roof damage.

Non-investing personal finance issues including insurance, credit, real estate, taxes, employment and legal issues such as trusts and wills.
Post Reply
Topic Author
wacobay
Posts: 51
Joined: Fri Jun 11, 2010 2:53 am

roof damage.

Post by wacobay »

In one of the hail storms here in the Houston area, I noticed some damage to my tin roof on my small patio. This leads me to wonder if there might not have also been damage to my larger roof. IO can't see any but then again I'm not a professional. My question is should I ask my insurance company to send out an appraiser to look at the roof or would I be wiser to ask a roofing company to come out first. My thought is that it would be in the best interest of my insurance company to tell me that my roof is fine and the roofing company to tell me it needs a new roof. Hopefully I'll just get the truth. Thanks in advance for you wisdom and knowledge.
livesoft
Posts: 86079
Joined: Thu Mar 01, 2007 7:00 pm

Re: roof damage.

Post by livesoft »

What are your neighbors doing? Generally, in a damaging hail storms there will be a cluster of claims.
Wiki This signature message sponsored by sscritic: Learn to fish.
User avatar
jeffyscott
Posts: 13487
Joined: Tue Feb 27, 2007 8:12 am

Re: roof damage.

Post by jeffyscott »

We had the insurance adjuster do this. This actually means you are filing a claim even if they say there is no damage, I believe. At the time we did this, I was told by our agent that this type of claim would not affect our rates.

Whatever the situation is with the rest of the roof, you do have damage to the tin roof that you can claim.
livesoft
Posts: 86079
Joined: Thu Mar 01, 2007 7:00 pm

Re: roof damage.

Post by livesoft »

jeffyscott wrote:We had the insurance adjuster do this. This actually means you are filing a claim even if they say there is no damage, I believe. At the time we did this, I was told by our agent that this type of claim would not affect our rates.

Whatever the situation is with the rest of the roof, you do have damage to the tin roof that you can claim.
But a deductible would figure into this, wouldn't it?
Wiki This signature message sponsored by sscritic: Learn to fish.
Topic Author
wacobay
Posts: 51
Joined: Fri Jun 11, 2010 2:53 am

Re: roof damage.

Post by wacobay »

Thanks to all of you for your replies so far. I have a $2000 deductible so I wouldn't make a claim on the patio roof.
User avatar
bottlecap
Posts: 6906
Joined: Tue Mar 06, 2007 10:21 pm
Location: Tennessee

Re: roof damage.

Post by bottlecap »

This happened to me. I notified the insurance company and they said I should have someone check it out and let them know if I had a claim. Roofing guy came out and said everything was fine, so I took it no further.

JT
SimonJester
Posts: 2500
Joined: Tue Aug 16, 2011 12:39 pm

Re: roof damage.

Post by SimonJester »

I would call several roofing companies to come out and check before you even think about talking to your insurance agent.

If there is no damage then I would not file a claim by having them send out an adjuster. All the roofing companies should send someone out to check your roof and provide an estimate for free. Get several quotes / opinions so you know they are not just trying to make a buck... See if the roofing companies will snap some photos of the damaged areas when they are up there so you can see for yourself what the damage is.
"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety, deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin
User avatar
jjg247
Posts: 131
Joined: Wed Jun 10, 2009 2:36 pm

Re: roof damage.

Post by jjg247 »

We had hail last year. I began to see a number of roofing contractors planting signs in our neighborhood, so I contacted a few to check my roof. Both felt there was some hail damage, but nothing extensive. One particularly pushy contractor insisted he could get me a "free" roof. I chose to go with another company that seemed a bit more honest and requested the insurance company send out an adjuster. The adjuster didn't feel the claim was warranted and denied the roof replacement. Now I get to see all of my neighbors get "free" roofs. Added bonus: My home insurance premium spiked this year. Gotta pay for those new roofs somehow.

I sleep well at night, but I did like thinking about a "free" roof. (Out of pocket cost would be my deductible)
rotorhead
Posts: 576
Joined: Wed Mar 17, 2010 3:59 pm
Location: Florida

Re: roof damage.

Post by rotorhead »

Several years ago we had hail damage on the roof of our house in Northeast Texas. There was considerable damage in the area. What I did was call my insurance company (USAA) and asked what they recommended I do. The said they would send an inspector out to see if a claim was warranted - they had other claims in the area. He came out and determined the roof needed to be replaced; so we filed a claim and got a new roof. Took a few months to get the work done because of the backlog of work in the area. Perhaps our case was more severe than what yours sounds to be.
scubadiver
Posts: 1193
Joined: Sun May 04, 2008 9:48 pm

Re: roof damage.

Post by scubadiver »

SimonJester wrote:I would call several roofing companies to come out and check before you even think about talking to your insurance agent.

If there is no damage then I would not file a claim by having them send out an adjuster. All the roofing companies should send someone out to check your roof and provide an estimate for free. Get several quotes / opinions so you know they are not just trying to make a buck... See if the roofing companies will snap some photos of the damaged areas when they are up there so you can see for yourself what the damage is.
+1

Don't engage your insurance company in this matter unless you decide you would like to file a claim to recoup repair expenses.
cleosdad
Posts: 310
Joined: Sat Feb 02, 2008 8:32 am
Location: Littleton Co

Re: roof damage.

Post by cleosdad »

scubadiver wrote:
SimonJester wrote:I would call several roofing companies to come out and check before you even think about talking to your insurance agent.

If there is no damage then I would not file a claim by having them send out an adjuster. All the roofing companies should send someone out to check your roof and provide an estimate for free. Get several quotes / opinions so you know they are not just trying to make a buck... See if the roofing companies will snap some photos of the damaged areas when they are up there so you can see for yourself what the damage is.
+1

Don't engage your insurance company in this matter unless you decide you would like to file a claim to recoup repair expenses.
+2 We had hail in our area and called our insurance company. They promised me that no claim would be filed. There was no damage but they charged me with a claim with 0 payment. I wrote the CEO and had the claim removed from Lexis/Nexis and CLUE.
Post Reply