Public Adjusters for Roof Claims: When They Help and What They Cost

A public adjuster is a licensed claims professional you hire to prepare and negotiate your roof claim with your own insurer, and the fee is a share of what the insurer pays: up to 10 percent of the total in Texas, and up to 10 or 20 percent in Florida depending on whether the loss followed a declared emergency, with no Florida fee on money the insurer paid or agreed to pay before you signed. Hire one only when that share is smaller than the money they can realistically add.

Two numbers settle that question before you sign anything: the payment base the fee is charged on, and the size of the gap between the insurer’s estimate and a complete scope of work.

What a Public Adjuster Does for You

The adjuster your insurer sends works for the insurance company. A public adjuster works for you: they document the loss, build a competing estimate, and argue the scope and price with the insurer. The Texas Department of Insurance guide to public adjusters describes them as professionals who “understand the claims process and are licensed by TDI.”

What they cannot do is rewrite your policy. If the insurer says the roof leaked because it wore out, a skilled negotiator does not change the cause. Before you pay anyone a percentage, confirm the damage is the kind a policy pays for, using the covered-peril vs. wear test.

They are also not your roofer. Under Texas law, a public adjuster who works on your claim cannot act as your contractor, according to the same TDI guide. In other states, ask in writing whether the adjuster has any financial tie to a roofing company, because someone paid on both sides of the job answers to two interests.

When the disagreement is about what the policy language means, or a deadline to sue is close, that question belongs with a licensed attorney in your state rather than an adjuster.

How the Fee Is Calculated

The fee is a percentage multiplied by a payment base:

Fee = fee percentage × payment base

The percentage gets the attention, but the base can move the result more. A contract can apply the percentage to every dollar the insurer pays on the claim, including money it offered before you hired anyone, or only to payments above that earlier offer. TDI frames the Texas cap as up to 10 percent “of the total amount the company will pay for your claim,” so in Texas plan around the larger base unless the contract clearly says otherwise.

The test that matters is what you keep. Your net with an adjuster is the final insurer payment minus the fee. Compare that with the offer you had in writing before hiring.

Hypothetical example, for a contract and a state rule that allow a fee on every claim payment (Florida does not, as the next section shows): The insurer’s written offer is $12,000. An adjuster charging 10 percent of all claim payments gets the final payment to $14,000. The fee is $1,400, so you keep $12,600, which is $600 more than the original offer. If the adjuster raises the payment only to $13,000, the fee is $1,300 and you keep $11,700, or $300 less than you would have had alone. Under a contract that charges 10 percent only on the $2,000 increase, the fee would be $200 and you would keep $13,800.

The arithmetic generalizes. When the fee applies to the whole payment, the adjuster must raise the payment by more than the fee charged on the final payment before you come out ahead. At 10 percent, the final payment has to exceed the original offer divided by 0.9. At 20 percent, it has to exceed the offer divided by 0.8.

Check which later payments the base reaches. If the contract covers “all payments on the claim,” the fee also applies to depreciation the insurer releases after the roof is finished and to any supplement payments. The guide to actual cash value and replacement cost explains when those later payments arrive.

Fee Caps in Florida and Texas

As of the 2026 Florida Statutes, section 626.854 on public adjusters caps fees at 10 percent of claim payments for claims made during the year after a governor’s state-of-emergency declaration, and at 20 percent for claims not based on a declared emergency. Reopened or supplemental claims carry a 20 percent cap. A 1 percent cap applies when the insurer’s payment, or its written agreement to pay, equals or exceeds the policy limit for a coverage part within 14 days after the date of loss or within 10 days after the adjusting contract is signed, whichever is later.

Florida also limits the payment base, which changes the math above:

• Money paid or promised before you signed. The cap is zero percent on any coverage part where the insurer’s payment or written agreement to pay came before the contract date, so if the $12,000 in the example had already been paid or agreed in writing before you signed, a Florida adjuster could take no share of it.
• Reopened or supplemental claims. The fee may be based only on payments obtained through the adjuster’s work after the contract, never on earlier settlements or payments for the same cause of loss. It may not exceed 20 percent of the reopened or supplemental payment, and it stays within the 10 percent emergency cap when that cap applies.
• Deductible and living expenses. The fee may not be based on the deductible, and it reaches additional living expenses only under a separate signed agreement with the disclosure the statute prescribes.

