Your carrier sends an adjuster who works for your carrier. Florida licenses us to work the same loss from your side.
A public adjuster is the one person in an insurance claim who is licensed to be on your side of it.
When you file, your insurance company sends an adjuster to assess the damage. That person is paid by your insurance company. We hold the same licence from the State of Florida and we work the claim for you: read the policy, document the loss, attend their inspection, and argue the number.
There is nothing to pay to have us come and look. No card, no social security number, nothing due at signing. Our fee comes out of what is recovered, and if the claim is not approved, we are not paid.
Four years in property claims before founding V&F Champion. Vladimir built the firm around one idea, which is that most homeowners call their carrier before they call anybody else, because the policy feels like a promise that pays itself.
Most of our clients are dealing with the worst week they have had in a long time. Some have family nearby and some do not. That part of the job matters as much as the paperwork.
Most sites in this business sort you by the kind of damage you have. The more useful question is what has already happened.
You have damage and you have not called anybody. Best place to be standing, and the least common. What gets said in that first call very often decides the claim.
A denial is not always the end. Sometimes the file was thin, sometimes the carrier estimated below your deductible.
The first payment on an approved claim is usually a fraction of what the policy owes. If the kitchen matched before the loss, paying for half of it is not the end of the matter.
Your carrier has sixty days to make a coverage determination. Some use all sixty. What happens inside them is the claim.
The most common one. Bring it to us and we will tell you plainly whether it is a claim, including when it is not.
Wind lifts a shingle, it creases, and it stops sealing. Nothing leaks yet. Nothing looks wrong from the driveway. The loss is already there and the clock on it is already running.
There is nothing too small to be a claim. A stain on the ceiling. A cabinet that has started to swell. A smell that will not go. How the loss is written down the first time is very often the outcome, and the first payment on an approved claim is rarely the number the policy actually owes.
We work fire, wind and roof, water and leaks, and mold. Residential is the bulk of it and we take commercial too, tile and shingle roofs both. We do not take metal roofs, and we will tell you why if you ask.
By the time a ceiling comes down, water has been moving through the structure for weeks. A slow leak is a mold question before it is a repair question, and mold is a health question before it is either. Most of what belongs in a claim looks minor on the day you notice it.
What decides the claim is not the damage. Scope is argued from the record, and a thin record is a small number. Photographs before anything is moved. Reports from the plumbers and restorers who did the work. A description in the terms the policy actually recognises, because sudden and accidental is a coverage test, not a turn of phrase.
Every step, in order, with the parts that take time marked as they are.
What you called about, then the rest of the house. It is common to find a second issue that also counts.
Coverages, exclusions, caps. Almost nobody has read their own.
Contingency. Nothing up front. Ten days to cancel in writing, no reason required.
Drying, salvage, mold removal. They document what they find, which supports the claim.
You do not answer their questions alone. We make sure what matters gets photographed and recorded.
Approved, underpaid or denied. We build our own estimate and put it in front of them.
If approved, the first payment is rarely the last. If denied, we push for re-inspection with supporting reports.
The carrier's first number and the number a claim is actually worth are rarely the same. The gap is scope: what was found, how it was documented, and whether anybody pushed back on the estimate.
Don’t let the insurance company decide what your claim is worth.
To have us come out, inspect the property, and read your policy with you. No card. No social security number. Nothing due on the day you sign.
Of the recovery. Florida caps public adjuster fees by statute.
To cancel in writing after signing, without giving a reason. State law, not our courtesy.
If the claim is not approved, we are not paid. Our incentive and yours point the same direction.
Nobody in this business writes this section. We would rather you hear it from us than find out later.
Your property has no damage and nothing is worrying you. No damage, no claim, nothing for us to look at. Call us the day that changes.
You are satisfied with what your carrier paid and confident nothing was missed. If the scope was complete and the number covered the repair, you do not need us. A second set of eyes costs you nothing, but it is your call.
You would rather run the whole claim yourself. Plenty of people do, and some do it well. It means your own inspection, your own roof, your own mold documentation, your own estimate, and your own negotiation with an adjuster who does this every day. If you want that, take it on with your eyes open.
You are comfortable accepting a denied, underpaid or delayed claim without a second opinion. Those three outcomes are where most of our work comes from. If you would rather let one stand than have anybody look at it again, that is a legitimate choice.
Your policy was placed by your mortgage company rather than bought by you. You do not own it, you cannot sign our agreement, and the coverage is usually too thin to be worth filing.
You have a metal roof and wind damage. Unless there is hail there is rarely enough there to be worth a claim, and Florida does not get much hail.
You want a guarantee. We cannot give one and neither can anyone else in this business. Claims are decided on evidence, and any firm that promises you an outcome is telling you something they cannot know.
Have you ever filed a claim? And are you paying the same premium you paid the day you bought the house? Premiums move regardless. In some cases a repair such as a new roof improves your risk profile and brings it down.
The fear of being dropped stops more people from filing than the damage does. One valid claim is not grounds for non-renewal. What matters is that the claim is built and described accurately.
The percentage comes out of a settlement that has to be negotiated in the first place, and there is nothing to pay if there is no settlement.
You can, and plenty do. Most homeowners end up arguing about whether they are honest while the carrier is arguing about scope. Those are not the same argument.
Public adjusting is a licensed profession in Florida, regulated by the Department of Financial Services. Our licence number is on this page and on the card we hand you at the door. You can verify it with the state.
Your carrier has sixty days to make a determination whether anyone is helping you or not. The difference is what gets done inside them.
Tell us what is going on. We will come out, look at it, read your policy with you, and tell you plainly whether it is a claim.
If you would rather talk it through than type it out, call. You will get a licensed adjuster, not a call centre.
