OT: Hail damage to residential roof

[LegendRider]

There was major hailstorm in Atlanta earlier this year. Although I could not see any damage as a result, a roofing contractor did an inspection and found what he claims to be enough damage to warrant a homeowners claim.

I presume there is no harm in submitting a claim (i.e., have an adjuster take a look), correct? Would a successful claim increase my premiums? The roofer claims an "act of God" cannot result in increased premiums. Really??? Also, the roofer wants to be at my house during the adjuster's inspection.

I feel like I'm missing something. A new roof at the cost of my deductible with no impact on my premiums seems a little too good to be true.

Anyone been through this process? Aside from normal due diligence on the company, what else should I look for? Are there any notable pitfalls to watch for?

Thanks!

[93legendti]

A huge branch from my neighbor's tree crashed on our roof 1 month ago. It put 2 holes in the roof and dented the peak. I got 5 quotes: $4400, $1800, $1500, $500 and $300. I asked the guy who gave me the $4,400 quote why it was more than the roof cost 2 yrs ago. He said: "Oh, well, you're going to submit this to your insurance co. right? I wanted to make sure it was above your deductible."

The $300 quote was from a guy suggested by a handy guy who does lots of work for me. He showed at 5:00 pm and said if I went with him he'd have it done by dark. I did. He did. Afterward the roof looked new.

You only get so many claims before your insurance co. will cancel you. iirc, the # is usually 3.

[gdw]

Two basic questions:
How big were the hail stones and is there visible damage?
Did you schedule the inspection or did he initiate it?

[Mike748]

A new roof at the cost of my deductible with no impact on my premiums seems a little too good to be true.


A fact of life here in Texas. Its more like a roof savings account though with the high price of insurance. I went through this process last year. Had a roofer look at it, said it was probably damaged enough that the insurance would pay. Had the adjuster out, he inspected, calculated and cut me a check for the "depreciated value" on the spot. Remainder was paid after completion. Only hassle was having the mortgage bank endorse the check.

No downside that I know of. I suppose if its a little damaged they could record it as a pre-existing condition to deny a future claim, not sure. I think they are worried about the larger claims that come from eventual water ingress.

I got another bonus too. For just a little more money out of pocket I put on a hail resistant shingle that reduced my insurance premium by 30% annually. And here in good old hot hail prone TX that's $500/yr savings. The longer I live here the more money I save. What a deal.

[zmudshark]

Get the roof, it will not affect your premiums.

[LegendRider]

Had the adjuster out, he inspected, calculated and cut me a check for the "depreciated value" on the spot. Remainder was paid after completion. Only hassle was having the mortgage bank endorse the check.


That's exactly how the roofer indicated the process would work. How does one get the mortgage holder to endorse the check?

[tiretrax]

A fact of life here in Texas. Its more like a roof savings account though with the high price of insurance. I went through this process last year. Had a roofer look at it, said it was probably damaged enough that the insurance would pay. Had the adjuster out, he inspected, calculated and cut me a check for the "depreciated value" on the spot. Remainder was paid after completion. Only hassle was having the mortgage bank endorse the check.

No downside that I know of. I suppose if its a little damaged they could record it as a pre-existing condition to deny a future claim, not sure. I think they are worried about the larger claims that come from eventual water ingress.

I got another bonus too. For just a little more money out of pocket I put on a hail resistant shingle that reduced my insurance premium by 30% annually. And here in good old hot hail prone TX that's $500/yr savings. The longer I live here the more money I save. What a deal.
Good advice, Mike. If there were a lot of claims, your insurance is likely to increase regardless.

[R2D2]

That's exactly how the roofer indicated the process would work. How does one get the mortgage holder to endorse the check?
Most mortgage companies are familar with the process. In my case it just meant sending the check to the company and they quickly sent it back.

[Mr Cabletwitch]

I had this issue in my neighborhood just last year, a shady looking guy came around claiming he would put a new roof on your house for free if you refered someone else or put a sign in your yard, well a year later and half the houses never got done, the guy is long gone, and my roof (which I told him to go pound sand) looks better than the ones he had done. I also caught the guy pounding holes in someone's roof preparing it for an inspection. I promptly called the insurance fraud hotline and 3 months later he was back with a different company name. He insisted that he know when the adjuster was coming so he could "mark the damage". My insurance premium went up $200 thanks to all the crooks in my neighborhood. When he did do a roof 3 guys in a van with out of state plates would get the roof done in less than a day. I eventually had a friend of mine (roofer) come out look at my house and he said nothing to worry about.

I would call a trusted roofer and have them check for damage, these fly by night hail damage people suck!

He also did some siding on some housing and didn't even put in new insulation, and Irene peeled one of them away. I didn't have an problems :hello:

[Mike748]

I took the check to a branch and the manager endorsed it... after a long period of waiting and consulting with the head office and underwriters and ignoring me. I found the process a bit painful (mortgage was with Wells Fargo).

[bigflax925]

Going through this right now. Almost all the houses in my area are being re-roofed due to a hail storm in April. I'm going to wait fir the weather to get cooler and these roofers to get hungry.

