Public adjusters work on contingency, so the honest answer to "what does it cost" is a percentage of what you recover. In Florida that percentage is not left to the market. It is capped by statute, and the cap changes depending on whether your loss came out of a declared state of emergency.
Here are the actual numbers, straight from the statute.
The caps
Florida law provides that a public adjuster may not charge, agree to, or accept from any source compensation, payment, commission, fee, or any other thing of value in excess of:
- 10 percent of the amount of insurance claim payments or settlements, exclusive of attorney fees and costs, paid to the insured by the insurer, for claims based on events that are the subject of a declaration of a state of emergency by the Governor. This applies to claims made during the year after the declaration of emergency, after which the 20 percent limit applies.
- 20 percent of the amount of insurance claim payments or settlements, exclusive of attorney fees and costs, paid to the insured by the insurer, for claims that are not based on events that are the subject of a declaration of a state of emergency by the Governor.
So a hurricane claim made within the year after the Governor declares an emergency for that storm is capped at 10 percent. A kitchen fire in an ordinary week is capped at 20 percent. Those are ceilings, not standard rates, and the rate in your contract may be lower.
Reopened and supplemental claims are capped differently
This is the provision that separates a legitimate supplement from a bad deal. Where a public adjuster contracts with you to reopen a claim or file a supplemental claim seeking additional payments on a claim already paid in part or in full or settled, the adjuster may not charge, agree to or accept compensation based on a previous settlement or previous claim payments by the insurer for the same cause of loss. The compensation must be based only on the claim payments or settlements obtained through the work of the public adjuster after entering into the contract, and it may not exceed 20 percent of the reopened or supplemental claim payment. Those contracts remain subject to the overall 10 and 20 percent limits above.
In plain terms: nobody gets to take a percentage of money the carrier already paid you before they were hired. If a contract reads as though they might, that is the sentence to ask about.
Your right to cancel
You are not locked in the moment you sign. Florida gives an insured the right to cancel a public adjuster contract without penalty within 10 days after the date the contract is executed. Where the contract is entered into during a state of emergency declared by the Governor, the window is 30 days after the date of loss or 10 days after the date the contract is executed, whichever is longer.
That cancellation right exists precisely because storm-season contracts get signed under pressure. Use it if something does not sit right.
The rules that govern how you were approached
Florida also regulates solicitation. A public adjuster may not directly or indirectly, through any other person or entity, solicit an insured or claimant except on Monday through Saturday and only between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m. And a public adjuster may not collect a fee for services on payments made to a named insured without a written contract with the named insured or the insured’s legal representative.
A knock on the door at 9 p.m. on a Sunday, or a handshake deal with no written contract, tells you something about who you are dealing with before you get to the percentage.
What the fee is actually buying
The percentage is easy to compare. The work behind it is not, and it is where the value sits or does not:
- A complete independent scope of the loss, priced line by line, rather than a review of the carrier’s estimate.
- Documentation of what is not visible: roof planes, attic and cavity moisture, subsurface and behind-finish damage.
- The contents inventory with values and supporting receipts, which is the single most commonly under-built document in a claim.
- Preparation of the sworn proof of loss and the response to any examination under oath.
- The negotiation itself, and knowing which fights are worth having.
The arithmetic that actually matters
A fee is only a cost if the recovery would have been the same without it. The comparison worth making is not "20 percent versus nothing." It is the carrier’s current offer against the documented value of the loss, with the fee taken out of the difference.
Where the carrier’s scope is complete and fair, a public adjuster should tell you so and decline the engagement. Where it is short by a roof system, a code upgrade and a contents inventory, the arithmetic is usually not close. If you are weighing a public adjuster against a lawyer, that is a different comparison, and we set it out on public adjuster vs attorney.
Before you sign anything
- Confirm the license. Florida public adjusters are licensed by the Department of Financial Services and the number should be on the contract.
- Read the percentage and check it against the caps above, including whether your loss falls in an emergency-declaration year.
- Check the supplemental-claim language against the rule that no fee may be based on payments made before the contract.
- Confirm the cancellation window is stated.
- Ask what the scope of work includes and who actually performs the inspection.
Talking it through
We work Broward from an office in Oakland Park, and most of our claims run through Fort Lauderdale, Hollywood and Pompano Beach. The inspection and the read of your policy are free, and the fee only exists if there is a recovery.
Your policy is the contract, and forms vary by carrier. The provisions described here come from the standard Homeowners 3 Special Form that most Florida homeowners policies are built on. Read your own declarations page and policy form, or send them to us and we will read them with you.