I don't trust my current public adjuster,
I never trusted any of them. I worked against many in my 9 years as a claim rep before I retired.
If it costs $10,000 to fix your house, that's what your policy covers, less your deductible. If the PA gets you the $10,000 and takes 15% off the top what good did that do you? It's still going to take $10,000 to fix your house.
Why would you pay the PA $1500 to get you what you would have gotten without him? Well, you wouldn't, of course. So, to get you to sign up, he likely told you he could get you enough to fix your house and still be able to pay him. That means he has to get $11,500 from the insurance so he can get you enough to fix your house (less your deductible) and he gets $1500.
There's a word for that extra $1500. FRAUD.
a lot of things don't add up with the company, I realize I have to pay them their percentage but have spoken with another one who is very honest and will contract and take a commission over what the scope of loss is now (anything additional he may find).
See, there it is again.
The scope is what it costs to fix your house. Anything "over" the scope is not for fixing your house, it's for paying the PA.
The concern is whether there will be any recourse for fulfilling the contract with the first adjuster, terminating the contract, and then hiring the second adjuster to continue on?
How you handle that with the first PA is between you and the PA.
It's for hail and storm damage.
Have you already been provided the "scope"? AKA "itemized damage repair estimate"?
The insurance company said it would be fine,
Fine for you to change PAs, not fine for the insurance company to pay for it.
but I don't really expect them to be on my side either.
That doesn't make sense. There is no "side." Your insurance company has a contractual obligation to pay you what it costs to fix your house (less your deductible), no more, no less.
The first PA had me fill out an electronic contract with a PA, and I have yet to meet him, speak to him, hear of him, and it seems everyone else with this company is handling my claim. My insurance company told me who's handling my claim from my records, and the insurance department has no license for any of them. But I fear this could drag on for quite some time and I need my house fixed.
If your PA is unlicensed you might not be obligated to pay him at all.
Have you filed an official complaint with the insurance department?
Here's info about public adjusters:
https://insurance.illinois.gov/HomeInsurance/publicadjusters.asp
And here's the complaint page:
https://mc.insurance.illinois.gov/messagecenter.nsf
Here's the Public Adjuster licensing statute. Starts about 2/3 of the way down the page:
http://www.ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs4.asp?ActID=1249&ChapterID=22&SeqStart=156750000&SeqEnd=-1
But go ahead and skip to the bottom and read the last two sections about "injunctive relief" and "addition penalties."
If you can get out from under your current PA if, indeed, he is not licensed, come back and have some further discussion with me (if you like) about your claim before you go out and commit yourself to another PA.
As for getting your house fixed, you will need to deal with contractors eventually, might as well get some in to give you repair estimates so you'll have something to talk about.
I used to get amused by my insureds when I gave them my repair estimate and the response was "That's not enough to fix my house." My response to that was "How do you know? Did you have a contractor come in and give you an estimate?" "Uh, no." "Well, get one and send it to me. If he can't do the work for my estimate and he has a good reason, I'll make an adjustment, but I'll also know if he's out of line."
