What Not to Say to the Adjuster (and What to Say Instead)

Most of the damage homeowners do to their own claims is accidental. Not lies, not schemes: just polite, imprecise, guessed-at sentences, spoken into a phone call that becomes the permanent record of the claim. After Hurricane Ian I said several of these myself before I understood that the adjuster conversation is an interview, and the file remembers everything. This is not a guide to outsmarting anyone. It is a guide to not letting your own guesses get filed as facts.

First, the ground rules

Be honest, always. Cooperate with the claim; your policy requires it and it is also simply right. And know that honesty and preparation are not opposites: it is entirely reasonable to say "can we schedule this call for tomorrow so I have my notes and photos in front of me?" Cooperating does not mean answering everything unprepared, on the spot, from memory.

The phrases that quietly hurt, and what to say instead

1. "It's not that bad."

Florida politeness is a claim hazard. "We're fine, it's mostly the roof" becomes the first note in the file, and every later finding has to argue with it. Instead: describe factually and completely, without adjectives in either direction. "Water entered the main bedroom and the ceiling drywall is sagging" beats both "it's terrible" and "it's not that bad."

2. "I think the water came from..."

After a hurricane, wind damage and flood damage are covered by different policies, and the cause question can be the whole claim. You are a witness to what you saw, not an engineer, and a guessed cause gets written down as your statement. Instead: "I don't know the cause. Here is what I observed and when I observed it." "I don't know" is a complete, correct answer.

3. "The roof was already pretty old, honestly."

Volunteered speculation about pre-existing wear, offered from memory to be agreeable, becomes evidence about depreciation and condition. Instead: give documented facts. The roof's age is in your records and permits, not in your recollection under stress. If you don't have the document in front of you, say you'll follow up with it.

4. "That sounds about right."

Agreeing to an estimate on the phone, before any contractor has priced the repair, is negotiating against yourself out of courtesy. Instead: "I'll review the estimate against contractor quotes and respond in writing." That sentence is polite, cooperative, and closes nothing prematurely.

5. "Just send whatever you think is fair."

This waives your participation in your own claim. The process is built on both sides documenting; stepping back does not make it friendlier, only one-sided. Instead: keep your scope of damage in writing and compare theirs against it, line by line.

6. "Everything was brand new."

The overclaim in the other direction. Exaggerating damage or condition is not leverage: misrepresenting a claim is insurance fraud under Florida Statute 817.234, and even innocent-sounding inflation gives the file a reason to doubt the legitimate parts. Instead: accuracy, backed by the photos you took before the storm. The documented truth is the strongest position there is.

What the strong version sounds like

• Dates, times, and your claim number at hand for every call.
• Observations, not conclusions: what you saw, where, when.
• "I don't know" and "I'll follow up in writing with that" used freely.
• A dated note after every conversation: who, what was said, what was promised. Adjusters rotate after big storms; your diary is the memory the file loses.
• Anything that matters, confirmed in writing afterward, even just a short email.

The goal is not to outsmart anyone. It is to make sure the file contains what actually happened, and nothing you guessed at.

The conversation goes better when the preparation already happened: the 72-hour checklist builds the record, the deadlines guide keeps the clocks, and if the gap between your documentation and their estimate stays wide, the public adjuster comparison walks through the paths from there, including the state's free ones.