A public adjuster can help you by helping you throughout the insurance claim process. A public adjuster’s only interest is to get you as much as possible through a claim. We only get paid a percentage based off of what we can get from the insurance company, which means if we believe you were denied or underpaid or we are helping you from the beginning, it is in our best interest to get you the best settlement possible.

The biggest difference between filing a claim yourself and having a public adjuster file a claim for you is we can help to all post-loss obligations and properly document the loss to make sure nothing is missed throughout the process and can get a claim settled faster and fairly with the insurance company. Unfortunately, many times when a homeowner chooses to file their own claim and later call us if they need us, a lot of things are missed and it’s harder to form a case and prove to the insurance company why the claim was underpaid or wrongfully denied. It saves you time, headaches and money. We are also licensed and certified to handle your claim, understand your policy and negotiate on your behalf.

Public adjusters are licensed by the state of Florida to advise you throughout the claims process and on your insurance policy. A roofer or contractor is not allowed to advise you throughout the claims process. With that being said, roofers and contractors are very valuable throughout the claims process to provide expert documentation and opinions that will help prove our case. We work with many contractors and roofers for the same reason, a roofer should be a great roofer, not an adjuster.

The main difference is an attorney can represent you legally and give you legal advice. A public adjuster cannot act as your attorney, while an attorney can act as a public adjuster. Public adjusters specialized in property insurance claims are savvy in settling your claim with the highest financial outcome and fastest outcome possible so you can move on with your life. Attorneys can help throughout the litigation process, which can sometimes be a very lengthy process, some might say anywhere from 6 months or more from the day the lawsuit is filed.

A public adjuster usually charges a fee which is percentage-based on the payout of the claim. In the state of Florida, it is usually 20% for residential property insurance claim. In case of a state of emergency, by law it must be 10%. For Texas, our fee is 10%.

Insurance companies have 90 days to make a determination on your claim. most of our claims take between 45 to 60 days to settle with the insurance company. In some instances it might be shorter, but in others it can be much much longer if it is a complex claim or it has been denied and needs the assistance of an attorney.

You can find your policy number on the Declarations page of your insurance policy. You can request a full policy from your insurance company or your insurance agent, as well as a copy of your declarations page. For your claim number if you have filed a claim, your public adjuster should provide you with the claim number assigned by your insurance company. If you don’t have a public adjuster yet, you can call your insurance company’s customer service line and they will provide you with your assigned claim number.

A copy of your Declarations Page is by far the most important piece of documentation we need for our file. Any letters or emails that have been sent to you by your insurance company would be greatly appreciated. Also, any repair invoices, proposals, or contractor reports help us a great deal in getting your claim resolved. Any photos or videos taken of your property before, during, and after the loss are vital! So much so that they can be a determining factor in whether your claim gets paid or denied. If you happen to have the insurance adjuster’s contact information, that would be much appreciated as well.

A date of loss is the date that the damages occurred on your property. This date of loss is very important because it is a key factor when it comes to determining if you have coverage or not. If this is a new claim, please make sure to speak to a professional regarding determining a date of loss prior to talking to your insurance company. First notice of loss is often confused with date of loss, as notice of loss is the first time you noticed the damage whereas the day you notice the damage might be a different day than the damages actually happened so it’s important to find an actual date that the damage actually occurred.

You can request a full copy of your insurance policy from your insurance company. For a faster way, you can request your policy directly from your insurance agent. if you have at least your declarations page, we can file the claim and then request your full policy once we have filed the claim.

Your declarations page already has your mortgage information. Sometimes, mortgage companies sell your mortgage to a different company and you don’t even know it. Insurance companies ask to verify who the mortgage company is as they must be on the insurance claim check when a payment is made. Your mortgage company name and loan number is on your mortgage statement online or in paper format that they mail you every month.

First, we must determine that you have a claim that is covered according to your policy. The first step is to look at your policy and then to look at your damages. The next step is to document those damages and collect any expert documentation, if possible. After that we will contact your insurance company on your behalf and file the claim. In 1 to 2 weeks the insurance company will meet with us to inspect the property, typically three to four weeks after that we get an answer or determination whether your claim is covered or not. After that we negotiate and try to reach an agreement with the insurance company.

You can still file a claim if your insurance company went out of business. In the State of Florida there is a Florida Insurance Guaranty Association (FIGA) that is a government-run fund for when insurance companies go out of business. Now, this is only if the damage has happened prior to your policy cancellation date due to receivership of the insurance company. Most policies are picked up by another insurance company and if the damages happens after that transition, you must file the claim with your new insurance company. Settling a claim with FIGA is sometimes a very long process due to the workload of all the insurance companies going out of business so even if you do have a public adjuster you must be patient throughout the process.

