If the insurance company and the homeowner cannot agree on a price for the claim in dispute, most homeowners would feel that they have no other options besides to go to court. However this is not true, there is a clause in the insurance industry known as the appraisal clause. The Appraisal Clause is simply the process to which disputed values in claims get resolved out of court.
If the property owner and the insurance company can not agree on figures for the damages, then the claim would be taken to appraisal. Each side of the dispute, the insured and the insurance company, both have independent appraisers represent them in the appraisal process. Both the insured and the insurance company choose their own independent appraiser to represent them.
A third unrelated appraiser known as the umpire is also involved in the appraisal process. The umpire is unaffiliated with either side of the dispute. His job is to mediate the process and if the two sides cannot come to an agreement, it is the umpire’s job to decide which appraiser wins the dispute. The appraisers from the insured and the insurance company have 15 days to come to a settlement before the dispute gets settled by the umpire. Here at Performance Adjusting, we make our best efforts to stay out of the appraisal process, but if we cannot agree on figures with the insurance company and the homeowner is not satisfied with the figures, the next step would be to take it to the appraisal process to get the homeowner the money that they deserve.
