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Who Is Allowed to Set Your Claim Number? The Licensing Behind Auto Damage Appraisals

Short answer: the number on your estimate is set by a person holding a state licence, usually the insurer's adjuster or appraiser. Whether you may put a licensed person of your own on the other side of the table, and what that person may lawfully do for you, depends entirely on the state. We are reading the licensing statutes state by state, on each state's own website, and publishing only what we have read. So far: Massachusetts runs auto damage appraising through a dedicated licensing board, Pennsylvania licenses the motor vehicle physical damage appraiser as its own occupation under a dedicated act with the strongest consumer rules we have read anywhere, South Carolina licenses motor vehicle physical damage appraisers with a criminal penalty for unlicensed practice, and Florida licenses no damage appraiser at all; it runs everything through two adjuster licences. Every claim below traces to one of those reads.

By Anthony Braswell for Quorum Industries LLC, The Autobody Directory · Updated 2026-08-15 · How this was written, and what the machine may not do

How this page was produced: Researched, drafted and checked with AI assistance under human direction, and signed off by the named author. How this site is written

What this page will show you

Two questions, not one

"Who is allowed to set my number" is really two questions, and mixing them up is how people get wrong answers.

The first is about the OTHER side of the table: who may lawfully determine, on the insurer's behalf, what your damage is worth. That is a licensing question, and it is the subject of this page.

The second is about YOUR side: when you think the number is wrong, what right do you have to contest it? That is mostly a policy-contract question (the appraisal clause, each side appointing an appraiser, an umpire breaking the tie), and it is covered in when insurance won't pay for a proper repair and total loss: why the first check is low. Keep the two apart and the licensing map below becomes useful instead of confusing.

Massachusetts: a licensing board with body shops on it

Massachusetts is the deepest version of appraiser licensing in the country that we have read, and it lives in M.G.L. c. 26, s. 8G. The statute creates a dedicated regulator: "There shall be in the division of insurance an auto damage appraiser licensing board." Four appointed members (two affiliated with the auto body repair industry, two with insurers), plus a neutral chair. The board "shall have authority to license individuals to appraise damage to all motor vehicles arising out of motor vehicle damage claims."

The licence is not decorative. "No appraiser shall complete an auto damage report unless he is duly licensed and unless it is on an approved form." Reports are prenumbered, itemise parts, labour and services, are sworn under the penalties of perjury, and carry the appraiser's signature, licence number and seal. A licence is revoked permanently, it "shall not be reinstated or renewed nor shall said person be relicensed", on a conviction for a fraudulent damage report.

Three working rules from the same section matter in an ordinary claim:

Massachusetts also gives the appraiser a public-safety role: where the damage means the vehicle may no longer meet safety or emission standards, the appraiser removes the inspection certificate, and no new one issues until the car passes reinspection. The person pricing the damage is deputised to take an unsafe car off the road.

One more clause that answers this page's question directly: appraisal fees are scheduled by the board, and "Any such fee paid by a claimant may be included as part of the damage alleged and recoverable as payment by the insurer." In Massachusetts, hiring your own licensed appraiser is not just permitted, the fee can be put on the claim.

The shop-side obligations that pair with this licence, and the July 2026 advisory ruling reaffirming them, are covered in the Massachusetts licensed-appraiser requirement.

Pennsylvania: a dedicated appraiser act, with the burden on the appraiser

Pennsylvania licenses the motor vehicle physical damage appraiser as its own regulated occupation, under the Motor Vehicle Physical Damage Appraiser Act (63 P.S. 851-863), and the operating regulation, 31 Pa. Code 62.3, read end to end on the Commonwealth's own code site, is the most consumer-protective set of appraiser rules we have read in any state. Its own rule of construction says so in terms: an appraiser shall "not have a conflict of interest in the making of an appraisal," and the chapter "shall be strictly interpreted to protect the interest of the consumer and place the burden upon the appraiser to eliminate any conflict of interest."

Four working rules from the same section, each of which answers a fight people actually have. The appraisal "shall be made in the amount necessary to return the motor vehicle to its predamaged condition", the number is defined by the outcome, not the budget. The appraiser must review the appraisal with a representative of the repair shop SELECTED BY THE CONSUMER, to demonstrate the actual costs of repair are adequately covered, the conversation happens with your shop, not around it. Anti-steering runs three limbs deep: the written appraisal must state "that there is no requirement to use any specified repair shop," shop-availability information must repeat that disclosure, and an appraiser may not so much as mention a shop's name without it. And on total losses, the regulation prescribes the valuation methods, and where the owner shows the comparison vehicle is not truly comparable, both calculations must be run and "the higher offered in settlement," with the full evaluation report owed to the consumer within five working days.

