The following Farmers Insurance adjuster training document was posted on a public adjuster forum yesterday:

Adjusters should get extensive and accurate training about aspects of property damage. Unfortunately, wrong or poor training, especially if it fails to correctly explain what to look for so the insurance customer is fully paid for a loss, can create mass wrongful adjustments. This page is an example and created a number of comments. A few of those comments from roofing experts were:

  • Rarely does a shingle ever leave the plant that’s not been reviewed by several layers of quality control.
  • Corner cracking or any cracking on tiles is usually the result of movement from wind.
  • A shingle does not have to be creased to be damaged. By simply being de-bonded from wind is the shingle damaged.
  • "Functional damage" is a concept "coined" by HAAG. Engineer Neill Hall has a great analysis he shared at the Merlin Hail seminar debunking the HAAG "functional damage" phrase. "Functional damage" does not mean that the roof is not physically damaged. Physical damage generally results in a loss of expected life to a roof and increases the expectancy of pre-mature failure.
  • Garbage in results in garbage out. If insurance claims management wants to focus more on what not to look for and what does not constitute damage, you can count on far more underpayments than fair and full payments of benefits owed.

Positive Thought for the Day Regarding Education:

If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail.
        – Abraham Maslow