The same applies to Texas, they have the Texas Property and Casualty Insurance Guaranty Association (TPCIGA).

Every state has their own statutory rules on how long you have to file a claim. It is a post-loss obligation to give prompt notice to your insurance company as soon as a loss occurs . You have 2 years in the state of Florida to file a claim from the date of loss. You have 3 years to file a claim if it was during a state of emergency.

90% of the time, you will have enough money for repairs as long as the damage is caused by a covered loss based on your policy and there aren’t any exclusions that take away the amount you need for repairs. Common examples of this are: very high deductibles, water damage exclusions, wind/hurricane exclusions, and many more. This will be answered in depth during the consultation phase of your claim.

Needing a public adjuster for an insurance claim process is the equivalent of needing a realtor for your real estate needs. There are numerous examples of people that settled their insurance claim and had more than enough to pay for their repairs just like there are numerous examples of people selling their homes without a realtor. The statistics of this show that this is a very small percentage of people who end up being able to settle their claim and getting more than what a public adjuster would get. In fact, there is real hurricane claim data in Florida that says a public adjuster gets you an average of 750% more for your claim than without a public adjuster.

The insurance company has their own adjuster who some might say will look out for the insurance company’s best interest. It might be in your best interest to hire an expert who has been through this process many times and will be able to navigate you through this difficult process.

This is based on every state’s rules and regulations for insurance claims. Typically, a contractor can present damages and assist throughout the claims process as a contractor expert; however, a contractor does not have a license to interpret a policy and know if you have a covered loss or any exclusions that prevent the claim from being paid by the insurance company.A contractor also cannot represent or negotiate a claim on your behalf as this would be an unlicensed practice of public adjusting which is a felony in many states.

In many states, an attorney can act as a public adjuster. Typically, an attorney  is involved in the lawsuit process of an insurance claim when you cannot resolve a claim. We work with many attorneys when everything within the claims process has been attempted and no settlement has been reached. An attorney typically has a much higher fee structure than a public adjuster and most of the time practices many different types of law other than property insurance claims. It is typically best to get an expert and specialist to handle a problem as big as handling an insurance claim. In this case, a public adjuster would be that expert.

This is typically required because it is in your duties after a loss based on your policy. Your insurance company does not recognize the proof of loss until it is notarized.

• For TX claims, you have 72 hours after you have signed a contract to cancel it.
• For FL claims, you have 10 days after you have signed a contract to cancel it.

There are no other fees associated with a represented claim by our firm unless specifically requested by us via phone call and email. We will not incur any additional cost without your consent and only if we think it is necessary to settle your claim and in your best interest. For example, if we deem it necessary for you to get your own engineer inspection. Though keep in mind that this example is generally for commercial claims and not relevant for most residential claims.

If your insurance company denies you and we believe nothing else can be done to settle your claim, there is no fee that you must pay since our agreement is a contingency agreement. You only pay if we get any funds for you. There is, however, a cancellation fee of $1,500 if you do not want to pursue the claim any longer even though we believe we can get additional funds but you choose not to move your claim forward. Especially when we have proven costs and man-hours towards your claim and the 10-day grace period has passed.

The $1,500 on our contract is for time and expenses incurred on specific claims where we will not reach an actual settlement but the work will be performed to put your house back together. This will not count towards your deductible, but it is for our services for you to reach a settlement with the insurance company. This $1,500 fee is also in the case that you cancel our services after the 10-day grace period.

The contract by law must state that if it is a state of emergency we can only charge a 10% fee for our services for non-emergency claims we charge a 20%  fee for our services.

If you do receive communication from an insurance representative, please note their name and number down and send it over to your public adjuster. You can also email the same information to claims@eliteresolutions.com.

We typically handle all communication with the insurance company from beginning to end. We will handle all emails, phone calls, inspections and anything else involved with your claim.

Once you’ve signed our letter of representation, our office will file the claim on your behalf.

We typically only update our clients when a major milestone has been hit with your claim. You can always call our office if you want additional information on your claim.

You may receive emails from our office where you are carbon copied on emails to your insurance company. These emails are not typically directed towards you, you are simply  copied so that you are aware that we are working on your claim and for you to get an idea of what is going on. There is no need for you to reply back to these emails.