One more, easy to miss and directly on this page's question: 62.3(g) expressly preserves "a subsequent appraisal or reappraisal by a different licensed appraiser" at any involved party's instance. In Pennsylvania, the second opinion is not a workaround; it is written into the rule.

Florida: no appraiser licence: two adjuster licences, and a trap

Florida takes the opposite architecture. Its adjuster licence-type statute is one sentence long on this point: "A qualified individual may be licensed as: (a) A public adjuster; or (b) An all-lines adjuster" (Fla. Stat. 626.864). No motor-vehicle-damage-appraiser class exists in that enumeration, and the licensing department's own licence-class pages carry none either. The same person cannot hold both licences at once.

The number on a Florida estimate comes from the all-lines adjuster side. An all-lines adjuster is a person who "undertakes on behalf of a public adjuster or an insurer to ascertain and determine the amount of any claim, loss, or damage payable under an insurance contract or undertakes to effect settlement of such claim" (626.8548), the department labels this the 6-20 licence. Acting as an adjuster on a class of business without being licensed and appointed for it is barred outright (626.112(3)), and knowingly engaging in insurance activity without a licence is a third-degree felony (626.112(10)).

On the claimant's side sits the public adjuster licence, the 3-20. We carried a wrong belief about it until we read the statute, and the correction is worth stating plainly because the wrong version is everywhere: the 3-20 is NOT a property-only licence. The department's own pages title it "All Lines Public Adjuster," and the statutory definition reaches anyone who, for compensation, "acts on behalf of, or aids an insured or third-party claimant in negotiating for or effecting the settlement of a claim or claims for loss or damage covered by an insurance contract" (626.854(1)), any insurance contract. The carve-out is subject matter, not property-versus-auto: a public adjuster "may not give legal advice or act on behalf of or aid any person in negotiating or settling a claim relating to bodily injury, death, or noneconomic damages" (626.854(3)). Vehicle damage is none of those.

Here is the asymmetry that matters if you are thinking about one for a car claim. Florida's public-adjuster consumer protections (the 10 and 20 percent fee caps, the cancellation windows, the 60-day written-estimate duty, the 48-hour notice rules), live in subsections (5) through (18) of the statute, and subsection (19) limits all of them: "Subsections (5)-(18) apply only to residential property insurance policies and condominium unit owner policies." On an auto claim a Florida public adjuster is lawful, but those guardrails, including the fee caps, do not attach. This page describes what the licence covers; it does not recommend hiring anyone, and on a car claim the statute gives you materially fewer protections than the homeowner versions of this conversation assume.

The trap in the same section is for everyone who is NOT licensed. Florida law says that "no person, except an attorney at law or a licensed and appointed public adjuster, may for money, commission, or any other thing of value, directly or indirectly" prepare, complete or file an insurance claim for an insured or third-party claimant, act on their behalf in negotiating or effecting settlement, or offer to (626.854(20)). The department can fine unlicensed actors (626.854(21), (23)(c)), and the knowing version is the felony above. What that means for repair shops is below.

South Carolina: a standalone appraiser licence with a criminal penalty

South Carolina puts the licence exactly where the search term expects it: Title 38, Chapter 49, "Motor Vehicle Physical Damage Appraisers." The definition covers any person or firm "which practices as a business the appraising of damages to motor vehicles insured under automobile physical damage policies or on behalf of third party claimants" (38-49-10).

The operative gate reads: "No person may act as an appraiser for motor vehicle physical damage claims on behalf of an insurer or firm or corporation engaged in the adjustment or appraisal of motor vehicle claims unless he has secured first a license" (38-49-20). Note who that sentence binds as written: the person appraising for the INSURER, or for an adjustment or appraisal firm. The definition also reaches appraising as a business for third-party claimants; whether a consumer-hired appraiser needs this licence is a question the two sections do not answer cleanly, and we are not going to pretend they do.

The teeth are real: "Any person who violates this chapter is guilty of a misdemeanor and must, upon conviction, be fined an amount not to exceed five hundred dollars or imprisoned for a period not to exceed one year, or both" (38-49-40). The licence is biennial at eighty dollars, renewed in October of odd-numbered years, and the department's own appraiser page states the gate plainly: "Applicants must pass the state examination prior to applying for a license," with exam certificates expiring twelve months after issuance and a criminal-records report required. What that examination covers is published by the department's exam vendor in content outlines we have not read, so this page does not describe the syllabus, only that passing one is mandatory.

