Pennsylvania insurance regulators ordered six affiliates of Hartford Insurance Co. and two other auto insurers to change their practices involving a California-based company that performed motor vehicle damage appraisals, records show.

The Pennsylvania Insurance Department found that the insurers failed to “perform due diligence in overseeing” the company, SCA Enterprises, which operated as SCA Appraisals, and its compliance with the Motor Vehicle Physical Damage Appraisers Act.

The companies who signed consent orders included Electric Insurance Co. of Beverly, Mass., and Esurance Insurance Co. of San Francisco, Calif., as well as Hartford Underwriters Insurance Co., Hartford Insurance Company of the Southeast, Hartford Insurance Company of the Midwest, Hartford Fire Insurance Co., Hartford Accident and Indemnity Co. and Property and Casualty Insurance Company of Hartford, all of Hartford, Conn.

The PID investigation found that appraisals performed for the insurers by SCA Enterprises between January 2007 and May 2008 were conducted by “unlicensed appraisers and/or fictitious persons,” according to the consent orders. The PID also found that appraisals were not always in compliance with Pennsylvania insurance laws and that some appraisals lacked the required disclosures to claimants.

Officials with SCA Appraisals in California did not respond to a request for comment.

The consent orders do not indicate how many people may have been affected.

SCA operates its own and franchises other appraisal operations across the country, with an East Coast office located in Bayville, N.Y., according to the company’s website.

This story originally appeared in the June 2009 print edition of Insurance & Financial Advisor.