Plain answers to the questions policyholders ask most often about public adjusters, the claims process, and how Versa works.
Most people have never heard of a public adjuster until they need one.
Here’s the plain version: if a tree falls on your house, or a pipe bursts, and the insurance company doesn’t pay you enough — or you simply don’t want to navigate the process yourself — that’s when you call a public adjuster. We represent you, the policyholder, in the documentation and resolution of your property insurance claim.
It’s a similar idea to having a CPA prepare your taxes or an attorney handle your legal matter. You’re allowed to do both on your own. Most people find it’s not worth it.
There are 1,069 licensed public adjusters in Texas who live and work in the state. In the greater Houston area, that number is 246. We’re a small profession that most policyholders have never heard of until they’re already in trouble.
Most homeowners don’t actually handle their claim. What they do is let the insurance company assign a value to the loss and assume that number is fair. The problem with that is there’s no way to know whether it’s fair until you start shopping contractors.
The natural reaction when contractor estimates come in higher than what the insurer paid is to assume the contractors are gouging. That may not be what’s happening. It may be that the settlement was undervalued and you’re now shopping against a number that’s limiting you to whoever will work for less than the job is worth.
When homeowners do actively engage, the typical approach is to get contractor quotes and submit them to the carrier. The carrier’s response is usually to try to reconcile those quotes with their existing valuation. If that initial valuation was lower than it should have been, submitting quotes just anchors the negotiation to the wrong number.
Having a construction background changes how I approach a loss. It’s not just about what’s damaged. It’s about understanding everything that has to happen to repair it correctly. That might be something straightforward, like accounting for floor protection when painting, or something more specific, like recognizing that removing an L-shaped stone countertop without damaging the backsplash is its own scope item. Those details add up.
That said, there are situations where a public adjuster isn’t necessary. If the carrier’s valuation is consistent with the contractor you want to use and you don’t feel like you’re compromising, you probably don’t need one. If you’re not sure, a second set of eyes on what the estimate says costs you nothing.
The honest answer is that it depends on your situation and how you want to handle it.
Some policyholders prefer to see how far they can get on their own and bring in a PA when they hit a wall. Others — particularly people who’ve been through a major loss before or who don’t have the time or patience to manage a complicated process — hire a public adjuster at the start. They’ve done the math: their time is worth more than the fight.
Early engagement tends to produce smoother outcomes. We’ve taken over claims mid-process where decisions were made early on that had to be undone. There’s no way to prove that in advance, but we’ve seen what it looks like when it goes the other way.
Versa handles residential property claims: homeowners, rental properties, and similar. Our deepest experience is in water losses (including flood), structural losses from tree falls, and fire, smoke, and soot claims.
We take complex claims. If your loss involves a roof but also includes interior structural or finish damage, that’s within our scope. We don’t take standalone roof-only claims or commercial property claims at this time.
Practically speaking, the smallest claims we pursue fall in the $30,000 range. Our fee is a percentage of what we recover, and very small losses don’t generate enough to justify the time a thorough investigation requires.
That said, most people don’t know what their claim is actually worth when they call. Our average claim valuation is around $75,000. We’d rather have the conversation first. If your loss appears too small for full representation, we’ll tell you that honestly and offer what guidance we can on how to handle it yourself.
Versa is based in Houston and actively serves Houston and the surrounding region, from Conroe to Galveston, Beaumont to Katy, and the communities in between. We’re licensed to work anywhere in Texas and willing to travel when the scope of a loss calls for it.
If you’re not sure whether your location is within our range, call us and ask. If we’re not the right fit, we can point you toward someone who is.
Our fee is contingency-based, meaning a percentage of what we recover for you. If we don’t recover anything, you owe us nothing. Under Texas law, public adjuster fees are capped at 10% of the claim settlement.
There is no upfront fee and nothing out of pocket at the start. Our fee is invoiced to you at the conclusion of the engagement.
If you have a replacement cost value (RCV) policy — which most standard homeowner policies include — your insurer will pay your claim in two stages.
The first payment is the depreciated value: the repair costs adjusted downward to account for the age and normal wear of the damaged components. The second payment, called recoverable depreciation, is what they held back. Once you complete the repairs, you can submit documentation to recover that holdback up to its full amount.
This structure has a historical explanation. Insurance policies were originally written as actual cash value (ACV) only. When it became clear that ACV payments rarely covered a full rebuild after a major loss, replacement cost endorsements were added. Because RCV is an endorsement on top of the base policy, the insurer is only obligated to pay ACV first. You have to demonstrate that you spent the money to collect the rest.
Yes. You can engage a public adjuster at any point in the claims process, including after a denial, an underpayment, or a settlement you’ve already received but believe was inadequate. Texas law provides a window for reopening closed claims.
