CLAIMS GUIDE

Public adjuster fee caps by state: the statute limits, and the arithmetic to run before you sign

By The ClearCoverCost Editors. Statutes checked October 30, 2026.

Only some states put a number on what a public adjuster may charge. In the official statute text we read on October 30, 2026, Texas and Illinois cap residential fees at 10 percent of the claim settlement, and Florida caps them at 20 percent, or 10 percent during the year after a governor's emergency declaration. Pennsylvania enacted a 20 percent cap in October 2026 that does not take effect until April 20, 2027. Other states we read require the fee in writing but set no ceiling. A cap is a maximum the law allows, not a price, and the figure that decides whether hiring help pays is the fee measured against the extra money recovered.

Disclaimer: Published averages and benchmark ranges, not a quote. This page is not insurance advice and is not legal advice. Your premium will differ based on your home, location, claims history, and insurer. Flood insurance is separate from a standard homeowners policy. This page explains published statutes for education and does not rank or recommend any public adjuster; confirm the current text with your state insurance department before you sign a contract.

What a public adjuster is, and how the fee is usually set

Your insurer's adjuster works for the insurer. A public adjuster works for you. Several states print the distinction in the disclosure a public adjuster must hand over before you sign. The Illinois version, in 215 ILCS 5/1575, describes public adjusters as insurance adjusters who do not work for any insurance company, who represent the insured in preparing, presenting and settling the claim, and whom the insured hires by signing a contract agreeing to pay a fee or commission based on a percentage of the settlement, or another method of compensation. Oklahoma's section 6223 of Title 36 uses nearly the same words.

Percentage fees are the familiar model, but they are not the only one the law contemplates. The Texas Insurance Code, section 4102.104(a), lists four: an hourly fee, a flat rate, a percentage of the total amount paid by an insurer to resolve a claim, or another method of compensation. Whichever method the contract uses, the Texas cap applies to the total. That detail matters when you compare offers, because an hourly or flat arrangement can be measured against the same ceiling as a percentage one.

A public adjuster is also distinct from the appraiser you might hire under your policy's appraisal clause, and from a lawyer. Our appraisal clause guide covers the appraisal route, where each side usually pays its own appraiser and shares the umpire. The question on this page is narrower: when a public adjuster is paid out of your claim, what does your state allow them to take, and how do you check whether the help is worth that share?

The fee-cap table, built from official statute text

Each row below comes from the statute text on the state legislature's own website, read on October 30, 2026, except where a row says it was read from an Internet Archive copy of that official page. The table is partial. It lists every state the desk could verify from an official source in this check, and it separates three situations that are easy to blur: a percentage cap found in the statute, a statute read with no percentage cap in it, and a figure that lives somewhere we did not read. A state missing from the table is a state we did not verify, not a state without a cap.

Three things in the table deserve a second look. First, the caps are not all measured on the same base. Florida and Pennsylvania say in words that money the insurer paid or offered before the contract is outside the fee. Texas and Illinois tie the cap to the settlement amount and, in the sections we read, do not address earlier payments. Second, the New York and California rows are not caps we could state. New York puts the maximum in a regulation rather than the statute, and the California row comes from a 2025 saved copy of the official page, so a later amendment could have changed it. Third, a state with no cap can still regulate the contract heavily, as the clause checklist further down shows.

If your state is not in the table, your state insurance department is the place to ask. Most departments run a license lookup for adjusters and can tell you whether a fee limit applies. The Texas Department of Insurance, for example, says public adjusters must hold a TDI license, that they charge fees, and that you should understand what you will pay before you hire one.

Florida's four tiers, and the money a Florida fee cannot touch

Florida has the most detailed fee rules of any state we read. Section 626.854(11)(b) of the 2026 Florida Statutes says a public adjuster may not charge, agree to, or accept from any source compensation above four separate ceilings, each tied to a different situation.

The emergency tier is time-limited in the statute's own words: it applies to claims made during the year after the declaration, and after that year the 20 percent ceiling governs. So the date your claim is made, not just the storm that caused it, can decide which ceiling applies. If a hurricane claim is opened thirteen months after the declaration, the text points to the 20 percent tier.

