How to get insurance to pay for roof replacement costs

Some facts: homeowners will generally have paid insurance premiums for decades and while insurance companies are more than happy to accept the monthly payments, they’re usually very, very conservative to pay out on a claim.

The typical insurance company will try to make the damage out to be a “non-covered occurrence,” so that they can deny the claim and force you to come out of pocket.

Here’s what they’ll do:

1. An independent adjuster comes to inspect the roof for damage after your claim. What’s important here, is that usually the insurance hired adjuster is going to look for ways to specifically deny your claim.
2. If legitimate damage is found, the recommendation is going to almost always be the cheapest possible fix to the problem. This is to save the insurance company money (as they are acting in their interest, not yours).

Unfortunately, while the independent adjuster that will be sent by the company isn’t officially an “employee” of the insurance provider, you can bet your bottom dollar that they certainly don’t hire adjusters with a history of finding damage that insurance will pay out on.

In fact, it’s in the insurance company’s best interest to have an inspector who has sight issues - who can’t see the damage on the roof. The more claims that are denied means the more money they keep.

Now, bear in mind that all of this is assuming that your damage on the roof is legitimate and not the result of improper installation or that the roof is just old. Please don’t try to make claims when there’s no legitimate claim to be made. It isn’t worth the hassle.

However, if your claim is legitimate, that doesn’t mean the adjuster, for reasons stated above, is going to just “give it to you.” Even if you have shingles that are blowing off the roof or coming up when there’s a slight breeze, that are very clearly and obviously caused by a wind storm, the first thing the inspector is going to do is attempt to blame it on “improper installation,” or “negligent maintenance.” Improper installation is the most common reason cited. Which is another reason to not go with the cheapest bid, because if you get the cheapest work done, you can bet the corners are cut somewhere, and odds are much higher of actual improper installation by the roofing company.

The last thing you want is for the adjustment to come back as a bad roofing installation by the contractor 10 years ago, and not because of the storm that just blew off the roof.

This inspection is super critical because the vast majority of claims will be approved or denied based on what the adjuster puts down.

The other thing to watch out for, is an undervaluation of your roofing claim. A lot of the time, if the claim is approved, the approval will underbid the cost of the replacement. This has serious consequences, because if the price is undervalued versus the real cost of roof replacement and you find a contractor whose willing to do the roof replacement for that undervalued cost, you’ve 

just opened yourself up to cut corners that will almost certainly lead to a denied claim in the future for “improper installation” when 3, 4 or 5 years down the road the roof leaks again.