Duties of Appraisers

July 9, 2013

I am an Independent Adjuster assigned to represent a carrier as a competent, impartial appraiser on a homeowners claim. The carrier has stated that I have no authorization in regards to determining scope, damage amount or scheduling meetings with any other party. The opposing appraiser believes this control is contradictory to the intent of the appraisal process and that the lack of allowing full authorization is acting in bad faith on the part of the carrier, myself and my company. Does the opposing appraiser have a valid belief?

Tennessee Subscriber

The appraisal clause of the policy makes no statements as to authority to schedule meetings; the appraisers are to select an umpire and then set the amount of the loss. This is not coverage determination, simply the cost of the loss. The appraisers do not determine scope, i.e. whether something is coverage A or B, or whether the entire roof needs to be replaced or not. The appraisers simply determine that the roof repair is X dollars.