Hail Damage and Insurance Claim Process (new roof, depreciation)

[hokiepoke]

Just thought I'd add that times like this when it pays to go with a good insurance company that might not have the cheapest rate. When we sold our house several years back, the inspector claimed that we had some slight hail damage to our roof due to a previous hail storm that would need to be fixed to pass inspection. We called our insurance and their inspector came out and claimed that the damage was not enough to replace the roof and that we'd have to go with spot repairs which would not meet our deductible.
We fought and had them come out a second time with our own roof guy and the insurance stood their ground. We ended up having to get the repair done ourselves in the interest of time to sell the house to the tune of $2k. We talked about it to our neighbor right next door and he called up his insurance to check on his own roof and he had his entire roof replaced with not much questioning. You do get what you pay for.

[6oo9]

Right, you need to call both your insurance company and a contractor. By calling the insurance company, you can make a claim to get the money for repair. To shop for a best deal on repair, you may need to call many contractors.

After calling the insurance company, the insurance company will send an appraiser to estimate the costs and that's your allowance to repair. You can negotiate by getting a contractor's estimate.

The 1% (or 2%) deductible is the amount you have to pay. 1% of $400k house is $4,000 out of your own pocket; any amount in excess of that will be picked up by the insurance company. BTW, that's a per event deductible, you may want to repair everything from that storm event: windows, roof, fence, any damages inside ...

Welcome to TX.

[dinoo82]

Forgive my noob question as this is my first time going thru the whole hail damage insurance claim process.

Once I receive the insurance estimate cost, do I share all of that information that shows all the costs and etc with my roofer or am I only supposed to show my roofer only what needs to be replaced and etc minus the cost information?

Thanks!

[6oo9]

Last time after a hail damage, I let my roofer directly worked with my insurance appraiser. The roofer gave me a deal: he told me they agreed on $25,000 insurance payments to fix my roof. Then he went on to say, he would give me $2,000 cash back, understanding that I had to pay deductible myself.

I ended up not using that roofer, because I did not understand his offer -- he could get $25,000 from my insurance company, and he wanted share $2,000 with me plus fixing my roof? All I wanted was a good job from him to fix my house, he made it like a financial game.

[richard88]

Newbie to the claim process....recently I've made the claims for the roof (April's storm) and notice that the check that will be sent to us, would already deduct off the 1% deductible. I asked my friend with another insurance company, they also deduct away the deductible first. So I'm not sure why everyone keep saying insurance fraud on the deductible. Would like to get educated ! Thanks !

[FalconheadWest]

Originally Posted by richard88

Newbie to the claim process....recently I've made the claims for the roof (April's storm) and notice that the check that will be sent to us, would already deduct off the 1% deductible. I asked my friend with another insurance company, they also deduct away the deductible first. So I'm not sure why everyone keep saying insurance fraud on the deductible. Would like to get educated ! Thanks !

If the roof costs $20k and you have a 1% deductible on a $400k house, insurance gives you a check for $16,000. Fraud would come in if you then get the roofing company to only charge you $16k and not the $20k. If you only pay $16k, then you aren't actually paying a deductible. Make sense?

[richard88]

Originally Posted by FalconheadWest

If the roof costs $20k and you have a 1% deductible on a $400k house, insurance gives you a check for $16,000. Fraud would come in if you then get the roofing company to only charge you $16k and not the $20k. If you only pay $16k, then you aren't actually paying a deductible. Make sense?

Do you mean that the roof company should report and provide a $20k roof ? If so, I would need to pay the roof company $4k more ? .... in addition to the $16k ? I'm confused here... I need to get deducted $4k from insurance and then in addition pay $4k to the roof company...

[stan4]

Richard.

Try it this way.

Roof costs $20,000 to fix.
Roofer says, "Hey, what's your deductible?"
You say, "$5000."
Roofer says, "Ok, I'll send your insurance company a statement for $25,000. They'll give you a check for $20,000 and assume you're paying me $5,000 on your own. Ha ha ha!" (insert twirling mustache here)

I know many people who have done this and my respect for them has absolutely plummeted. One guy told me he was 'given a discount' for putting the roofer sign on his lawn. Yeah. Right.

[Angie682]

You owe the 4k out of pocket because that is your deductnle.

[FalconheadWest]

How could you be confused? You summed it up exactly how it works. When you have a deductible, that is your out-of-pocket expense. If your deductible is $4k, then yes, you should pay $4k out of your pocket in addition to the insurance's $16k to equal the $20k roof.

Take your car for example. If you have an accident in your car and it costs $2k to repair, say your deductible is $500 (fairly average). Your insurance gives you $1500 and you pay the $500 out of pocket.

How is that confusing?