Florida has experienced unprecedented public adjuster involvement in first-party property insurance claims over the last several years. Public adjusters are demanding appraisals on wind losses that are several years old, reporting chipped tile claims, sinkhole claims, plumbing leaks, new claims on old damage — the list goes on. Two changes to insurance statutes can be at least partially credited with the increased involvement of public adjusters and an associated increase in insurance fraud.

One of the reasons public adjusters have involved themselves in all types of first-party property damage claims is the change that occurred in 2006 to the Replacement Cost Statute 627.7011. The language added to this statute requires homeowners' policy claims with replacement cost coverage to be paid on a replacement cost basis at the time of the loss. Previously (per policy loss settlement provisions), the claim was paid at actual cash value (ACV) until repairs were completed, and the actual repair/replacement cost of the loss was no longer an estimate. This change was brought about after the 2004 wind losses when some insureds complained that they could not get a contractor to effect repairs until they (the contractors) were paid the full replacement cost of the loss. The statute was further changed to include language to the effect that the replacement cost was owed whether the repairs were completed or not.

The Matching Statute 626.9744 also has had far reaching unintended consequences, albeit to a lesser extent. This statute requires homeowners' policies to pay for reasonable repairs or replacement of items in adjoining areas if the damaged items cannot be matched.