Mortgage is with Chase, so I've now sent two checks to Atlanta for endorsement. Both back within two weeks. Both times sent a letter upon return saying that I should endorse it first before sending it to them. Yeah right.

Contact your bank and explain to them. They've done it before and will give you the procedure.

[gdw]

You're in an area heavily targeted by scam artists and "roof repair" is one of their older tricks. Google "gypsy roofing scams" for more information.

[snah]

Get the roof, it will not affect your premiums.

Insurance agent here. Sadly, this statement is not completely true. Many companies are looking at rates 2 ways, first being the experience they have with their whole book of business, lots of claims means rate increase for everyone. Second, many companies are also evaluating each individual client's loss experience. It is possible that one claim wouldn't cause a rate increase, but should a second follow, an increase is more than likely.

My recommendation, file the claim, have the adjuster come out. Ask the adjuster if they mind having the contractor there, many times this situation of a contractor trying to make money vs an adjuster trying to save his company money creates other issues. In the end, if you disagree with the adjusters opinion, you can ask for a review, either by a different adjuster or an outside firm.

Contrary to popular opinion, most insurance companies are not in the business to deny claims. Best of luck.

[Sheldon4209]

I went through this a few years ago. It was explained to me that the hail knocks the sand off the single allowing the shingle to dry out in the sun. After the single dries out it cracks which will shorten the life of the roof by several years.

[jghall]

The part about not impacting your premiums may be dead wrong. It may not, but it may too. Appears Mike was on the good end of the stick.

Those lenders who blindly endorse settlement checks are clueless. Extremlye poor risk management on their end.

[dekindy]

We had two hailstorms within a 3-year period so I might be able to shed some light.

First of all, you can get a new roof with no deprection charged. I found it hard to believe also. However it is true. This is what I learned.

The damage has to be from a specific storm. In other words, a cumulative effect of many hailstorms over a period of years does not qualify.

Every insurance company has their own standard for the required number of hail stone hits per square as the threshold that your damage must exceed or there is no claim. In other words, one insurance company may require 10 hits and another company may require 30. So if they require 30 and you have 29, who knows.

Also, some insurance companies have been known to do partial replacements.

If you do not meet the threshold for a claim, you get charged for a paid claim just for the inspection, so you want to have a fair degree of certainty before requesting the insurance claim inspection.

We had the same insurance company both times. The first time they wrote us a check for the entire claim. The second time, they rode a check for the depreciated value and then paid us the balance upon proof that the work had been done. I think the latter is the norm.

Also, if you have a mortgage, the payment will be made to your mortgage company and you as co-payees. We did not have a mortgage either time so we did not have to deal with that extra step.

I cannot remember whether it was Allstate or State Farm, but everyone in our neighborhood got their roofs replaced except those insureds because the company's threshold was so high that nobody met the standard. I believe they did offer a limited partial replacement. Really ticked off insureds when everybody else is getting roofing, siding, and window screening replaced, deck repaired, etc.

Neither of the storms impacted our rates. We have been with the same insurance company for 10? years and have our cars and umbrella policy with them. Who knows if that makes a difference but I was surprised that their was no rate impact, especially after the second claim.

[onekgguy]

Get the roof, it will not affect your premiums.

Oh, so not true!

The majority of home in our area were hit 10 years ago and we all saw our premiums triple. They're still at the elevated level regardless of insurer.

Kevin g

[LegendRider]

If you do not meet the threshold for a claim, you get charged for a paid claim just for the inspection, so you want to have a fair degree of certainty before requesting the insurance claim inspection.

Interesting. I wasn't aware of that.

Thanks to everyone for the insights. The adjuster and roofer are inspecting my house tomorrow morning. We'll see how it goes.

[dekindy]

You could have asked your roofer to estimate the number of hits and then inquired of your insurance company's required number before asking for the inspection. If it was a major storm with significantly sized hail then you are probably okay.

We were not at home for the first storm so I don't know how severe it would have been compared to the second storm. However I was surprised that we qualified for the second hailstorm because to me it did not seem that severe. They replaced all the roofs in the neighborhood again and they were only 3 years old so I was obviously wrong.

[snah]

Two things, don't worry about having the adjuster inspect the roof. It's highly, and I mean highly, unlikely that it would hurt your rates just having it inspected. I've been in the insurance business for 15 years, have yet to see a client impacted by a claim with nothing paid. Second, in the end, any increase to your rates will only be a fraction of the cost if you paid for the roof itself, not including any water damage you could sustain over time from the damaged shingles.

[Charles M]

Everything above is either true or false depending on the company you're talking about.


ASK YOUR INSURANCE AGENT WHAT THEIR POLICY / PROCESS IS.


If your agent is good, he will be happy to help you through the process ahead of making a claim. good agents help their clients. They are not, as some might think, always trying to screw you out of a settlement... Agents get paid by making the customers happy rather than adjusters, customer service centers etc etc that are incentivised to limit spend.


Get directly with your agent and if they're good, they will be happy to walk you through all of the ins and outs. If they try and pass you off to claims rather than walking you through the in's and out's, change agents.