Why We Need a Mandatory Right to Appraisal
It is our position at Auto Claim Specialists that the right to appraisal should be a mandatory contractual right in every policy.
As a Public Insurance Adjuster Agency, our clients come to us for help with their automobile insurance claims. We rarely see instances where carrier issued settlement offers are not well below what is needed to make their insureds whole on their loss. When this is the case, the way we are able to help our clients get properly indemnified is by utilizing the appraisal clause in their insurance contract, which requires each party to hire a competent appraiser, and the appraisers to determine the true loss.
On insured claims the right to appraisal is always the guardrail for indemnification of the loss when a dispute over the loss arises. Because of our past success using the appraisal clause to force carriers to make our clients whole as their policies dictate, carriers have begun to fight back by attempting to remove or restrict the appraisal clause. This only hurts the insureds. One carrier succeeded in eliminating the contractual right of its insureds to invoke appraisal for repair claims. This is a dangerous precedent, and other carriers are attempting to follow.
What We Are Doing
During the 87th and 88th Texas legislative session we at Auto Claim Specialists played an active role in the Right to Appraisal bill sponsored by Representative Clardy and Senator Hughes. For the 89th Texas Legislative panel, we will be teaming with several lobbyists and law makers to try to secure mandatory contractual appraisal rights for all insured Texans. It is our position that any limiting or removal of the right to appraisal concerning a repair procedure dispute will be the nail in the coffin for safe roadways for us all.
We can help to educate any lawmakers who will listen about how important the mandatory contractual right of appraisal is for insured Texans.
Why We Need Your Help
Gaining access and attention at the State Capitol costs money. The insurance carriers have a seemingly bottomless pit of resources to fight against us in this critical battle. However, we, the insureds, are many, and we are confident that if we join forces and all do what we can, we can be successful in securing our right, and our children’s right, to contest insurance settlement offers that would result in underpayment of losses and/or shoddy and dangerous repairs.
Under-indemnification in total loss and repair procedure claims in Texas and elsewhere is rampant.
Besides achieving higher settlements for total loss claims averaging 28% above carriers’ settlement offers, Auto Claim Specialists has also reduced clients’ out-of-pocket expenses on repair procedure disputes by over 44%. These under-indemnification percentages are staggering and harmful to Texas citizens. Please help us to prevent the carriers from removing the critical contractual right of appraisal that has allowed us to achieve these substantial results for our clients in need of help in what are often very stressful and frustrating circumstances.
The spirit of the Appraisal Clause is to resolve loss disputes fairly and to do so in a timely and cost-effective manner. The invoking of the appraisal clause removes inexperienced and biased carrier appraisers and claims handlers from the process, undermining their management’s many tricks to undervalue the loss settlement and under-indemnify the insured. Through the Appraisal Clause, loss disputes can be resolved relatively quickly, economically, equitably, and amicably by unbiased experienced independent 3rd party appraisers, as opposed to the excessively costly and much more time-consuming methods such as mediation, arbitration, and litigation.