Was your insurance claim underpaid? Are you tired of living in a damaged home? Making daily calls to your insurance company and the Insurance Company is not returning your telephone calls? Stop the frustration right now! Stop waiting on your insurance company and be proactive!

There may be recourse to be able to get a fairer, faster, less expensive insurance claim settlement using an insurance policy provision called Appraisal.

The below appraisal policy provision was taken from a USAA Insurance policy. Appraisal policy language differs from insurance policy to insurance policy.

Many Florida residential insurance policies such as Citizens, American Integrity, Auto Owners, Front Line, Lloyds of London, Monarch, Modern, Progressive & Universal Property & Casualty, etc have appraisal language provision that may allow you quickly, fairly, and cost effectively dispute your insurance offer of settlement. The majority of Commercial Insurance policies also allow for appraisal.

Below is just one example of the appraisal provision language.

Appraisal.

If you or we fail to agree on the amount of loss, either may demand an appraisal of the loss. In this event, each party will choose a competent and impartial appraiser within 20 days after receiving a written request from the other. The two appraisers will choose an umpire. If they cannot agree upon an umpire within 15 days, you or we may request that the choice be made by a judge of a court of record in the state where the “residence premises” is located. The appraisers will separately set the amount of the loss. If the appraisers submit a written report of an agreement to us, the amount agreed upon will be the amount of loss. If they fail to agree, they will submit their differences to the umpire. A decision agreed to by any two will set the amount of loss.

Each party will:

a. Pay its own appraiser; and
b. Bear the other expense of the appraisal and umpire equally.

Any fees for expert witnesses or attorneys will be paid by the party who hires them. Neither the umpire nor the appraisers will have a financial interest that is conditioned on the outcome of the specific matter for which they are called to serve.

This is not a provision providing for or requiring arbitration. The appraisers and umpire are only authorized to determine the “actual cash value”, replacement cost, or cost to repair the property that is the subject of the claim. They are not authorized to determine coverage, exclusions, conditions, forfeiture provisions, conditions precedent, or any other contractual issues that may exist between you and us. The appraisal award cannot be used by either you or us in any proceeding concerning coverage, exclusions, forfeiture provisions, conditions precedent, or other contractual issues.

However, once contractual liability is admitted or determined, the appraisal award is binding upon you and us. This appraisal process and authority granted to the appraisers and the umpire can only be expanded and modified by written mutual consent signed by you and us.

Appraisal outcomes are binding on the policy holder and the insurance company. Appraisal outcomes cannot be guaranteed, as it takes two or three people to reach an agreement.

Here are four recent examples of appraisals where I was the appraiser for the policyholders.