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I do daily claims, so this is something I deal with more often than I would on a catastrophe.

And yes, the Calif Dp1 (and DP3's from Lloyds etc) don't have limitations on antiques etc.

Why don't you start a thread on how to do a slip and fall liability claim, let us know how you do those.

What questions do you ask? How do you do the recorded interviews?

Actually Ray, there is a good reason for CAT adjusters to know about repairs....

Let's say if you have a bunch of expensive damaged personal property that looks like its totally destroyed but you are not sure. The repair person might be the best expert to confirm whether it can be repaired or not, and if it has salvage value. Sometimes the repair person may be willing to buy it as salvage and pay more than a salvor would.

Let me give you an example.

Let's say you have $50,000 worth or rebuilt aluminum engine heads that sat in flood water. If you act like a robot and only call a salvor to find out the salvage value, he probably won't know, and if he gives you a bid it might be based on the scrap value of the aluminum. Or he might ask an auto parts dismantler what that guy would pay, and then turn around and offer you even less.

But sometimes you could find another rebuilder that would pay more, and that would be your better result.

So as an adjuster you wouldn't arrange for repairs, but you might get your best salvage price from someone who does repairs.

And this discussion gives a good checklist of how to to a simple but complete analysis of what some higher value salvage might be worth:

1) ask a salvor
2) ask a repair person
3) ask the insured what they would pay to buy it back
4) ask the insured what they could get by selling it to someone else they know in their business

I think this is good information for commercial cat adjusters because that's where you can find claims with damaged stock that is still worth tens of thousands of dollars even though it is damaged.

And I think if an adjuster did all 4 steps to determine salvage value and documented it in the file there would be a lot less questions later about whether the adjuster handles the salvage correctly.

Maybe someone else can think of more than 4 steps, I'm sure there are people who have handled salvage way more than me.