Public Adjuster or Your Contractor: Who Should Handle Your Water Damage Claim in Massachusetts?

After a loss, homeowners get pitched by public adjusters, sometimes before the water is dry. They can be worth every dollar on the right claim, and a waste of ten percent on the wrong one. Here is what each person actually does, and how to decide.

Three people on every claim

The carrier's adjuster works for the insurance company. They inspect, write an estimate, and approve payment. They are not your enemy, but they are not on your side either.

A public adjuster is licensed by the Massachusetts Division of Insurance to represent you against the carrier. They negotiate the settlement and are paid a percentage of it, usually ten percent, sometimes more on small claims.

Your contractor writes the scope of repairs, documents the damage, and does the work. A restoration contractor who writes in Xactimate speaks the same language as the carrier's adjuster, which is why a complete, photographed scope often gets a claim paid without anyone else involved.

When a public adjuster earns the fee

• A large or complicated loss: a fire, a whole-house flood, anything with contents, additional living expenses, and structure all in play.
• The carrier has denied the claim or come in far below a documented scope and is not moving.
• You do not have time or energy to manage the claim yourself and the numbers are big enough that ten percent is worth it.

When it is not

A single-room water loss with a clear cause. On a $15,000 claim, a public adjuster costs $1,500 and typically changes the outcome very little, because the scope is the scope. What actually moves a claim like that is documentation: moisture readings taken the first day, photos before demo, a drying log, and an estimate with the hidden damage already in it. That is work we do on every insurance job anyway, and the supplement we write when the carrier's number is short is free.

Watch for

Anyone who shows up at your door after a storm with a contract. Massachusetts requires public adjusters to be licensed and gives you the right to cancel within a few days of signing. Ask for the license number, read the fee percentage, and do not sign anything the day of the loss.

Our honest answer

Call us first. If the loss is big enough that you need a public adjuster, we will tell you, and we work alongside them all the time. If it is not, we will handle the documentation and the carrier conversation as part of the job, and you keep the ten percent.