Mitigation Appraisals In Florida
July 19th, 2017
I listen and read how the carriers are carrying on and on about how the AOB’s are creating higher rates etc and the poor insurance companies have no fault and have to raise the rates to the insureds.
I have 5, more but I will only mention 5, mitigation appraisals right now. 3 are with State Farm and 2 with Florida Family.
Let’s start with State Farm. First one is a 1800.00 difference from what was paid and what the invoice was. The opposing appraiser, let’s call him H, and I could not come to agreement on an umpire as he prefers Kool aid drinkers with no actual working experience in mitigation or construction. I asked for 900.00 in new money just to get this done and he won’t even consider it and offered 100.00 in new money. I could not agree and he said the carrier would have no problem going court appointed. “Court Appointed” is pretty crazy considering that the cost for the carrier to go court appointed is around 2500.00, then putting the umpire in place will cost the carrier another 1250.00 for the umpire to inspect and then another 1000.00 billed to the carrier for the appraiser’s services.
Let’s do the math. I am asking for 900.00. Court appointed umpire 2500.00 + 1250.00 for the umpire + 1000.00 for the carrier appraiser = $4,750.00. cost to the carrier to settle 900.00 by us. The carrier would rather spend the 3850.00 more to defend. WOW
2nd one state farm. Let’s call him T, offered 4050.00 gross, we reviewed the invoice and 4550.00 would be satisfactory to settle and once again the answer no. We were given the choice of 3 umpires and we gave 9 which he rejected. Once again, we are going court appointed.
3rd State Farm. Let call him C, offered 1750.00 in new money. We asked for 2241.00 in new money and are now being told no way lets go to umpire. Once again, we could not agree and its now going court appointed.
Why? Here is the answer I got from the appraisers. The carrier wants to punish and cost the mitigation company money no matter if it costs them money or not.
Florida Family- Now these guys are a peach. Remember the costs for court appointed and umpire and appraiser are 4750.00 per appraisal which does not include an additional for monetary awards.
Primarily I deal with 2 of these guys. Both have verbally told me more times than I can count, the carrier authorizes them to offer 500.00 above the undisputed or they push to umpire. 2/3rds of these end up with going court appointed. Remember the average cost is $4750.00 and this amount does not include any awards also above what was offered. Once again their response is they are directed by Florida Family to handle the files this way. I even pointed out to the carrier that one of the appraisers accepts gifts from the company that does the comparative, I still have that email that he sent bragging about it, and he is not disinterested. Their response is “He is an independent contractor and not an employee so we are not responsible for any of his actions. The policy states he has to be competent and does not state anything about disinterested”. I also have that email saved.
So the reason the carriers have to raise their premiums is because the AOB? Interesting