Do you have any thoughts on if I should make a claim of hail damage, or just pay for the roof myself?
some facts:
-The roof needed replacing before the hail
-I'm sure the hail caused some extra damage
-I can afford do have it repaired without making a claim
Maybe this is more of an insurance question. Will the claim make my rates go up so that it's not worth it? I have a $500 deductable.
claim will definetely make future rate go up:(.
how old is the existing roof? lets imagine its 23 years old, with 25 year shingles.
if the roof needs replaced and a brand new roof costs 5 grand they will divide 5000 by 25 years.... 200 bucks per year
so you might in this case get 400 bucks. if the roof is in visible poor shape, cracked shingles, loose granules, curled, warped, cracked flashing etc you will get less. flashing would likely get backed out of the cost if it wasnt damaged by hail...
in a hailstone shell you have little to gain by a claim... sorry time for a new roof
It may or may not effect your rates now but if you make another claim in the near future, the combined claims sure will. It will effect your insurance score, but that may not pan out to a rate hike until later.
Hail damage, at least, is not caused buy negligence or poor maintenence but a claim shows your house is susceptable to such damage in the future and unless the storm was a real rare freak, that will cause them to regard the house as being more likely to make a claim in the future.
Combine a house susceptable to damage and an owner susceptable to making claims, that's a red flag for them to raise rates.
If he has replacement value insurance they will pay for a new roof without any depreciation. On the other hand, if the roof was shot before the hail, making a claim is a bit dishonest.
I suggest you call the insurance company. I called mine and they sent someone out. I really did not think I had any real damage, although some neighbors had ripped up screens.
The adjusted asked me to come out and he showed me the damage. They covered a new roof (original was about 13 years old) and not only did not get a rate increase the rate went down a little the next year.
It's never dishonest to make a claim like this. He's not misrepresenting anything by putting in a claim. There was hail, there was damage. It's then up to the adjuster to figure out what the insurance company will do.
On the other hand, if the roof really was in bad shape and obviously did need replacing prior to the hail, I probably would not put in a claim. And if I was considering doing so, I would carefully read the entire policy first, because with a $500 deductible, the amount you are likely to wind up with, if anything, probably won't justify the likelihood of higher rates in the future.
If the roof was shot in the first place, just replace it.
Insurance companies don't make money by paying out claims. They will adjust your premium to cover the costs, simple as that.
Insurance industery TODAY is very different from pre hurricane disasters.
Homeownerts USED to be a cash cow, but after 10 of billions of losses they are very picky.
if the roof was already bad i wouldnt bother
My experience almost exactly. Hail did damage that was far greater than I thought. I did not really expect any adjustment and ended up with a full replacement less deductible.
Impact on insurance premium was minimal. Increase the next year was mostly inflationary (higher coverage from appreciation of the property). The only impact was when I asked the independent agent to shop all his carriers a couple of years later, he said I needed to wait a while longer because I couldn't get a preferred rate with another company within so many years of a major claim. I think it was three years.
Frank
Theres a hidden consiquence I hadn't considered, fortunately switching home insurance carriers is not done often.
ok thanks everyone for the info. I'll probably just pay to have it done.
Agreed, if the roof needed replacing it would be better just to handle it yourself. There is not much for you to gain but alot for you to potentially lose
I've lost five roofs to hail. Insurance (same company) covered all five. My premiums were never increased for my claims. I believe it would be illegal for them to do so in Texas.
Extensive hail damage in a region can cause a company to raise rates for all homeowners in that region, regardless of whether they filed a claim.
-- Doug
What you report is consistent with my understanding of homeowners' insurance; a claim will not directly lead to an increase in premium.
However, an insurer can just decline to renew your policy when it expires, and as the insurance companies have not been making much money on homeowners' insurance, some of them have elected to nonrenew policies based on claims made. The problem is that the standards they apply in making this decision are not in your policy, so you don't know if they are going to nonrenew you until it happens.
Its hard to get a good answer to this question as laws vary from state to state, and policies vary as time passes. So, for example, if I had a roof replaced by insurance 10 years ago, and my premiums didn't increase, and my policy was renewed, that doesn't mean that I would get the same results today, even from the same company.
Fortunately, in Texas, they are available on the web at the Texas Insurance Commission site:
-- Doug
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