We have a large staff helping settle our firms claims. you do have a main point of contact with your claim which is the initial adjuster that signed you up. We have seen the best results for our clients when multiple people in our organization are helping and working on your claim diligently to get you the fastest and best results.

Your public adjuster will be on scene with the insurance company to show them all the damages and to make sure nothing is missed. if an expert is needed like a contractor, roofer, or plumber, we will make sure they are present as well.

As long as we have your consent and your relative will be present for the inspection it is okay for us to inspect with your relative present.

Please contact our office for rescheduling or send an email to claims@eliteresolutions.com.

Depending on the claim, the insurance company might want to inspect multiple times with different agents. We will be present for all inspections and we must comply with the insurance company’s investigation if the re-inspections are reasonable.

Insurance companies must investigate the loss and if they believe that they missed something or a different expert must look at the damages in order to make their determination then we must comply.

We are experts at handling claims, and it is better to have one main point of contact throughout the insurance process so there are no misunderstandings.  Over communicating is a good thing throughout this process, so any questions you may have no matter how big or small, it’s better to discuss it with your public adjuster and your public adjuster will relay the information to the insurance company.

Our claims usually take between 45 to 60 days to reach an agreement with the insurance company, sometimes it takes longer if the claim was already denied or it is a complex claim that needs a lot of negotiation and investigation to come to an agreement. Most of our claims are not in our office for more than 90 days. At this point, we usually recommend consulting with an attorney to reach an agreement with the insurance company and at that point the timeline and what is done with your claim is up to the attorney. Litigation may take between six months to 6 years to come to an agreement so we avoid this step as much as possible.

 Reach out to your public adjuster or our office for a detailed update. For a quick update, please reach out to us via email to claims@eliteresolutions.com

Yes, As long as you disclose this information to the potential buyer and the claim occurs and/or is filed while you are the owner of the home, those claim proceeds will be paid to you upon conclusion of that claim. Please discuss this in detail with your public adjuster prior to making a decision as there are pros and cons to this decision.

Yes you can. Your best bet is to call your insurance agent so that they can process the policy cancellation and shop for a new one immediately. Please discuss this with your insurance agent and your public adjuster prior to making any decisions as it might be difficult to find coverage when you have an open claim.

Your claim is important to us and we work around the clock to make sure your claim is taken care of. At least once a week, we are following up with your claim. Most of the time, we are waiting for your insurance company to proceed with the next steps.

You can reach us through email, phone or text. However, the best method to get your questions answered would be through our email – claims@eliteresolutions.com.

Of course! We would be more than happy to. Please send us an email at claims@eliteresolutions.com.

Take any videos, pictures and document as much as possible. reach out to your public adjuster on next steps and how to present this to the insurance company depending on where you are in the insurance claim process.

The difference between our estimates and the insurance company is our estimators are certified and experienced to put these estimates together properly and to account for everything that will be included in the repair process. We must be sure to not miss a single line item since this can hinder your chances of getting the full value of your claim and repairs. Sometimes, the insurance company must follow company guidelines and are writing what is being taught to them. We make sure to include what is needed to put your house back together. When it comes down to it, we must defend each line item in order to agree on the scope with your insurance company. Both parties must agree on each line item in order to proceed with the work.

As there are some people who don’t check their email, we use this 48-hour timeline as a grace period for you to at least respond if you need more time. We don’t want any unnecessary delays to your claim because you haven’t checked your email. We do this 48-hour review to have the fastest results possible.

Our public adjusters are trained to write estimates. We sometimes rely on contractors who will be performing the work to make sure the estimate is as accurate as possible. We also rely on professional estimate writers whose sole job is to write repair estimates.

Our estimate is based on an industry accepted software called Xactimate.  The way the software works is we submit all measurements and guidelines to the software and the software comes up with the price per unit depending on your area and damage. We can’t control the price as it is built into the software, the only thing we can control is the scope, or line items, that we put into the software.

Yes, if any additional damages are found or something was missed throughout the first review we can always edit the estimate and add additional line items.

Please let your public adjuster know or our office so we can edit the estimate as needed.

A sworn proof of loss (SPOL)  document is a document that is required by your insurance company as a post-loss obligation so you can officially request the amount of damages you believe you are entitled due to the loss. This document must be signed, notarized and submitted to the insurance company within a specified amount of time. It is time specific and must therefore be submitted as soon as possible.