A Florida version of the example: the insurer paid $12,000 before you signed, and the adjuster reopens the claim and gets another $2,000 on a loss not tied to a declared emergency. No fee may be based on the $12,000. Under the reopened-claim rule the fee is capped at 20 percent of the $2,000, or $400, so you keep at least $13,600; if the claim followed a declared emergency and was made within the year after the declaration, the 10 percent cap holds it to $200. Where the earlier payment or written agreement and the later payment fall on the same coverage part, the zero percent rule may leave even less room, so ask the Florida Department of Financial Services or a Florida attorney how the two rules apply to your contract before you sign.

These limits are from the 2026 statute text. Ask the adjuster to name, in the contract, the payments the fee applies to and the subsection that sets the cap.

In Texas, TDI’s guide (last updated March 25, 2025) says public adjusters are licensed by the department and can charge up to 10 percent of the total amount the insurer pays.

Other states write their own licensing and fee rules. Find yours through the NAIC directory of state insurance departments before you compare a contract against any cap.

When the Fee Pays for Itself

A public adjuster earns the fee when the insurer accepts that a covered event happened but the dollars or the scope fall well short of what the roof needs. Signs of that situation: the insurer approved one slope and your roofer’s itemized scope calls for the whole roof; the estimate leaves out a second layer, code items or interior damage; or the claim spans the roof, ceilings and belongings and you cannot spare the hours to run it. The gap is large compared with the fee, and documenting it is exactly the work an adjuster does.

The fee is harder to justify in three situations:

• A small, specific gap. If the dispute is a few missing line items, you can request a supplement yourself with your roofer’s measurements and photos. The claim filing steps and the guide to reading the insurer’s roof estimate cover that route.
• A denial based on cause. When the insurer says the damage is wear, the answer is evidence of a dated event, not negotiation. Start with the roof claim denial guide.
• A policy-limits payment. If the insurer is paying the limit, little is left to add, and Florida caps the fee at 1 percent when that payment or written agreement comes within the statute’s time window.

There is also a middle path for disputes over the amount of a covered loss. Your policy may contain an appraisal provision. Under it, as TDI explains in its guide for underpaid claims, each side picks an appraiser, the two appraisers choose an umpire, and if the appraisers disagree, the umpire’s decision binds both you and the company. You pay your own appraiser and half of the umpire’s expenses, a cost you can price against an adjuster’s percentage. TDI also says to check your policy for any deadline to demand appraisal.

Check the License and Contract Before You Sign

Run this list before signing, and keep a copy of every page:

1. Look up the adjuster’s license with your state insurance department. In Texas, TDI licenses public adjusters; for other states, use the NAIC directory to reach the right department.
2. Find the fee percentage in the contract and confirm it does not exceed your state’s cap for this type of claim, if your state sets one.
3. Find the payment base in writing: all claim payments, or only amounts above the insurer’s offer before you signed.
4. Confirm whether the fee applies to released depreciation and supplement payments.
5. Ask how the insurer’s checks will be made out and how the fee is taken from them.
6. Ask whether the adjuster, or anyone who pays the adjuster, has a stake in the roofing work. In Texas, the adjuster on your claim cannot be your contractor.
7. Read how the contract ends: what notice you give and what you owe if you cancel. In Florida, section 626.854 lets you cancel without penalty within 10 days after signing; if the contract was based on events under a Governor’s emergency declaration, the window is 30 days after the date of loss or 10 days after signing, whichever is longer. A Florida adjuster must also give you an itemized written estimate within 60 days after the contract, and if it does not arrive, you may cancel without added fees unless the delay was beyond the adjuster’s control.
8. If the adjuster approached you right after a storm, take the contract home and read it before signing.

Should You Hire a Public Adjuster for This Roof Claim?

Hire one when three conditions hold: the insurer accepts that a covered event caused the damage, your roofer’s itemized scope exceeds the insurer’s estimate by more than the fee would cost under the contract’s actual payment base, and the license and contract checks come back clean. Skip it when the gap is a few line items, when the denial turns on wear or age, or when the insurer has offered the policy limit.

Your next step: write down the insurer’s current written offer, your roofer’s scope total, and the contract’s percentage and payment base. Run the net calculation from this page with those three numbers before you sign.

This guide is general information for U.S. homeowners, not legal, insurance, tax, or engineering advice. Codes, laws, and policy terms vary by location and change over time; confirm details with your local building department, your insurer, or a licensed professional.

Sources

• The 2026 Florida Statutes, 626.854 Public adjuster; definitions and prohibitions, Florida Legislature (Online Sunshine)
• Public adjusters: What to know before you hire one to help with your claim, Texas Department of Insurance
• What if my insurance isn’t paying enough?, Texas Department of Insurance
• Insurance Departments, National Association of Insurance Commissioners