Public adjusters in Missouri, explained
There is one trade in this state licensed to do the thing a roofing contractor is forbidden to do: argue your claim for you. It is a real profession with a real licence, a bond, a cancellation right and no cap on what it may charge, and it is worth understanding before you need it.
- Governing law
- RSMo chapter 325, administered by the Missouri DCI.
- Licensed and bonded
- Yes to both. Verify before you sign anything.
- Fee cap in Missouri
- None. The fee is a matter of contract.
- Your cancellation right
- Three business days.
- May they also do the repair
- No. RSMo 325.055 bars it.
Three kinds of adjuster, and only one of them works for you
Company adjuster
An employee of your insurance company. Handles the file from a desk, decides coverage, sets depreciation, authorises payment. You will usually speak to several over the life of a claim and rarely meet any of them.
Independent adjuster
Contracted to the carrier rather than employed by it, and the person most likely to be on your roof, especially after a metro-wide storm when catastrophe crews are brought in from out of state. Inspects and reports. Does not decide.
Public adjuster
Retained by the policyholder under a written contract, licensed under RSMo chapter 325, bonded, and regulated by the Missouri Department of Commerce and Insurance. Prepares, presents and argues your claim on your behalf. This is the only one of the three you hire.
Chapter 325, in the parts a homeowner will meet
A Missouri public adjuster must hold a licence issued by the Department of Commerce and Insurance and must be bonded. You can and should verify both before signing, through the department's own licence lookup rather than through paperwork the person hands you.
Missouri sets no statutory cap on the fee. Some states cap public adjuster compensation at a percentage, particularly after a declared catastrophe. Missouri does not. The fee is whatever the written contract says, commonly a percentage of the settlement, and the number is negotiable before you sign and not afterwards. Ask what the percentage applies to: the whole settlement, or only the increase over what the carrier had already offered. Those are very different contracts.
You have three business days to cancel. A homeowner may cancel a public adjuster contract within three business days. That is a shorter window than the five business days RSMo 407.725(3) gives on a contingent roofing contract, so if you have signed both in the same week, the adjuster clock is the one that runs out first.
RSMo 325.055 keeps them off your roof. A public adjuster may not perform the repair work and may not hold a financial interest in the company that does. That separation is the point of the statute: the person arguing what the repair is worth must not be the person selling the repair. It is the mirror image of RSMo 407.725, coming at the same conflict from the other side.
When one is worth the fee, and when one is not
A roofing contractor has an obvious interest in this question, so take the following with that in mind and check it against somebody with no stake.
Probably worth considering
- A large or complicated loss where the roof is one part of a much bigger claim.
- A denial resting on policy language you cannot follow, where the argument is genuinely about coverage rather than about squares.
- A claim that has stalled for months with no written explanation.
- A household that genuinely cannot run the correspondence: illness, bereavement, distance, or a rental property two states away.
Probably not
- A straightforward accepted hail claim where the only gap is a few missing line items. That is a letter and a measurement, and the fee will exceed the difference.
- Any situation where the first cheque is simply actual cash value and the depreciation is recoverable on completion. That is not a shortfall, it is a schedule.
- A claim where the carrier has not yet issued an estimate. There is nothing to argue about yet.
- Any arrangement introduced to you by the roofing contractor bidding the work, which is exactly the entanglement RSMo 325.055 exists to prevent.
Because the alternative is the thing the statute was written about
The reason RSMo 407.725 exists is that roofing contractors in this trade have historically offered to be your public adjuster without the licence, the bond, the cancellation right or the prohibition on also selling you the repair. That offer is attractive after a storm and it is closed off in Missouri, and a homeowner who does not know a licensed alternative exists is exactly who ends up accepting it.
Keys Roofing does not represent anybody to their insurer, does not negotiate any part of a claim, and takes no share of any settlement. If your claim needs somebody to argue it, that is a licensed public adjuster or a lawyer, and neither of them is us.
The full map of who does what · The routes available after a denial
The building half of the problem
A public adjuster argues the claim. A roofer documents and builds the roof. Keys Roofing does the second thing: photographs of every slope, a measurement, a priced written scope you keep, and the work itself if you want it.
Keys does not represent you to your insurer, does not negotiate any part of a claim, and takes no share of any settlement.
Roofing, gutters and downspouts across greater St. Louis. No siding, no windows, no commercial work.
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