Bad faith adjusting will end your career...
When you are adjusting in bad faith you are intentionally setting the claim up to be fixed (cleaned up) by another adjuster later on down the road. In other words, you are being lazy! Bad faith refers to breach of contract when dealing with all involved parties (including contractors) who will assume you are acting in good faith and fair dealing. Acting in bad faith will end your career and can also put you in jail!
Bad faith involves being dishonest or fraudulent in a claim. Examples of bad faith claim handling could be:
- Entering into an agreement without any intent of living up to the terms that have been agreed upon. (not fulfilling the contractual obligations to the insured based on what is written in their insurance policy)
- Knowingly misrepresenting the quality of an item you are attempting to settle with the insured.
- Intent to deceive or mislead in order to gain some sort of advantage.
- Failure to thoroughly investigate a claim.
- Failure to promptly investigate the insured's property.
- Time periods that are deemed acceptable in reference to the above item will be defined in the insurance policy.
- Unreasonably delaying or denying payment.
- Refusing to settle the claim in its entirety. (intentionally providing a "less than fair/reasonable" settlement on an item)
Bad faith is also a two way street. Insureds (policy holders) and contractors may also be found guilty of acting in bad faith. It usually involves falsifying information in an attempt to mislead the insurance company. Yes, this includes eating deductibles!
