Trouble with insurance adjuster

[kathybeaty]

What is the name of your state? Georgia
We have had insurance with State Farm for 12 yrs and filed one claim of $2500 in those yrs. Now we've had water damage from a storm about 1 1/2 yrs ago. Did a patch on roof damage because we were not planning to file a claim but saw the expense of repairing plaster walls in our 6,000 sq ft home and decided to do so after making our permanent repair to the roof ($17,000). Our home was built in 1923 and considered "historical" though not on the register. The adjuster came out and made pictures and told me to get some estimates on the repair. I searched for 1 1/2 months to find someone who was skilled in plaster repair and finally gave him 4 estimates ranging from $34.000 to $37,000 (including refinishing 3 floors and repainting). He then told me that he had to come back to our home to inspect damage not pointed out before and that he was going to bring a contractor with him who is on the list of preferred contractors for State Farm. This contractor was very friendly with the adjuster, pretty much ignored me, was rude to me when I called him for his referrals and told me that he was ONLY to work with the adjuster. The adjuster then called me and said this his guy could do the work for $15,000 and that was all they would pay for this claim. I expressed my concern about the quality of work for that price but he says he will only pay the lowest estimate and he never even contacted the other 4 contractors until I told him that we were not confortable with the situation and we wanted to use one of the 4 we had contacted(mid-range price of the four with good referrals). Could we be the victim of a scam from this adjuster his contractor? Should we ask for another adjuster? Should I ask the insurance commissioners office to send an investigator? Please advise us on this. It's been dragging on since November now. Thank you for any help you can give us!

 

[ALawyer]

I'd suggest that you send your letter on to the General Counsel of State Farm.

Are the specifications of the work to be done by the contractors all the same?

If there are 4 real contractors within one range, and State Farm's adjuster comes in with a dramatically lower estimate, something seems wrong.

It may be that the top of the line contractors have been colluding and are all too high, or that State Farm contracts with a firm that provides a highly discounted rate so they (and you) are getting essentially the same work done for a lot less, or that the contractor is one that does shoddy work or that the specifications and work to be performed are significantly different, or that the State Farm guy is esentially a shill who gives low ball estimates and never would do the work for that price, and is solely acting to justify denial of a claim for the higher amount. I have no idea what it is here, or what would happen if YOU tried to check out the contractor with the Better Business Bureau and others in the community to see if he or she has a good reputation, and then have that contractor perform the repairs at the price s/he quoted State Farm.

For a 20k difference, if the work were the same, I too would hire a quality low priced contractor and ignore the rudeness.

My personal hunch is that the contractors you called in would be doing far more than the minimum called for under most homeowner's insurance policies, and would be redoing it to the original condition, whereas the State Farm guy would be restoring it to the way it was immediately before the loss.

 

[kathybeaty]

I've talked with the contractor from State Farm this morning and asked him for names of 3 people who's homes he had worked in and he gave me business references instead after I had previously asked him for the other. He then immediately got angry with me and said that if his business references were not good enough for me that that was all he could do! I then asked him to fax the estimate he had prepared for the adjuster with all the specifications for the work to be done and he balked. He said the adjuster would give it to me at the time the work was to be done but later said he would try to get it to me soon but that he was very busy. The other contractors did not know each other and I never told them any names of others, just that I would be getting other estimates. But all of them told me that with plaster that was used in the 1920's could not be repaired with sheetrock mud because it would not hold up over time. The plaster has to be chipped out completely where the water had saturated it because it would crumble and then new plaster be applied in 3 layers using 3 different mixtures of plaster. They all told me that this is the ONLY correct way to repair plaster damaged by water but that some will choose to take the cheaper way out (materials and labor) and repair with sheetrock mud. I am afraid that is what this State Farm contractor plans to do and possibly not chip out all the plaster that was damaged so that they would have a smaller area and maybe use a low quality paint with only one coat to cut his costs for this job. Can someone tell me if this may be a common practice with contractors hired by State Farm or other ins. companies? And has anyone else had this type of problem?