Getting a roof replaced under Insurance (hail damage)

Sorry to hear about the damage, David. You should definitely check with the policy declaration paperwork (it would normally list hail/wind right on the first page) but it is customary in homeowners' insurance for hail and wind damage to have very high deductible, way higher than any other type of claim - about 2% of the property value is the norm. So, if you submitted 6,500 and got 1,395 then your deductible came out to be 6,500-1,395= $5,105. If your house is worth (or at least your policy is covering it up to) about $255,000 then the amount you got from the Ins. Co. sounds about right.

Like I said, be sure to check with the policy paperwork but don't be shocked if you see 2% or even 3% in some places down South. Perhaps it's even better to call the Ins. Co. - there are usually nice people on the phone that can walk you through. Additionally (although it would be too late for this particular claim but may help in the future) - you may be able to lower the overall coverage which will in turn lower the wind/hail deductible. If you haven't adjusted your policy in a couple of years, and property values in your area went down, there's no reason to pay for higher coverage than you need. It will lower both the premium as well as the deductibles that are calculated as percentages of the total coverage.

One parting note: in my dealings with bidding situations, we would normally throw out the lowest and the highest bids. You should even tell the contractors that this is what's going to happen. It is very much possible that the lowest bid is based in an erroneous assumptions about the conditions on the job or the customer's requirements (admittedly, done that myself more than once), and the highest bid is usually an indication of the fact that the contractor is simply too busy for you anyway. So, if you picked the lowest, you would end up paying more (sometimes way more) via change orders else the job won't get finished, and if you for whatever reason picked the highest, you would be paying a lot for very little attention to your job. So, that's why you need at least 4 quotes (3 is the bare minimum) if you wanted to be very careful and pick the absolute best contractor for the job.

Reply to
homeowners
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I called in a claim a couple of weeks ago, have a roofing company already chosen that helped to tell me what to expect etc..well i already had like 7 quotes from local roofers and when i got the paperwork in the mail from my insurance adjuster they only listed a check for 1,395.97. The minimum quote out of all 7 was 6,500...i notice at the bottom of the paper is says "you are entitled to the recoverable depreciation once the work is completed or you have a signed contract for the repair work" I'm confused on if thats all they are sending or if i send in receipts / quote from the roofer if they will send additional money, not sure how this works and when i called them to find out they were pretty vague on what is done but they mentioned something about supplemental..can anyone help shed some light on this?

Reply to
david

David, It's pretty common for an insurance company to do this but it looks REAAALLLY bad. When they settle a claim on a replacement cost basis they will sometimes send you a check for the depreciated value of whatever it is that got damaged, in this case your roof. Then, when the job is completed or, in this case, when you sign a contract with the roofer, they'll send the rest of the money. It's their way of ensuring that the property is replaced, that you didn't just take the money and not replace the roof. If you want confirmation, call them and ask this question. "When I submit the signed contract, will you pay the rest of the cost?" If the answer is anything other than "yes", talk to their supervisor and get an explanation.

Reply to
davidmrozek

I think that my roof damage is covered under insurance, but I am not quite sure yet. If it is, I think I want to find a really nice roofing contractor that will do a good job. It is important that my home is protected from the elements! Plus, it wouldn't be fun to have leaks because of a bad repair job.

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Reply to
sethashford

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