John Minor at Complete is hired by the best property managers, HOA boards, attorneys, as well as insurance companies, such as on this Hurricane Ian loss in Fort Myers. We were told early on, and found it to be true, that this insurer expected me to inspect and appraise based on my own understanding of the damages to this 400,000 SF, 45-year-old property. We reviewed the loss and segregated the damages between the wind and flood. Our office collected the flood scope and made certain we did not duplicate the allowances from one loss to the other. We pulled the weather data that I was able to back up from my own experiences in Fort Myers in the days and hours before Hurricane Ian made landfall, where I was in the field with the Florida Coastal Monitoring Program.
Our office inspected the roof, exterior stucco, and the interiors with a fine-tooth comb and were very pleased to have the support of the well-known and respected opposing appraiser. It took a while for the opposing appraiser to believe that we were there to gather an agreement on a fair value but eventually our process smoothed out and resulted in a well-run program between us. We did bring in the umpire to speed the process up on the issues where we found disagreement. Our combined staffs worked together to find agreement on the hundreds of incurred invoices and the claim was resolved with a three-party award.
Appraisal works when the hearts are pure and the interest is in doing that which is right. If your organization is involved in a disputed loss, consider appraisal and hiring an appraiser that can get along well with others, understand the science of a loss, push back when necessary, and agree when appropriate.
John G. Minor, Certified General Contractor, Certified Floodplain Manager, is a large loss insurance appraiser and expert witness as the President of Complete. His goal is to leverage his 25 years of experience, training, relationships and specialized knowledge to provide answers to support his clients through the difficult challenges of property claims.
John’s experience in hurricanes reach back to growing up as a coastal resident on Soundside Dr in Gulf Breeze Florida. This has grown into a passion for understanding these events and triggered his work with the FCMP Florida Coastal Monitoring Program at the University of Florida Powell Lab. The FCMP is a FEMA supported program that sends weather recording equipment out into the field to place weather equipment in front of landfalling hurricanes. John is a member of the set up team and has provided volunteer support of the program for more than a decade dropping equipment ahead of many hurricanes hitting throughout Florida and the southeast. There is no experience that John can compare with that is similar to the week before, and the week after a landfalling Major hurricane.