Insurance Claims and Your Roof

When a hailstorm happens the hail that hits your roof could be small enough where it doesn't cause any significant damage. But there could be some hail that is irregular in shape or extra large and ends up causing severe damage that isn't immediately obvious. Sometimes leaks caused from hail don't appear for a long time! Usually what you're going to want to do is have your roof inspected after hail storms by an expert roof inspector (this can sometimes be the roofing contractor, just like with Infinite), who can help determine if you should file a claim or not based on the discovered damage.

After damage is determined and a claim is started, the insurance company will send an adjuster to check the damage again and verify the findings of the inspector - which makes the quality of inspection very important in making sure you properly receive your claim.

Usually, you're going to get the full replacement value of your roof. The insurance company is typically going to send the first check for the actual value or AV, in other words, what the roof is actually worth today (which may not be a lot if you have an old roof).

The withheld money is called the RV or replacement value and will be paid after the work is completed - or, as is often the case, once a signed contract is submitted with a contractor to do the work specified according to the adjusters report.

Usually the insurance company is going to hold money back from an initial pay out for a couple reasons. The first reason is to guarantee you get the work done - they don't want the homeowner just walking off with a check for the full value of the roof without the actual work being done or at least underway.

The next reason is they want to make sure that you're able to pay your entire deductible before paying out the full sum. The reasoning behind the insurance companies for this is that if you end up with all the money at the beginning of the process, people will find a contractor who can perform the job for the dollar amount available, by holding up a retainer, they can make the final payout adjusted according to the roofing contractors invoice, which guarantees that the deductible gets paid.

Unfortunately, there isn't any way around avoiding the deductible on your roof. Any 'suggested' way around the deductible is committing insurance fraud and is highly illegal. Avoid any contractor who suggests they can "get you around" the deductible cost by falsifying invoices.

Insurance paperwork can be tricky to read through. Sometimes homeowners believe that the insurance company subtracted the deductible from the money that was sent to them by the insurance company.

However, the reality is that the deductible is what the homeowner is responsible for paying to the roofing company directly, not to the insurance company. The insurance company does not pay the roofing contractor in any way, they will only make payments to the homeowner.

That means that when there is a 'deductible' subtracted on the disbursement payment of the insurance company, it is simply subtracting that amount from the amount payable to you, not from the total bill payable.

Every situation is different and the scope of damage can be very different between two homes, even if they are next door neighbors. Your neighbor likely had more damage to their roof, which required more replacement than your roof.

Insurance companies are only going to pay to replace the actual damaged area, not for the full roof if the full roof isn't damaged or in jeopardy.

If the issue is close - where the majority of the roof is damaged, its' helpful to have your roofing inspector inspect alongside the insurance adjuster to make sure the most accurate assessment is made for your situation.

In some cases, an adjuster may miss some areas of damage if they can't walk on it or step on it to photograph the areas. Infinite Roofing helps make sure that every problem area is gone over with the adjuster to make sure you get the most accurate payout possible.

It's always a good idea to have a couple estimates. Bear in mind that when insurance is paying for the work to be completed, the actual dollar amount is not as important, provided that the actual assessment is equal to or less than what the insurance company estimates the loss at.

With Infinite, you will only pay the deductible, making sure that the insurance company is paying for the overall work to be performed.

In cases like this, rather than basing the decision based on price, you should make the decision based on the roofing contractor you feel most comfortable with getting the job done on time and done correctly.

This can sometimes happen and usually it's because the insurance adjuster missed a critical point in the work required to fix the job.

When this occurs, it's usually not a problem to work something out with the insurance company, and we end up submitting what's referred to as a "supplement" with all the proper documentation and paperwork plus pictures and measurements to prove the case of damage.

What happens then is the insurance company reviews the supplement request and, when approved, sends a check for the remaining amount of money needed for the repair.

This can often happen in the event of hidden damage uncovered during the process of removal or if a change order is necessary due to legitimate damage.