Before I opened Coyne Commercial Group, I adjusted claims for the insurance company. I walked buildings after storms with a carrier's guidelines in my head and a carrier's software on my laptop. Now I represent property owners, condo associations and businesses on the other side of the table. If a hurricane comes through Pensacola, Navarre, Fort Walton Beach or Panama City Beach, this is what the adjuster who shows up for your insurance company is looking for, and what you can do before they arrive.
They are looking for the cause, not just the damage
The first question a carrier adjuster answers is not "how bad is it?" It is "what caused it, and is that cause covered?" On the Gulf Coast that usually means sorting wind from water. Wind and wind-driven rain are generally handled under the property policy. Storm surge and rising water are generally flood, which is a separate policy, and many commercial and condo property policies exclude it.
That is why the adjuster will look closely at water lines, debris lines, which side of the building took the worst of it, and whether interior damage sits above or below the surge height. If you have photos showing roof, window or wall damage before water came up, that sequence matters. We go deeper on this in our wind vs flood guide for Gulf-front property.
They are looking for damage that was already there
Every carrier adjuster is trained to separate new storm damage from wear and tear, deferred maintenance and old leaks. Rusted flashing, a roof near the end of its life, old staining on a ceiling, soft framing from long-term seepage: all of it gets noted and can be used to reduce or deny part of a claim.
This is the single most common fight on older Panhandle condo buildings. The answer is evidence. Maintenance records, recent roof reports, milestone inspection findings, and dated photos from before the storm all help show what the building looked like before the wind arrived. If you do not have pre-storm photos, take a careful walkthrough as soon as it is safe, and keep anything that shows the building's condition in the months before.
They are measuring what they can see
A carrier adjuster on a catastrophe deployment may have a long list of properties to see in a short time. They write what they can see and measure that day. Damage inside wall cavities, under roof membranes, in elevator equipment, or in electrical rooms that are still closed off often does not make the first estimate.
That is not always bad faith. It is the reality of a busy storm response. But the first estimate is a starting point, not a final number, and it is your job as the owner or manager to make sure the full scope gets in front of the carrier. We wrote about what to do when that first number comes in low in how to handle a lowball insurance offer.
They are checking whether you protected the property
Nearly every property policy expects the owner to take reasonable steps to prevent further damage after a loss. Tarps on the roof, boarding broken windows, water extraction, and drying. The adjuster will ask what you did and when you did it. If water sat for weeks and turned into mold, the carrier may argue that part of the loss came from the delay rather than the storm.
Call your mitigation vendor early, keep every invoice, photograph the work before and after, and keep a simple log of dates. Reasonable mitigation costs are generally part of the claim.
They are applying your deductible
Most Florida commercial and condo policies carry a hurricane or named-storm deductible that is a percentage of the insured value, not a flat dollar amount. On a Gulf-front building insured for tens of millions of dollars, that deductible can be very large. The adjuster will apply it, and sometimes the way it is applied per building or per occurrence makes a real difference. If you have not read that section of your policy yet, our post on named-storm deductibles on commercial property walks through it.
What I tell owners to do before the carrier adjuster arrives
When I was on the carrier side, the claims that paid fully and quickly were the ones where the owner had already done the work. Here is the short version:
- Report the claim promptly and write down the claim number and the adjuster's name.
- Photograph and video everything before cleanup, inside and out, including equipment rooms and the roof if it is safe to get there.
- Pull your declarations page and policy so you know your deductible, flood coverage and business income coverage.
- Keep every mitigation invoice and a log of what was done and when.
- Walk the property with the adjuster, point out everything you found, and ask for a copy of their estimate in writing.
- Do not sign a release or accept a final number until you understand what is in the estimate and what is missing.
Where a public adjuster fits
A carrier adjuster works for the insurance company. A licensed public adjuster works for you. On a large commercial or condo loss, that difference shows up in the scope, the documentation, and the final number. I spent years learning how carriers build an estimate. Now I use that to make sure the owner's side of the claim is just as complete.
If your building in the Panhandle takes damage, reach out and I will tell you plainly whether I can help. You can also read more about our work in Pensacola and Destin.