- Virginia's standard fire policy provisions set baseline appraisal terms, and many property forms restate them: a written demand when the two sides disagree on actual cash value or the amount of loss, an appraiser for each side, an umpire, and an itemized award signed by any two that fixes the amount.
- Each side ordinarily pays its own appraiser and half the umpire. When the insurer is the one that demands appraisal, those provisions have it reimburse the policyholder's reasonable appraiser cost and share of the umpire.
- A 2025 Court of Appeals of Virginia decision held that the appraisal clause before it was not an agreement to arbitrate under the state's arbitration act.
- If the appraisers can't agree on an umpire, a circuit court where the property is located can appoint one on written application.
- Before a demand goes out on a Virginia claim, or before you answer the carrier's, a free review of the appraisal condition, the estimate, and the payment letters can show what an appraisal would and wouldn't settle. Our VA residential and commercial property work is generally on contingency — we only get paid from the recovery, not your pocket.
On a Virginia property claim, which side asks for appraisal first can change who pays for it. Virginia's standard fire policy terms, which many property policies here are written against, have each side pay its own appraiser and split the umpire — except when the insurer makes the written demand. Then those terms have the insurer reimburse the policyholder's reasonable appraiser cost and share of the umpire, and policies that track them generally do the same. It is easy to miss until after an appraiser is hired.
If you're in Hampton Roads with a wind claim priced at a fraction of your roofer's number, in Northern Virginia or Richmond with a tree claim stuck on the interior, or in the Valley with a hail estimate that stops at one roof face — and the carrier has accepted the loss but not the amount — appraisal may be a quicker road to a number than another round of supplements. It is also generally binding on that number, which is why the decision deserves more than a reply to an adjuster's email.
This article walks through who pays, what a panel decides, six things to settle first, and where the fee statute fits. Our Fairfax office handles Virginia appraisal disputes for policyholders only. Every policy is different, every claim turns on its own facts.
Insurance Appraisal in Virginia Starts in the Statute Book
The appraisal terms on a Virginia property claim usually start in the statute book: the standard fire policy provisions include an appraisal paragraph, and a policy written in plainer words generally has to be at least as favorable to the insured. Under it, when you and the insurer fail to agree on actual cash value or the amount of loss, either may demand appraisal in writing; each names a competent, disinterested appraiser within the time the provision sets; and the two appraisers choose an umpire — the step where a stalled panel usually sits.
The appraisers price the loss item by item, stating actual cash value and loss for each separately, and only the items they can't agree on go to the umpire. An itemized written award signed by any two of the three, filed with the insurer, fixes actual cash value and the amount of loss. That itemization keeps working after the award, because it shows which lines moved and which didn't.
Homeowners forms often restate the appraisal condition in their own words, so the version in your policy is the one to read first, against the statute's terms. Where the form looks less generous, that difference is worth a written question to the carrier before anyone relies on either version.
Who Pays for the Panel, and Why the First Demand Matters
On a roof claim where the gap is a few thousand dollars, two appraisers' bills and half an umpire's fee can take a real share of it.
Virginia's provision shifts that cost in one situation. If the insurer makes the written demand, it reimburses the policyholder for the reasonable cost of the policyholder's appraiser and the policyholder's share of the umpire. When a carrier answers a supplement with an appraisal demand, the statute puts that cost on the carrier, and policies that track it generally do the same; an owner who demands first generally pays their own side. Neither is a reason to rush, and waiting for the carrier's letter has its own cost when the suit clause is running from the date of loss. It is a reason to know, before anyone sends the letter, whose letter it is likely to be.
Keep every invoice from the appraiser and the umpire from the first day, whichever side made the demand. Where the carrier made the demand, the usual next step is a written reimbursement request with those invoices attached.
