What is a Public Adjuster? Public Adjusters are advocates for the homeowner and business owner. Public Adjusters work for YOU, NOT the Insurance Company. Our interest is in making sure you receive fair settlements when you have a property loss. In the State of Pennsylvania, we are licensed through the Department of Banking and Insurance, and are bonded.
Why Hire a Public Adjuster? Public Adjusters have the knowledge and expertise to handle your claim from start to finish. We make sure that your claim is presented to the Insurance Adjuster in its entirety. This means that we will do a thorough inspection of the damage in your home and prepare a complete claims package based on that inspection.
Do you know what your Insurance Policy covers? Most insureds do not know what their responsibilities are beyond the initial reporting of the claim and meeting with their insurance company’s adjuster. Policies can be confusing and trying to understand the limitations and exclusions can be frustrating. Our job as Public Adjusters is to interpret the policy and work on your behalf to ensure you receive a settlement that is fair and within the limits and conditions of your insurance policy.
I am Michelle Murphy, licensed and bonded Public Adjuster in the State of Pennsylvania. I have been working in this industry for almost four years in the Pocono, Slate Belt and Lehigh Valley regions. I am pleased to be a part of one of the largest companies in Pennsylvania, Citizens Public Adjusters, and look forward to helping people with their property damage issues. Feel free to call me at 570-730-8607 if you have any questions concerning property damage to your home or business. Come visit me and “Like” me on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Michelle-Murphy-Public-Adjuster/186668698043821
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Should a property owner call you before their insurance company following a loss?
We have a higher success rate when a homeowner calls us first and lets us handle the claim. The reason is simple. In insurance wording is everything. In policies you’ll notice that the wording can be very confusing. How you present your claim to the insurance company is key to finding coverage. So for example, if you have water in your basement, one might think it is “flooded”. The word flooding can be misleading. The real question sis, “Where did the water come from?” If the water came from the ground then we know the word flood is appropriate and unless you have a flood policy it is excluded. But if the water really came from another source, then we have something to work with. Another word that can be tricky is “leak”. A professional can interpret the policy and report the loss correctly.
If a property owner has already misspoken to their insurance company and have been denied, can you overturn the denial if it was based on something that was said rather than an actual covered loss?
It has become increasingly difficult for us to handle denied claims that were filed by homeowners who thought they were doing the right thing by reporting the loss to their carrier. We can’t “take back” what a homeowner said especially in the case of a recorded statement. The only thing we can do is explain how the loss occurred and that the homeowner reported it incorrectly, and then hope that we and the carrier can agree on the proper cause of loss. This is made more difficult a process when time has elapsed between when the date of loss occurred, when emergency repairs if any have been made, the time it was reported and the time it took for the client to find me. In this kind of scenario three months can doom a claim. Any disagreement can mean engineers and experts may be called in and those are extra expenses a homeowner is responsible for and ARE NOT part of the claim.