We will give you a pre-filled out form based on the estimate that we provided to you. You must print this form and get it signed and notarized by a notary. Common places where you can find a notary is a bank, shipping store, check cashing store, tax preparation services, etc.

You can either take a picture of all the pages and send it to your public adjuster or our office via text, or you can email it to us. Please make sure to keep the original for your records. If we need the original for any reason, we will request it.

Common places where you can find a notary is a bank, accountant, tax preparation services, etc.

Unfortunately, denials are  common throughout the property insurance claim industry. In Florida we have the highest amounts of denials compared to the rest of the nation. Denials do not mean we cannot pursue the claim any longer. If we feel that you were wrongfully denied, we will proceed with our investigation and inform the insurance company of their wrongful decision with the goal of changing their minds, reinspecting the property, and opening the claim for further negotiations and coverage. There are other options available depending on what is going on with your claim.

Your insurance company most likely sent you money depending on what they believe should be paid based on the damages. The next steps are to negotiate whatever money you believe is missing. In the meantime, you can use the money to fix any damages and start getting your home back to normal. When you get the rest of the money you believe you are entitled to you can do the rest of the repair work.

A notice of intent to litigate (NOI) is when we have reached an impasse with your insurance company. In the state of Florida, the insurance company has 10 days to decide whether they want to continue denying the claim, ask for a re-inspection, or offer a settlement amount. if we can’t come to an agreement during the 10 days then the only option is to pursue litigation. This is a final warning that we give to the insurance company before pursuing litigation.

Speak to an attorney for a cost breakdown of hiring an attorney as we are not attorneys. if you have an attorney, you can explain the situation or we can help you through this process. If you don’t have an attorney, we can provide you with a list of attorneys that we have worked with us in the past and have experienced positive results on our claims and that can help you through this process and explain the cost. Sometimes, in the state of Florida, attorney fees and costs are paid for by the insurance company depending on the outcome of litigation.

Being underpaid or denied happens. That is why there are public adjusters that can give you a consultation to explain your options. contact our office for a consultation to see what options you have.

Attorneys by Florida Bar Association can not solicit or contact people first. That is why if you would like to speak to an attorney for legal advice you must reach out to them first.

There is recoverable depreciation and non-recoverable depreciation. What depreciation means is the insurance is going to pay upfront the amount of the replacement of the damages minus what they believe those items are worth now that time has passed and they are less valuable. A common example is a roof that is 10 years old. They use a calculation to determine how much that roof is worth now that 10 years have passed. If it is recoverable depreciation, then once the roof is replaced they will send the remainder of the depreciation. If it’s non-recoverable depreciation you must pay for the remainder in order to replace your roof and they will not give you that money back.

Your deductible must be paid to the person that is replacing your damages. Commonly a roofer or a contractor. Paying your deductible is the law and it must be done, similar to when you go to the doctor and you have a co-pay for a visit. View your deductible as a copay for when you have a hospital visit.

We send an appraisal request to your insurance and they have 20-days to respond either with their appraiser or with a rejection. If they accept our appraisal, an appraisal inspection date will be decided and both the insurance company’s appraiser and our appraiser will go out to your property to reinspect. Afterwards, the two appraisers will create their own estimates and negotiate an amount. If the appraisers cannot come to an agreement, an umpire will need to be involved and another inspection will be scheduled where the umpire will assess the damage firsthand and determine the amount it would take to fix the damage.

We file for mediation through the state. It takes about 30-days for us to receive contact from a state-appointed mediator. A mediation date is scheduled and is usually conducted by Zoom or sometimes by phone. The mediation is attended by your public adjuster, yourself, the state-appointed mediator, and an insurance representative. Your public adjuster will give you a call 15-30 minutes from the scheduled time of the mediation and prep you.

Appraisal and mediation are alternative dispute methods provided in your policy that allow us to  get you more money for your claim after you’ve received an undisputed payment. Our process usually begins with trying to work with your insurance company on a supplemental payment, then depending on your policy, we will try to proceed with either appraisal or mediation.

We recommend waiting till your claim is closed to start major repairs. If you have already received an initial payment from your insurance, minor repairs would be ok. However, if you begin major repairs such as replacing your whole roof, all the floors, etc., then the estimate we provided to your insurance becomes null and you would need to provide your insurance with receipts of repairs.

A release is when we have come to an agreement with the insurance company and it is a signed and notarized document that essentially states we will not ask the insurance company for any other money. We have come to a final agreement and if there’s anything else that comes up it must be incurred by the policyholder.The insurance company no longer has any obligation with that claim..

