u/Minimum_Tower_2960

Original Post

I live in a condo in Brooklyn and am an owner here. We had a fire/flood event last year and I explain in the original post why the public adjuster’s actions have seemed very suspicious to me. In short, I believe they have inflated the scope of the damages.

Since my original post, the public adjuster, which represents the condo, sent me a cease-and-desist letter. In a post on our building’s messaging app, I voiced my frustrations and wrote that “it seemed like a scam.” Around the same time, I sent an email to the board and our property management company, using similar language, and asking why no independent third party had assessed the damages and scope. Someone on our board forwarded my messages to the adjuster—I assume because they’re frustrated I keep asking questions.

I’ve already filed a report with the New York City Department of Finance, which oversees public adjusters here.

Now, however, another owner says she has a video that she recorded with their iPhone camera looking out the peephole of her apartment after the public adjuster’s inspectors visited her unit. In it, you can hear them discussing how much money was coming in from the scope of the job and how a lot of the projected repairs were unnecessary. She obviously heard them say this with her own ears at the time.

This seems insane. I’m really not a troublemaker—just a curious skeptic and former journalist who has no problem making a nuisance of himself. My apartment has no visible damages and I’ve not been sent anything in the 7 months since the event that proves there are damages. We’ve all asked for moisture reports and other concrete evidence and have been sent none. But I still may be forced to vacate my apartment so they can demo and rebuild it. I’ve also seen neighbors move out, upending their lives over this situation. It has caused a lot of chaos. Lastly, part of me is pissed that they sent me a cease-and-desist letter.

What should I do?

I live in and own a condo in New York. There was a small kitchen fire on my floor over five months ago, and it activated the sprinkler systems, which flooded our hallway, adjacent units, and units below me. I saw no water come into my unit.

In the days following, the HOA's public adjuster came by with a few colleagues. They stayed in my apartment for all of 60 seconds, during which I saw one of them place a device on the floor by the front door. He pointed at some pre-existing damage on the floor and said something like, "Oh yeah, see there? That's definitely affected." It seemed a little performative, but I'm not an expert. I later learned that others experienced this exact same scenario, down to the pointing at areas that were already damaged.

Apartments on my floor and below were definitely damaged by water from the sprinkler system. I'm not doubting that.

But the adjuster came back fairly quickly to report that nearly every unit on my floor and below would need to be gutted and rebuilt to prevent mold and additional damage. People were already in touch with their insurance companies, but everyone was encouraged to move out ASAP, and some did.

Several owners like me didn't have visible damage, but were told that water came in under our floors. In the subsequent five months, nothing has changed. I still have no visible damage, and the floors look fine. So we've pressed for damage reports and proposed scopes of work specific to our units, while the board and property management have identified a contractor, negotiated the claim, and developed a timeline for construction.

Now, over five months later, the adjuster referred me to the board and property management for the damage report and preliminary scope of work. Meanwhile, two weeks ago, I was provided with a timeline that had me vacating my apartment a week from now. After pushing and nagging, I received a moisture report and scope of work from property management, based on the public adjuster's readings. It doesn't include any useful information, which I knew it couldn't because I knew that they hadn't taken readings throughout the apartment.

The adjuster receives 10 percent of what they're able to recover from insurance. How is this not an inherent conflict of interest? When I asked about this months ago, I was told by the adjuster that there's no way insurance would pay if there weren't actual damages. But of course, it's five months later now, and part of what we've been told about the delay is that there have been protracted negotiations with the insurance carrier. This all feels like some type of fraud or misconduct on behalf of the HOA's public adjuster, but I'm not an expert.