The surrounding paragraphs narrow the base further. Paragraph (11)(a) covers contracts to reopen a claim or file a supplemental claim. In that case the adjuster may not charge on any earlier settlement or payment for the same cause of loss. The fee may be based only on payments obtained through the adjuster's work after the contract, and it may not exceed 20 percent of the reopened or supplemental claim payment. Paragraph (11)(c) says claim payments do not include policy deductibles and the fee may not be based on the deductible portion. Paragraph (11)(d) says the fee may not be based on additional living expenses unless you agree to that in a separate written agreement carrying a prescribed disclosure. Paragraph (11)(e) says the rate may not rise just because the claim is litigated. Paragraph (11)(f) treats any maneuver, shift or device that gets around the limits as a violation.

The additional living expense rule is worth a moment if you have been displaced. Living expenses are often a large share of a serious fire or storm claim. Our additional living expenses guide explains how that coverage works. In Florida, the public adjuster's percentage does not reach those payments unless you sign the separate agreement, so read any second document in the signing packet with care.

Texas and Illinois: two 10 percent caps with different edges

Texas. Section 4102.104(a) of the Insurance Code allows a licensed public adjuster to be paid by the hour, by a flat rate, by percentage, or another method, and then sets one limit across all of them: the total commission received may not exceed 10 percent of the amount of the insurance settlement on the claim. Subsection (b) adds a second rule for claims the insurer resolves quickly. If the insurer pays, or commits in writing to pay, the policy limit within 72 hours after the loss is reported, the adjuster may not take a percentage commission at all. The adjuster is then entitled only to reasonable compensation based on the time spent and expenses incurred, until the claim is paid or the written commitment arrives. Subsection (c) requires anyone paying policy proceeds to include the insured as a payee on the check.

Illinois. Section 1570 of the Illinois Insurance Code splits by property type. For damage to a personal residence, subsection (e) says a public adjuster may not charge, agree to, or accept compensation above 10 percent of the insurance settlement claim paid by the insurer, on any claim. That covers the ordinary burst pipe as well as a tornado. For property that is anything other than a personal residence, subsection (d) applies the same 10 percent limit only to claims from a catastrophic event, and allows the Director of Insurance to approve a higher fee on a written request that gives reasons and shows the policyholder would accept it. The statute defines a catastrophic event by reference to a governor's disaster declaration, which may be made county by county and lasts 90 days with 30-day renewals.

Illinois also has a fast-payment rule, in section 1575(c). If the insurer, within 5 business days after the loss is reported, pays or commits in writing to pay the policy limit, the public adjuster may not take a percentage of the total, must tell you the recovery might not have been increased by the insurer, and is entitled only to reasonable compensation for services. Section 1575 also requires the exact percentage to be written into any contract where the fee is a share of the settlement, and requires initial expenses to be listed by type with dollar estimates.

For a homeowner, the practical difference between the two states is small: both cap a house claim at 10 percent of the settlement. The differences sit in the edges. Texas measures its fast-payment window in hours; Illinois uses business days. Illinois carves commercial property out of the cap except in a declared catastrophe; Texas does not draw that line in section 4102.104.

Status check: Pennsylvania's Act 77 of 2026 and Oklahoma's narrower law

Pennsylvania. House Bill 1972 amends the Public Adjuster Licensing Law, the act of December 20, 1983 (P.L.260, No.72). The General Assembly's bill page, generated October 30, 2026, shows the House passed it 197 to 0 on February 3, 2026, the Senate passed an amended version 50 to 0 on October 19, 2026, the House concurred 203 to 0 on October 20, and the Governor approved it on October 22, 2026 as Act 77 of 2026. So the bill is law. It is not yet in force: Section 5 of the final text, Printer's Number 3550, says the act takes effect in 180 days, which counts forward from October 22, 2026 to April 20, 2027.

The cap itself is a new Section 4.1, which tells you the law in force today does not contain it. Subsection (a) says a public adjuster may not charge, agree to, or accept compensation or reimbursement above 10 percent for a catastrophic claim settlement, or 20 percent for an insurance claim settlement. The second figure moved during passage: the bill's printer's numbers show 15 percent in the introduced version, 18 percent after the House amendment, and 20 percent in the Senate's final amendment, which the House accepted. A catastrophic event includes a presidential major disaster declaration, a disaster emergency proclaimed by the Governor, and certain other incidents the act describes by their scale. Subsection (b) adds two prohibitions: no fee, retainer or deposit before the claim settles, and no fee on the portion of a settlement offered to or received by the insured before the adjuster was retained.