No, we only request a fee on payments made after the contract is signed.

Accepting a payment while requesting more money is standard within the insurance company. The insurance company has sent you that money because you are entitled to it, not because you agree to it. We should process the payment and immediately contact the insurance company letting them know there is still a price dispute. It isn’t until you sign a release stating you are settling for a compromised amount that there is no more going back asking for more money.

Each time you receive a check, we request our fee. Either this will be disbursed through iink Payments (more information down below) or you would send a physical check for our fee.

This is ultimately dependent on your insurance. Depending on your insurance carrier, they may send all checks to our office or to you directly. It is better for checks to be sent to our office as once we receive it, we can move forward with the next step in order to get the funds disbursed.

If you are not using iink Payments, it is our policy to have our fee prior to endorsing and mailing your insurance check to you.

As long as this payment was not from an appraisal or release, we try to negotiate further with your insurance to indemnify you.

Your mortgage company has to be on the check by law. Your insurance company cannot release a check without your mortgage company on the check. In addition, you would not be able to deposit your check with your bank if you do not have your mortgage company’s endorsement on the check.

This varies from claim to claim and is dependent on many factors. However, we do follow up with your insurance company on a weekly basis to make sure your claim does not go untouched. We also do our part to make it as easy and as stress-free as possible.

The process of getting your check endorsed varies by mortgage companies, but the first step will be to reach out to them. The important thing is to have the adjuster’s worksheet to show the mortgage company so that they can get the check released. Depending on what your mortgage company requests, we will do our best to help you through that process.

If you have a mortgage listed on your insurance check, there is a fee of 1% up to $150. This fee is a percentage-based split. For example, there are three parties that are owed money from your check – you, your roofer, and Elite Resolutions the breakdown would look like below:

• Elite Resolutions $3,000 = $30 fee to iink
• Roofer $5,000 = $50 fee to iink
• You $7,000 = $70 fee to iink

If you do not have a mortgage listed on your insurance check, iink’s service is free to use.

Your banking information is needed so that iink can disburse your funds directly to your account.

Yes, they are FDIC insured. For more information, visit their website at https://iinkpay.com/insured/.

If you do not feel comfortable with using iink Payments, we do have another option. First, we request that you mail us a check for our fee based off our contract and the invoice that we send. If you received the insurance check, we also ask that you mail us the insurance check along with our fee so that we can endorse the check. Once we receive our fee, we will mail the endorsed insurance check back to you. If there is a mortgage, you will need to reach out to them to see how to send the insurance check to them for their endorsement.

There’s a lot going on behind the scenes between iink and your mortgage company. Once iink receives all the endorsements from everyone listed on the check, they still need to do things on their end before they can email us a Fedex label to mail your check to the mortgage. Once that check is mailed, it is up to your mortgage to endorse it. At this point, your mortgage may ask for additional information from iink or will go ahead and endorse and mail the check back over. Once the check is mailed back, a clear, well-lit photo of the back of the check will need to be uploaded onto iink’s portal. Once the mortgage endorsement is uploaded, it takes no longer than a week for funds to disburse.

No, the mortgage endorsement needs to be uploaded onto iink so that funds will disburse. If you receive the check back from your mortgage, we ask that you send us a clear, well-lit photo of the back of the check for us to upload onto iink for final processing. .

No, once you choose to move forward with iink Payments, you will need to stick with it. If you somehow cancel it on your end, you will be responsible for the full fee owed to iink, up to $150.

We offer our clients an option to use iink Payments to process their insurance check. It allows for every party to receive their percentage of the check through direct deposit instead of our traditional method of shuffling physical checks back and forth for endorsement.

In order to receive your funds, you will need to input your direct deposit information. In addition, if you have a mortgage company listed as an endorsee, iink Payments will charge you a 1% fee, up to a maximum of $150. In addition, once your check is sent to your mortgage company, it is out of our hands in terms of when your mortgage will endorse the check. However, once your mortgage company does endorse and mail the check back, it should take no longer than a week for funds to disburse. In addition, once a check has begun the process of iink Payments, you cannot change your mind and cancel it later on.

We have noticed that checks over $40,000 take longer with iink. As such, if your check is $40,000 or more, we request that you mail us our fee and we will mail back your endorsed insurance check for you to process with your mortgage company.

We cannot say whether there is a time difference between using iink Payments or doing it yourself, but it does save you effort as the only thing you would need to do with iink is digitally endorse the check and potentially sending us a photo of the mortgage endorsed check.