Most home’s roofs are covered entirely under homeowner’s insurance. But most homeowners, despite paying their insurance year in and year out, just don’t fully understand how much they are entitled to when they experience damage or leaks due to covered perils under their policy. Insurance companies know this and count on it, and they have a profit motive to deny as many claims as possible. Even the claims that they do approve end up only paying for bare minimum repairs. It is hard to get a full roof replacement paid for by insurance after your home suffers storm damage.
However, with the right qualified local roofing contractor on your side, your storm-damaged roof can be restored with a full lifetime-warrantied roofing system for the price of your deductible. Below are some tips for getting your roof damage claim approved and paid for by your insurance company.
Obtain a Thorough Roof Inspection from a Qualified Roofing Contractor
It all starts with a roof inspection so that you can document damage and submit it to your homeowners’ insurance. Do not do this yourself, and do NOT under any circumstances contact your homeowners insurance before having your roofer out for an inspection first. Your insurance company’s adjuster is trained to find reasons to deny the claim or minimize the payout for damages, and once the adjuster does their report it is hard to overturn their “ruling”. Your roofing contractor will discover damage that your adjuster may overlook, and he will help you prepare your claim and report it in a way that maximizes the coverage under your policy.
Take Your Roofer’s Advice and Allow them to Use Their Expertise to Get Your Roof Damage Claim Approved and Paid for by Insurance
Most roofers offer free roof inspections, and some will want you to sign a contingency contract with them and/or their property damage claims service affiliates. Be cautious, but understand that this is far from a scam: it’s just a streamlined way for roofers and homeowners to work towards a mutual goal of obtaining payment for a roofing restoration project. For example if your roof is damaged by the wind you’ll need and expert inspection in order to file a roof damage insurance claim wind.
For example, Hanover PA roofer JWE Remodeling and Roofing Contractors will meet with customers and provide a free roof inspection. If they discover damage that they think is due to recent storms (like high wind and hail) they will have their customers sign a contract with their affiliated, licensed public insurance adjuster for representation. This allows JWE and their adjusters to work on the roof damage claim on the homeowners behalf. If the claim ends up not getting paid by insurance (which, according to JWE, almost never happens) then the customer owes them nothing! All JWE wants is for the customer to hire them for the roof replacement once the claim is paid. It’s a win-win agreement, and JWE Remodeling and Roofing has 5-star reviews all over the internet from happy homeowners who got their new roof approved and paid for by insurance.
The best thing a homeowner can do in order to ensure that their roof damage claim is approved and paid for in full by insurance is to follow their contractor’s advice. Roofers know what they are doing, they work with insurance companies every day, and so long as they are a legitimate company with good reviews and a high BBB rating, you can trust them to be honest and to operate with integrity. From there, it is just a matter of patience: property damage claims can take a long time to pay out. But if you’ve signed with a competent roofing company, you can rest assured that you and your home are in good hands.