The act also adds a fast-payment rule like the Illinois one. When the insurer, within five business days after the loss is reported, pays or commits in writing to pay the policy limit, the public adjuster may not take a percentage commission, must tell you the recovery might not have been increased by the insurer, and is entitled only to reasonable compensation as determined by the Insurance Commissioner. If you are in Pennsylvania and signing before April 20, 2027, ask which version of the law the contract is written under.

Oklahoma. Oklahoma did enact a public adjuster fee cap, but it does not reach homeowners. Section 6224 of Title 36, added by House Bill 1501 (Laws 2025, chapter 56) and effective November 1, 2025, says the total commission payable, including expenses and direct costs, may not exceed 10 percent of the insurance settlement when the adjuster is working for entities subject to the Governmental Tort Claims Act. That is a public-entity rule. The other Oklahoma section on public adjuster conduct, 6223, requires a written disclosure and says that on a percentage fee contract the adjuster may not require or accept any fee, retainer or deposit before claim proceeds are paid. The desk found no homeowner percentage cap in either section as published on October 30, 2026.

When the insurer pays the limit quickly

The fast-payment rules are the part of these statutes most likely to matter on a total loss. They all aim at the same situation: the insurer offers the full limit almost immediately, so a percentage fee would pay the adjuster for money that was never in dispute.

Take a hypothetical house with a $250,000 dwelling limit destroyed by fire in Florida, outside any emergency declaration. If the insurer agrees in writing to pay the full $250,000 dwelling limit nine days after the loss, the dwelling fee ceiling is 1 percent, or $2,500. Without that early commitment, the ordinary ceiling is 20 percent, or $50,000. The gap between those two numbers is why the timing of the insurer's offer, and the date you sign, both belong in the contract file.

The fee against the extra amount recovered

A fee cap tells you the most a public adjuster may take. It does not tell you whether the help is worth it. That depends on two numbers you can write down: how much the insurer had already paid or offered before you hired help, and how much the claim pays in total afterward. The difference is the extra amount recovered. The fee comes out of the whole claim or out of that difference, depending on the contract and the state, and the money left to you is the difference minus the fee.

The inputs below are illustrative, chosen to make the arithmetic visible. They are not typical fees, typical claim sizes, or a prediction of what any adjuster would recover. A public adjuster may recover nothing extra on a fairly paid claim, and the statutes we read make no promise that the payment will rise.

Stated inputs. Before the contract, the insurer paid $30,000 on a wind claim, after the deductible. After the public adjuster is retained, the claim pays $45,000 in total. The extra amount recovered is $45,000 minus $30,000, or $15,000.

The last row is the one the newer statutes are written to stop. In Florida, subparagraph 4 sets the fee at 0 percent on payments made before the contract, so a fee on the $30,000 already paid is not allowed there. Pennsylvania's Act 77 will bar a fee on that pre-retention portion from April 20, 2027. The row still matters where a statute is silent on the base, because it shows how much of the fee can come from money you had already received.

The break-even rule. When the fee is a rate r applied to the whole settlement T, and the insurer had already paid P, you come out ahead only if T minus P is greater than r times T. Rearranged, the total must be greater than P divided by (1 minus r). With P at $30,000 and a 10 percent fee on the whole settlement, the total must exceed $30,000 divided by 0.90, or about $33,333, before you keep a single dollar of the increase. At 20 percent on the whole settlement, the total must exceed $30,000 divided by 0.80, or $37,500. When the fee applies to the increase only, any increase leaves you something, because the fee is a fraction of money you would not otherwise have had.

A small dispute. Change the inputs. The insurer paid $18,000 and the final total is $20,000, an increase of $2,000. A 10 percent fee on the whole settlement is $2,000, which consumes the entire increase and leaves you nothing extra. A 20 percent fee on the increase only is $400, leaving $1,600. Small gaps are where the base of the fee decides everything, and where our claim denial appeal guide suggests working the dispute yourself, in writing, before paying anyone a share.

