I had the roof of my house replaced by a construction company due to hail damage. The damage was covered by my home insurance policy less the deductible.
6 months later I have a leak in the ceiling of one of my bedrooms. We have not settled the charges with the construction company yet, as my mortgage company needs to get involved in endorsing the checks from my insurance company and this has taken time.
Do I inform the mortgage company of the leaks in the ceiling? Is there any value in letting the mortgage company know of this issue?
The obvious question, have you called the contractor and told him? Maybe it was a falling limb, some wind damage or a frozen turd from a passing jet liner that caused the new leak. It is possible he did his work, and this is actually new damage. Have him state what the problem is and what it will cost to fix it. If it IS his bad work, he's going to want to fix it and get paid. If it's new damage, he's going to want to document it and show he did his job and something new happened.
Write registered letters to all involved, stating that the roof is still leaking. That way, the roofer can't say that you didn't tell him. The insurance company is aware that the roof is not fixed and therefore the fixer should not be paid until the roof doesn't leak. And the mortgage company knows that there is a yet unidentified issue because the contractor can file a lien for nonpayment with the mortgage company. (His story is that he did work and you were a deadbeat and didn't pay the bill.) (Or he can say he fixed the old damage, and this is new, and has nothing to do with the old.) And he might be right. So give him a chance to make it right, or find the problem. If he stalls, you might also tell the contractor that you are confused as to what to do, and are thinking of just calling the State Contractor Board and letting them straighten it all out. Try to get all interested parties involved so that they can establish who is responsible for what. The contractor wants to get paid. The insurance company wants to stamp the file CLOSED. The mortgage company wants no liens. You want your roof fixed. Sounds like everyone is headed to the same destination.
And of course the big unknown in all this is whether this is one small isolated problem at the one area that is leaking which can be easily fixed or if it's an indication that the entire job was done incorrectly and you're headed for more trouble. If no independent inspection was done, it would probably be a good idea to get an inspection done by a qualified inspector at this point.
I would notify anyone involved by phone, email and with a cetified letter. You most likely did not get a permit but its not to late and you will get the city inspector to go over the whole job and see if everything was done right. if he gets paid before its fixed, if it was actualy his fault, your problem gets bigger.
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