Make insurance claim on roof or pay for myself?

I have a roof which needed replacing before we had a storm. Do I make a claim since the storm took a shingle or two off? My house is a modest single family site built and it's paid for. I've owned it for 15 years and never made a claim. (State Farm insurance).

Also, in general I have a separate but related question about how often to make claims. Clark Howard seems to think you should max out your deductible and only make a claim if the house explodes, then pay out of pocket for non-catastrophes. However, another person who's opinion I respect says to use it whenever you have a legit claim. This person has been a home owner for 30 years and owns 17 rental houses.

Clark's comments:

"Unless your mortgage company prohibits it, Clark would like you to boost your deductible to $2,500. Most people have a $500 deductible, but that is not a good idea. Why? First of all, you pay a lot more in insurance costs. Secondly, if you make a claim against your homeowner's insurance for a small amount of money, the insurer may treat your horribly. Sure, they'll pay the claim. But they may fire you after. So, you only want to use homeowner's insurance for catastrophes."

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Reply to
dan
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If the storm only took a couple of shingles off, you don't really have a basis for a claim since repairing that damage probably wouldn't even meet your deductible.

If you have a legit claim where the repair will cost significantly more than your deductible, then make the claim. That why you pay premiums. If the repair will only cost a little more than your deductible, then don't make the claim.

You should set your deductible at whatever level you feel comfortable with. If you don't mind paying more for a lower deductible, then get the lower deductible.

"Only for catastrophes" is an idiotic statement. As I said above, If you have a legit claim where the repair will cost significantly more than your deductible, then make the claim. That why you pay premiums. If the repair will only cost a little more than your deductible, then don't make the claim.

Reply to
Abe

Catastrophes is probably a bit extreme, but I'd not make a claim for $100 or so for the reasons Clark outlines. I've not had reason to try out his theory so I don't know if my insurance company would drop me or not. I've heard stories of companies dropping long time policy holders even with no claims as they figure the law of averages is going to catch up to them.

How much are you looking at for cost?

Reply to
Edwin Pawlowski

I have had two roofs replaced on the same house by insurance. Think I had the 500 deductiable. Once a hurricane blew off the shingles. I live about

200 miles from the coast but the huricane came way inland. About 15 years later a hail storm dammaged the shingles. Most of the other 10 houses in the same development had similar experiances.
Reply to
Ralph Mowery

Based on an online roofing calculator: about $1,700 for 20yr asphalt shingles but I haven't got an actual estimate yet.

Reply to
dan

ok, thanks to all for the replies.

Reply to
dan

It took off a shingle or maybe two and you realy think you are justified in making a claim on an old roof that is bad anyway, make your claim as many scumbags do, Then when they drop you, you will know why you are high risk and now deserve to pay more to a different company. False claims raise everyones rates.

Reply to
ransley

I'd consider that amount too low to be worth a claim, particularly if it needed replacing anyway. An insurance appraiser isn't stupid and if the roof was clearly in need of replacing anyway and the actual storm damage was minimal, they aren't going to give you a whole new roof for free.

I'd also consider DIY if the roof isn't too complex and you're up to it. I've done a couple roofs myself and they weren't difficult. They're still just fine 10+ years later too.

Reply to
Pete C.

rs and

If all it did was blow off a shingle or two on a roof at the end of it's life, I doubt the insurance company is going to pay for a whole new roof. They will also look at whether other houses in the area had storm damage. If I were the adjuster, I'd give you the cost to repair the blown off shingles, not the cost of a new roof.

As far as deductibles, I would look at how much the premium goes down as the deductible goes up. For most people, a deductible of at least a $1000 makes sense. In essence, you are self insuring small claims and avoiding putting in small claims that can cause your rates to go up or for you to be dropped.

Reply to
trader4

Is that the quote to repair the wind damage or to re-roof the house?

Please remember that the insurnace company may not be obligated to re-roof the entire house, or even one side, if the damage is minor and can be repaired.

Reply to
Doug Brown

If all it did was blow off a shingle or two on a roof at the end of it's life, I doubt the insurance company is going to pay for a whole new roof. They will also look at whether other houses in the area had storm damage. If I were the adjuster, I'd give you the cost to repair the blown off shingles, not the cost of a new roof.

As far as deductibles, I would look at how much the premium goes down as the deductible goes up. For most people, a deductible of at least a $1000 makes sense. In essence, you are self insuring small claims and avoiding putting in small claims that can cause your rates to go up or for you to be dropped.

I am not sure if I read and understood the OP's second question but to me it almost seemed like he was suggesting that you could "save up" multiple incidents until you had enough and then treat them as one claim with one deductible.

That's not the way it works. The deductible applies to each loss separately.

Reply to
Doug Brown

Dan,

What exactly are you asking? You have a claim for the loss of a few shingles. That your roof needs replacing does not mean that the insurer will pay for replacing the roof, he will replace the lost shingles (and probably pro-rate them) $1700 to replace a few shingles sounds rather pricey to me but I'm cheap and would DIY this. But if you have several estimates for $1700 to replace a few shingles, and a $1000 deductible that would give you $700 towards replacing the entire roof.

Dave M.

Reply to
David L. Martel

I have a $1000 deductable policy. A single claim might raise your next year premium payment; however it might be worth it if the claim is substantial. For a $2-4K roof job, I'd probably pay myself and forget about a claim. Be prepared if additional damage and more work is discovered.

Reply to
Phisherman

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