Checks paid in pieces. Claims often pay in installments, and depreciation holdbacks are released later. Illinois section 1575(e), Montana section 33-17-302(2) and the saved copy of California section 15027(c) all bar a contract term that lets the adjuster take the entire fee from the first check instead of a percentage of each check. In the first example, if the first check after the contract is $9,000 of the $15,000 increase and the fee is 20 percent of the increase, the fee on that check is $1,800, not the full $3,000. Our recoverable depreciation guide explains why a later check often follows the first.

Your own worksheet. Write down P, the amount paid or offered in writing before you sign, with the date. Write the fee rate and the base exactly as the contract states it. Pick a realistic total, then a disappointing one, and compute the fee and what is left to you from the increase at each. If the disappointing total leaves you nothing, or less than nothing, the contract's base is doing more work than the adjuster's effort would need to.

Reading the fee clause line by line

Whether or not your state caps the fee, the contract decides what you pay. These are the clauses the statutes we read single out, which makes them a sensible checklist for any contract.

1. The percentage and the base it applies to. The saved copy of California section 15027 requires a statement of the compensation, including the percentage and the base to which the percentage applies. Illinois requires the exact percentage. Read whether the base is the whole claim, the increase, or payments after a stated date.
2. Expenses. Illinois section 1575(b) requires initial expenses reimbursed from the claim to be listed by type with dollar estimates, and additional expenses to be approved by you first. Oklahoma's section 6224 counts expenses inside its 10 percent cap for public entities. Ask whether expenses sit inside or on top of the percentage.
3. Payments made before you signed. Ask for the amount the insurer had paid or offered in writing to be stated in the contract, so the base is fixed on paper.
4. Deductible and living expenses. Florida excludes the deductible from the base and requires a separate agreement before the fee reaches additional living expenses. Elsewhere, ask how both are treated. Florida also bars a public adjuster from offering to waive or rebate the deductible for a roof claim, and our contractor deductible statute table sets that beside the contractor-side laws of 14 other states.
5. Co-payee and check handling. Contracts often name the adjuster as a co-payee on insurer checks. California, Illinois and Montana bar a term requiring the insurer to pay only in the adjuster's name. If you have a mortgage, the lender is usually on the check too; our mortgage claim check guide explains a Fannie Mae servicing rule on paying third-party fees out of insurance proceeds.
6. Late fees, hold harmless terms and power of attorney. California and Montana bar contract terms that impose collection costs or late fees on the insured. Illinois section 1575(e) bars a hold harmless term that makes you indemnify the adjuster for the adjuster's own negligence, and a power of attorney that lets the adjuster act in your place.
7. Cancellation. Minnesota section 72B.135 gives you 72 hours after signing to cancel in writing. The saved California copy requires a cancellation provision running to midnight of the third business day. Note the deadline on the day you sign.

Keep a signed copy with the date and time you signed. Under the fast-payment rules, the order of events, when the loss was reported, when the contract was signed, and when the insurer committed to pay, decides which fee applies.

What a cap does not settle

A cap is a ceiling. A contract at the cap is legal, and so is one well below it. The statutes we read set maximums and leave the actual rate to the contract, so the figure on your contract is the one to evaluate, against the arithmetic above.

A cap also says nothing about license status, which is a separate check. Every state we read requires public adjusters to be licensed, and the department that licenses them is the place to confirm a license and to complain. Our guide to homeowners claim deadlines by state covers the insurer's response deadlines, which run whether or not you hire help, and the claim timeline guide explains why a claim can stall.

Other routes cost different amounts. Appraisal under the policy settles a dispute over the amount of loss, usually with each side paying its own appraiser. A written appeal to the insurer costs nothing but your time. State mediation programs exist in some states for certain claims. Which route fits depends on whether the dispute is about the amount, about coverage, or about the insurer not responding. For roof claims in particular, our hail damage roof claim guide walks through the inspection and supplement steps that often come before anyone thinks about hiring help.

Finally, none of these statutes speaks to quality. A cap does not make one public adjuster better than another, and this site does not rank them. The questions to ask any candidate are about the base, the expenses, the cancellation right and the license, and the answers belong in writing.

For the rest of a disputed claim, from the first estimate to appraisal and denial letters, start at the claims hub, or browse the full guides index.

Public adjuster fee questions