So can you hire your own appraiser?

In every state we have read, the practical vehicle for putting your own number on the table is the appraisal clause in your own policy: you appoint an appraiser, the insurer appoints one, an umpire resolves the difference. That is a first-party mechanism: your policy, not the other driver's insurer, and how to invoke it is covered in when insurance won't pay for a proper repair.

What the licensing map adds, state by state read so far: in Massachusetts the person you appoint must be a licensed appraiser, and the fee you pay them "may be included as part of the damage alleged and recoverable as payment by the insurer." In Pennsylvania a reappraisal by a different licensed appraiser is expressly preserved for any involved party, and the original appraiser owed you a number sized to predamaged condition in the first place. In Florida the person on your side of a settlement negotiation must be a licensed public adjuster or an attorney if they are doing it for compensation, and if they are a public adjuster, the statutory fee caps you may have heard about do not apply to your auto claim. In South Carolina the appraiser acting for the insurer must be licensed; the consumer-side question is not answered in the chapter we read.

A public adjuster note that spans states: the NAIC's model public adjuster act carries an exclusion for motor vehicle claims, and states vary on whether they adopted it. Florida, read in full above, did not exclude auto. Do not assume your state matches either answer, the licence-scope text is exactly the thing that has to be read, which is what this register is for.

If you run a shop

Three of the findings above land on the shop side of the counter, differently by state.

Florida: the for-compensation negotiation bar in 626.854(20) has no carve-out for repair shops. The construction-contractor carve-out in (16) belongs to chapter 489 licensees, building contractors, and even it requires public adjuster licensure before handling claims. The statute as we read it does not draw a bright line between a shop discussing its own repair estimate with a carrier as the repairer and a shop acting as the customer's claim representative, so we will not draw one for you either; what it does say is that preparing, filing or negotiating a claim on the customer's behalf for compensation belongs to licensed public adjusters and attorneys, the department can fine around it, and the knowing version is a third-degree felony. If your front desk "handles the claim" for customers, that sentence deserves five minutes with a Florida-licensed attorney.

Massachusetts: the licensing statute works for you as much as on you. A competitive estimate against your sheet requires a licensed appraiser and a personal inspection, photo and phone shopping is barred in terms, and a supplement request starts a two-day reinspection clock. If an insurer's number arrives without either, the licensing statute, not just the claim-conduct rules, is the lever. The shop-side licence obligations are in the Massachusetts guide.

South Carolina: the person who appraised your customer's car for the insurer is required to hold a state licence, on penalty of a misdemeanor. That is a checkable fact about the estimate in your hand.

Pennsylvania: the appraiser is required to review the appraisal with the shop the CONSUMER selected and demonstrate the costs are adequately covered, and may not name any other shop without the no-required-shop disclosure. If an appraisal lands at your counter with neither conversation nor disclosure, 31 Pa. Code 62.3 is the section to cite.

What this page is not saying

We are not saying anything about a state we have not named. Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Florida are on this page because we read their statutes. No sentence here should be read as describing any other state, and the register behind the page keeps the others deliberately blank rather than guessed at.

We are not saying a licence makes a number right. These statutes say who may produce an appraisal and what duties attach to the person who does. They do not make any particular figure correct, and a licensed appraisal can still be wrong.

We are not claiming any named board, insurer or appraiser did anything. This page reads licensing law. It records no conduct by anyone.

This is not legal advice, and the answer to whether you may hire your own appraiser turns on your policy as well as your state.

What we have not read

Everything above comes from Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Florida and South Carolina, read end to end on each state's own official site, with the dates and verbatim text recorded in our licensing register (data/compliance/adjuster-appraiser-licensing.json). The other jurisdictions are seeded in that register and deliberately blank: most states are expected to fold auto damage appraising into a general adjuster licence rather than license it separately, and finding that a state has NO separate appraiser licence is itself an answer we will record, but not one we will guess at. Nothing on this page describes any state we have not named, and no national claim ("most states...", "in general...") should be read into it.

Related

Sources

Read in full on the issuing government's own site, in the session recorded in the register:

This page describes licensing law; it is not legal advice, and it does not recommend hiring any particular kind of representative.

General consumer information: not legal, insurance, or financial advice. Requirements, coverage, and practices vary by state, policy, and manufacturer.

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