According to an article in today's Wall Street Journal, it may take some time to get an insurance adjuster out to your place.
After Hurricane Irma, Florida residents are lacking in many necessities. One of the more frustrating is a scarcity of insurance adjusters, which is threatening to anger policyholders and potentially delay the state’s rebuilding efforts.
Many of the state’s adjusters—responsible for inspecting property damage and estimating the value of the loss—are 1,000 miles away, working on claims made after Hurricane Harvey hit Texas.
Insurers are scrambling to get more of the nation’s 57,000 independent adjusters to Florida, creating a bidding war and the promise of a record payday for those who are available. Some Florida home insurers have increased fees paid to adjusters by about 30%, insurers and adjusters say. In some cases adjusters can earn $30,000 for evaluating a single complex property claim.
While insurers are well prepared to respond to natural disasters, it is unusual to have two large catastrophes within days of each other, especially in densely populated areas of the U.S. where insurance coverage is broad compared with other parts of the world.