What a Virginia Panel Decides, and Why a 2025 Decision Kept It Apart from Arbitration
Appraisal settles a number. The provision's own words limit it to actual cash value and the amount of loss, and in April 2025 the Court of Appeals of Virginia, deciding a church's wind and hail claim, held that the appraisal clause in that policy was not an agreement to arbitrate under the state's arbitration act, and described appraisal as a way to resolve a disagreement over value. The insurer there had paid part of the claim and disputed its liability for the rest, a dispute the court treated as outside the appraisal process.
Two things follow for your claim. A carrier's coverage position — wear and tear, a long-term leak, an excluded cause — generally survives an award, so an award that prices those items doesn't by itself make the carrier pay them. And because the court found that clause wasn't an agreement to arbitrate, the arbitration act's procedures for modifying an award generally don't reach a clause like it; an award the carrier won't pay is taken up in a suit on the policy, which is where Virginia's fee statute lives.
The other side of that coin: where the carrier accepts the loss and disputes only the price, a panel can move a number that months of supplements didn't, because two of the three people deciding must agree and only one of them was chosen by the carrier.
Six Things to Settle Before a Virginia Appraisal Demand Goes Out
Whichever side is about to send the letter, these are worth settling first.
- Whether the disagreement is about the amount. Sort the carrier's position line by line. Items it accepted and priced low generally fit appraisal; items it denied as not covered generally don't. A demand that mixes the two invites an argument about the panel's authority before anyone prices a shingle.
- What the suit clause says. The standard terms measure the policy's time limit for suit from the loss, and they don't say it pauses for an appraisal. That clause is worth reading before anything else is decided, including whose demand it will be.
- Which appraiser. The provision calls for a competent and disinterested appraiser. Owners commonly look for knowledge of the repair in front of the panel — roofing systems, water mitigation, plaster and older finishes — and for independence from the contractor who will do the work.
- What the scope looks like on paper. The panel prices what is put in front of it. On a Richmond house with an oak through the roof, that means the framing, the ceiling, and the plaster below, each itemized and photographed, with the supplier's statement on any discontinued material — something an appraiser can set against the carrier's estimate line by line.
- Where the deductible lands. An award fixes the loss before the deductible comes off. On a coastal policy with a percentage wind deductible, an appraisal that adds a few thousand dollars may move the payment by that amount or by nothing, depending on where the loss sits against the deductible. That arithmetic is worth running before a demand goes out.
- What the replacement-cost balance still needs. On a replacement-cost policy, the award's actual-cash-value figures drive the first payment, and the difference up to replacement cost is claimed separately under Virginia's two-step rule, within its own window. Owners commonly keep that written claim moving alongside the appraisal rather than waiting for the award.
The Virginia Statutes Behind an Appraisal
When an award is paid, the statutes stay in the background. They come back into a claim in two places: a panel stalled on its umpire, and an award the carrier sits on.
The standard terms described above are Va. Code § 38.2-2105. When the appraisers fail to agree on an umpire, Va. Code § 38.2-2121 lets either side apply in writing, after notice to the other, to a circuit court judge where the property was located, who appoints one. The 2025 decision is a published opinion of the Court of Appeals of Virginia, Record No. 0628-24-2 (April 8, 2025).
If the carrier sits on an award for a covered loss, a suit on the policy is the usual remedy, and that is where Virginia's fee statute applies: a court that finds the insurer, not acting in good faith, denied coverage or refused to pay may award costs and reasonable attorney's fees.
How Property People Law Approaches Virginia Appraisal Disputes
Before anything is demanded, we read the appraisal condition in your policy against the statute's terms, sort the carrier's position into items it accepted and priced low and items it calls not covered, and run the deductible and replacement-cost arithmetic so the file shows what an award could change.
If appraisal fits, we prepare the itemized scope, help choose a disinterested appraiser with the right trade knowledge, track the reimbursement where the carrier made the demand, and press the carrier for payment on the award. If the carrier won't pay an award on a covered loss, the usual next step is a suit on the policy. We work from Fairfax and represent policyholders only.
Our VA residential and commercial property work is generally on contingency — we only get paid from the recovery, not your pocket. Past results in other cases don't guarantee outcomes in any new matter, and every claim turns on its own facts.
