litigation only as a last resort.

Keep a daily claim diary, photograph everything before cleanup, make only temporary repairs until told otherwise, save every receipt, and get a full copy of your policy.

How Care Claims Adjusting Helps

Care Claims Adjusting is a Florida DFS Licensed Public Adjusting Firm (#G114979) serving all Florida counties, with $47M+ recovered and a 4.9-star rating across 41 reviews. We work on contingency: no recovery, no fee. Florida law caps public adjuster fees (standard claims at 20%, with lower caps in declared emergencies and on claims at or above policy limits), and you have a 10-business-day right to cancel after signing (30 days in a declared emergency). We start with a free policy review so you know exactly where you stand before anyone else's numbers become the final word. Call (352) 782-2617.

This article is general information for Florida policyholders, not legal advice. Statutory timelines apply to policies issued on or after the 2022–2023 reforms; older policies may follow prior rules. Care Claims Adjusting is a licensed Florida public adjusting firm (FL DFS #G114979) and represents policyholders — not insurers.