For Plumbers, Contractors, and Trades
You find the failure. I handle the policy.
I’m Robert Mack — licensed Florida public adjuster, Lic. #A161638, Montverde, FL 34756. In the insurance industry since 1991. I work Lake, Orange, Sumter, and Polk.
You already know how a job goes. You find what failed, you tell the customer what it takes to fix it, and sometimes the number lands and the customer goes quiet. They weren’t expecting it. They can’t cover it. That’s not your problem to solve — you’re not in the insurance business, and you shouldn’t have to be.
Here’s the part on my side
A policy is a document that contains money. It’s written in a language almost nobody can read — buckets of coverage, conditions, exclusions, triggers. Reading it is what I do for a living.
My job is to take what actually happened at the property and find which bucket in that document it opens. That knowledge does exactly one thing: it produces cash — for repair, replacement, tear-out, access, whatever the loss requires.
So the split is clean. You know what happened and what it takes to fix it. I know where in the document the money for it lives. Neither of us can do the other’s half.
The trade
When the customer balks at the money, or can’t pay out of pocket — send them to me. I find out whether there’s a policy that covers it, and I tell them straight if there isn’t.
When I’ve got a claim that needs a repair or a scope — I call you.
No fee changes hands either direction. I’m not paying you for a referral and you’re not paying me for one. I’m paid a percentage of what I recover on a claim, out of the claim — and if nothing’s recovered, nothing is owed. It costs your customer nothing to find out.
Where the money is in the document
A few places the money is won or lost after the failure leaves your hands:
Cast iron. The pipe is usually disputed as wear — and the carrier often wins that. The resulting damage, the tear-out, and the access frequently are not disputed. That distinction is worth more than the re-pipe quote the customer can’t say yes to.
The scope is what makes the money. A carrier pays what’s documented. Matching, access, and consequential damage belong in a scope and are routinely left out — and what’s left out doesn’t get paid.
Category matters on water losses. Cat 1 versus Cat 3 changes what has to come out versus what can be dried — and that changes the payout.
Deadlines are real. Florida law (Fla. Stat. §627.70132) generally gives one year to file and eighteen months to supplement, from the date of loss — but some carriers impose far shorter reporting windows. Moving early protects the whole claim.
None of that is your job. It’s mine. I’m laying it out so you know the document has rules, and that reading it is a discipline — the same way your trade is.
When to call
Call me when the money is the problem. It costs your customer nothing to find out, and if it isn’t covered I’ll tell them straight.
Related: Cast iron pipe claims · Is it covered? · Denied or underpaid claims
Robert Mack
Licensed Public Adjuster · Lic. #A161638
Public Loss Adjusters, LLC · Montverde, FL 34756
352-353-4556 · rmack@placlaim.com
Lake · Orange · Sumter · Polk