Contact us with the details of where your claim stands, and we’ll tell you honestly whether re-engagement is viable.
The insurance industry sometimes suggests to policyholders that involving a PA complicates or delays the process. That argument serves the insurer’s interest, not yours.
What slows down claims is incomplete documentation, missed coverage, and disputes over scope that could have been resolved with better evidence from the start. A properly prepared claim file, submitted with a complete estimate, fully annotated photographs, and a clear summary, gives the carrier’s adjuster less to dispute, not more.
It varies more than most people expect. Claim size, complexity, and the responsiveness of the desk adjuster assigned to your file all affect the timeline in ways that are difficult to predict at the start. The shortest turnaround I’ve seen from engagement to check in hand was six weeks. That came down to thorough documentation on our end and an unusually responsive adjuster on theirs. That combination is not the norm.
The most common sources of delay are a Sworn Proof of Loss submission triggering the need for a carrier reinspection, and desk adjusters who are carrying enough of a caseload that substantive responses take two weeks or more. Neither of those is within our control, but both are manageable when the claim file is well-prepared going in.
There are also things on the policyholder’s side that can extend a timeline significantly. Carriers are within their rights to hold their position until they receive requested information — delays in responding to those requests stall the claim. Starting repairs while a dispute is still open is the more consequential mistake. Once the damaged conditions no longer exist, the carrier has grounds to argue they were not given the opportunity to inspect. That can prejudice your position in ways that are difficult to walk back.
Our involvement means we send a substantial amount of documentation for the carrier to review, which does take time to process. The alternative is a leaner file that moves faster but gives the carrier less to work with. If your goal is a fair outcome rather than a fast one, thoroughness is the right trade-off.
If you feel like the process has stalled, pay attention to the language. A carrier response that says they cannot justify additional payment is not the same as saying there is no additional payment to be had. More often than not, the subtext is that they cannot justify it with the documentation currently in front of them. That is a documentation problem, and it is one we can address.
Most property insurance policies include an appraisal clause — a formal dispute resolution mechanism allowing either party to demand appraisal when there’s a disagreement over the value of a loss. Each side selects an appraiser; those two choose an umpire; the umpire’s decision is binding.
Appraisal is always an option available to you. But it comes with a tradeoff: once invoked, you give up direct control of the outcome. The umpire’s decision is final, and neither party knows who the umpire will be until after both appraisers have been selected.
Versa does not provide appraisal services. If we’re already engaged as your public adjuster, we’re no longer a disinterested party, which is a requirement to serve as an appraiser. What we can do is prepare a claim file that is fully documented and ready to transfer to an appraiser or attorney if that becomes the right path.
Less than 3% of our claims have had to go to an attorney. It’s genuinely uncommon.
When it does happen, the file is ready. Every substantive communication with the carrier’s adjuster is in writing and preserved. The complete claim file — photographs, estimates, correspondence, and timeline — is backed up and can be transferred to an attorney with a single download link. On complex claims, we’ll typically prepare a separate summary document walking through the key timeline and submissions to orient the legal team before they go into the full file.
The documentation standard we apply from day one is designed to be usable beyond our own engagement if it ever needs to be.
This comes up often. There are several honest answers.
Insurance companies are for-profit businesses. The financial logic of underpaying claims isn’t complicated.
There’s also a structural explanation. Since roughly 2015, insurers have systematically shifted claim authority away from experienced field adjusters toward desk adjusters making decisions remotely, based on thirty minutes of site time and a set of photographs taken by someone else. The institutional knowledge that used to live in the field has been centralized into offices where it’s thinner, and that’s where the authority now sits.
None of this necessarily means your insurer is acting illegally. It means the claims process is not designed around your interests, and navigating it without professional help is harder than it should be.
There was a time when contractors routinely discussed damage scope with insurance companies on their clients’ behalf, and insurers generally worked with them. That arrangement broke down on both sides.
Some contractors began inflating prices when an insurer was paying, and in some cases created additional damage to increase the size of the contract. Insurers, in turn, instituted internal procedures designed to slow claims, counting on policyholders to eventually stop pursuing money they were rightfully owed.
The Texas legislature responded by licensing public adjusters as a consumer protection. Under current law, a contractor may discuss the necessary scope of repairs. But if the insurer disagrees with that scope, the contractor cannot argue further — doing so would mean affecting the value of the claim settlement, which requires a public adjuster license. See our For Contractors page for more detail on how Texas law defines the line.
There is no charge for the initial claim review or the on-site visit. If your loss isn’t something we can help with, we’ll tell you that directly — and offer what guidance we can.