Working with an adjuster

The adjuster is the person who decides what your claim is worth. Almost nobody understands what that role actually is, and the misunderstanding runs in both directions — some people treat them as an opponent, others as an advocate.

Neither is right. An adjuster applies a document to a set of facts. Your influence over the outcome is almost entirely about the facts.

What the role actually is

The III’s description is the whole job in one line: “an adjuster will inspect the damage to your home and offer you a certain sum of money for repairs, based on the terms and limits of your homeowners policy.”

Source: Insurance Information Institute — Understanding the insurance claims payment process · accessed 2026-08-04

Read that carefully and two constraints fall out.

They are bound by the policy. An adjuster cannot pay for something the policy excludes, however sympathetic the circumstances. They also cannot pay above a limit. If a limit is the problem, that was decided when the policy was written, not at the claim.

Their view is limited to what they can observe. They arrive after the event, often after cleanup, and they see whatever is still visible. Anything they cannot see, they cannot assess.

That second constraint is the one you can actually do something about.

The types you may encounter

Not all adjusters are the same person in different clothes.

A staff adjuster is an employee of the insurer.

An independent adjuster is contracted by the insurer — common after a widespread catastrophe when local capacity is overwhelmed. They still work for the carrier.

A public adjuster is hired by you, at your expense, usually for a percentage. They work for the policyholder. They are regulated at state level and can be genuinely valuable on a large, complicated loss — and unnecessary on a straightforward one. Ask your agent’s honest opinion before engaging one, and read the fee agreement carefully.

Knowing which one is standing in your kitchen tells you whose interests they are representing.

Before they arrive

This is where claims are effectively decided, and it happens before anyone from the insurer sees anything.

Photograph everything, before you clean up. Wide shots showing context, close shots showing detail, and shots of things you might not think matter. Damage that has been tidied away is damage that has to be argued for rather than pointed at.

Take reasonable steps to prevent further damage, and document those too. Tarping a roof, shutting off water, boarding a window. Policies generally require you to mitigate, and the cost of doing so is often recoverable. Keep the receipts.

Do not throw damaged items away until you have been told you can. A photograph is not always sufficient substitute for the item.

Make a list. Room by room, item by item, with age and approximate replacement cost where you can. Doing this while the memory is fresh produces a far better list than reconstructing it three weeks later.

During the inspection

Walk it with them. Not to supervise, but because you know things they cannot see — where the water went, what the room looked like before, which crack is new.

Point out what is not obvious. Damage inside a cupboard, in an attic, behind an appliance. An adjuster on a busy schedule sees what is presented to them.

Write down the basics — their name, their employer, a claim number, a direct contact.

Ask, plainly: is this being settled at replacement cost or actual cash value, is depreciation being held back, what do I need to provide to release it, and what deductible applies to this loss. All four answers change what happens next, and hearing them early prevents most of the later surprises.

Keeping the record

Every call, every date, every name, every promise. A single running document.

This costs almost nothing while a claim proceeds normally and becomes the most valuable thing you own if it stops proceeding normally. The III’s advice for a contested claim assumes you have it: “Be prepared to support your case. Send documents and a letter explaining why you are not satisfied and make sure you have the figures to back up your argument.”

You cannot assemble that retroactively. You can only have kept it.

When you disagree

Disagreements come in two shapes and the distinction determines the route.

A coverage disagreement — the insurer says the policy does not respond. That is a question about the document, and it escalates through the claims department and, if unresolved, the state department of insurance.

A valuation disagreement — everyone agrees it is covered, but not on the amount. This is what the appraisal clause exists for. The III notes that “most companies offer either arbitration or appraisal services to help settle differences and disputes.”

Appraisal typically has each side appoint an appraiser, with an umpire resolving what they cannot agree. It is a real mechanism written into most property policies and it is used far less often than it could be, mostly because policyholders do not know it is there.

Before any of that, the ordinary escalation still applies: raise it with your agent, and get “the name and phone number of the head of the insurer’s claims department.”

What your agent should be doing

An agent cannot overrule an adjuster. Any agent who suggests otherwise is selling you something.

What they can do is chase a file that has gone silent, translate a settlement worksheet into plain language, tell you honestly whether an offer looks low, and point you at the appraisal clause when it applies. Claims advocacy is one of the Client First practice standards for exactly this reason — the gap between an agent who disappears at the claim and one who does not is the largest gap in the business.

What to do

Photograph before you clean. Everything, from more angles than seems reasonable.

Start a log on day one, and put every interaction in it.

Get your own repair estimate. It is the single most effective input into a valuation disagreement.

And ask the four questions at the inspection — settlement basis, depreciation, what releases it, deductible. Getting those answers on day one prevents most of what goes wrong on day sixty.