With back-to-back storms, Florida is now experiencing damage adjustment delays

With Hurricane Milton now expected to produce several hundred thousand in wind damage and with the storm coming so soon in the wake of Hurricane Helene, industry leaders are bracing for significant delays in damage adjustment.

“We’re in competition with Helene,” said former Florida Deputy Insurance Commissioner Lisa Miller.

And the longer policyholders have to wait to see action on a claim, the more likely litigation will result, she noted.

One adjuster said delays will be widespread in Florida, in part because of Helene, but also because some adjusters have shied away from a state that has seen allegations that some insurers have drastically revised field adjusters’ estimates, which may reduce adjusters’ fees.

“A lot of people don’t want to work in Florida right now,” said independent adjuster Ben Mandell, who has been hired to work claims in Florida starting next week. “It will take some time to get to all the claims.”

The shear volume of applications will be a problem, he said. “This is the big one. Nothing in my career has been as big a storm as this.”

Over the past two weeks, Florida has seen more than 112,000 claims filed due to Hurricane Helene, which made landfall on September 26 in Florida’s Big Bend area. But thousands of Helene claims, including flood insurance claims, were also filed in Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee. Many adjustment firms still have crews in those areas, in towns and cities that were inaccessible for days while bridges and roads were not.

Crawford & Company, one of the world’s largest claims management firms, has deployed thousands of adjusters to areas affected by Helene, said Meredith Brogan, president of network solutions for Crawford.

Going from one storm to another means “people are going to be spread very, very thin,” said Nancy Dominguez, CEO of the Florida Association of Public Insurance Adjusters, which also represents independent adjusters who work for carriers. “It will take a long time.”

Florida insurance carriers are required by law to investigate most claims within 30 days of a proof of loss statement from the insured. But this can be extended due to circumstances beyond the insurer’s control, such as a declared state of emergency. Dominguez and Mandell expect some claims in isolated areas to take months to inspect.

Most of the claims — between 90,000 and 140,000 — are expected to be filed with Citizens Property Insurance Corp., Florida’s largest property insurer. Citizens has contracted with eight claims adjustment firms, including Crawford and Pilot Catastrophe Services.

But with so many adjusters now obligated to citizens, this could exacerbate the shortage of claims professionals available to other carriers.

And the situation has already led to a subterfuge, one insurer said. In a text message provided to Insurance Journal, someone claiming to be with a well-known claims management firm spread the word that Florida Peninsula Insurance Co. pays a much higher daily rate — $1,500 — to adjusters. The carrier said that was not the case, and officials there suspect the text was sent in an effort to encourage citizens to increase their daily rate.

Citizens and Peninsula Florida could not be reached for comment Wednesday, just hours before the storm made landfall south of Tampa.

FAPIA’s Dominguez noted that one potential lifeline for the adjuster shortage is for Florida insurance agents to step in. State law allows agents to work temporarily for carriers as adjusters if they obtain an emergency adjuster license.

“They will only have 48 hours of training, but at least they would be boots on the ground, to get the ball rolling,” she said.

Dominguez urged policyholders to be patient after the storm clouds parted and to refrain from climbing onto their roofs to inspect the damage — something that can lead to serious injury.

“It’s important that people stay off their roofs. There are a lot of professionals who know how to do that,” she said.

Adjusting after Milton’s fury will bring other problems for policyholders, carriers and adjusters. Some worried that Helene’s flood and storm damage, not covered by flood policies, would be erroneously included in Milton’s wind claims.

Paresh Patel, CEO of Florida-based HCI Group, said much of the muddy contents and drywall from Helene’s storm surge in Florida last month has already been carried to the streets. That should make it easier for adjusters to differentiate between the two types of claims, he noted.

Crawford & Company’s Brogan said the company’s hired claims professionals are trained to tell the difference between wind and flood damage.