National Flood Insurance Adjustment Disputes—Where the Rubber Meets the Road

National Flood Insurance adjustments can be extraordinarily maddening for people trying to get a fair adjustment. For example, the Superstorm Sandy flood adjustment fiasco led to a Congressional investigation and thousands of flood claims being re-opened and eventually paid years late because those overseeing the program and its attorneys nitpicked and refused to pay claims for the stupidest wrongful reasons.

Will Hurricane Ian be a repeat of Superstorm Sandy? It is too early to tell, but I am fielding calls from those that are already disgruntled with wrongful claims decisions.

One wrongful notion being repeated in this hurricane is that the flood adjuster will only agree to pay for property that is physically touched by the flood waters. This is incorrect. However, a recent denial of any payment for the kitchen counter tops not touched by the flood waters but are physically attached to folded kitchen cabinets serves as an example. I guess flood policyholders will have new kitchen cabinets sans the tops

The typical adjustment pays for the replacement of the tops. In some cases, if it can be accomplished and is less costly, the tops can be removed and then re-attached. The price to remove and re-attach is often much greater than just agreeing to replace the cabinets with the tops. But something is paid for the counter tops.

The point is that this is just one example that is repeated thousands of times with infuriating results. I cannot believe that national flood managers cannot find people enlightened enough to understand this basic concept or trainers that can teach adjusters so they can better understand. If they are teaching otherwise, we need Congress and the Executive Branch to step in and reform the system.