Public adjuster firm expands on Long Island

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A public adjuster firm that serves the metropolitan region, including in Nassau and Suffolk counties, is expanding its presence on Long Island.

Rubin and Rosen Adjusters, which currently has a satellite office in Melville, has purchased a 1,500-square-foot building at 778 Old Country Road in Plainview.

Licensed by New York State, public adjusters on Long Island help clients negotiate settlements after such events that cause damage from fire and smoke, water and flood or wind and storms.

“We recently added four new adjusters,” Michael Butler, a partner at the firm, whose leaders have roots in law enforcement, and which has a main office in Brooklyn, said. The move, he added, will the help firm address an “increased amount of claims on Long Island.”

Keeping the firm busy, he said, are clients coping with the aftermath of flooding, and also fires.

The expansion comes at a time of sea level rise (SLR) and extreme storms. The tidal coasts of Long Island are “vulnerable to future SLR,” according to New York State’s Department of Environmental Conservation.

Those rising sea levels are “worsening flooding, erosion, and storm surge along the coasts of Long Island and New York City,” according to the DEC. The region will “continue to experience greater environmental, economic, and social impacts from climate change unless efforts are ramped up to mitigate and adapt to worsening impacts,” according to the agency.

Butler, who runs the firm with principal James Guercio, said the company is witnessing this impact first-hand.

“The weather, as we’re seeing it – it really doesn’t rain anymore, it’s a four-day extravaganza of flooding and water backup,” Butler said.

Still, he said, “to this day a good portion of our business remains unfortunately house fires and building fires. They are very common. We are seeing an increase all over specifically with these ion batteries, scooters and mopeds – those really increase the amount of fires.”

In the last year fire officials and others have warned that lithium-ion batteries can pose a fire risk, including those in cell phones, ebikes and more. In June, Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand announced a $25 million in federal funding for safer e-bike charging and storage stations in public housing in New York City.

Meanwhile, in assisting clients with claims, Butler said they provide their licensed adjusters a “level of training” that “you don’t learn from a book or a test.” It involves walking through the property “10 times,” and taking “200 photos, showing what’s really underneath.”

That way, he said, they “document everything” – from a property’s sheet rock to its insulation –“ to make sure our clients can but back what they had.”