Most roofing systems come with one to three decades of warranty. However, insuring your home is still necessary since the warranties for a roof do not cover incidents like fire and hail storms that could extensively damage the roof. When it comes to home insurance claims, the insurers will usually try to lower the repair estimate. Make sure that you get the right estimate. Here are some tips.
When you file a claim, the insurance company may send an adjustor who may underestimate the cost of fixing a damaged roof. Many insurance companies are guilty of this and it is not right. Sometimes, the insurance company will also send an adjustor for the second time with a bit higher estimate but still very low estimate. Remember the adjustor works for the insurance company.
It is easy to know if the insurance company’s adjustor is guessing or if he already has an amount in mind even before he leaves the office. A real adjustor who wants to give an honest estimate would climb up to see the roofing damage, however, whether or not he climbed up on the roof to check for damage matters only slightly. What you want to do is call a professional roofer to look at the damage. It will also help if you could get estimates from different roofing contractors. It is good if the roofing contractors have close estimates that are higher than the insurance company’s estimate.
Sometimes, the insurance company will agree to increase the repair cost. Other times, they will not unless the case ends up in a lawsuit. If you feel they are low balling you hire a lawyer who is an expert in insurance cases. Most attorneys offer a no claim-no fee payment system so the high cost of hiring a lawyer is not a problem.
Other things you can do if you think the insurance adjustor low balls the repair cost estimate is to take some pictures of the roof from different angles. You should also take a picture of what damaged the roof such as hail. It is best if you could use a date stamp in taking photographs.
Normally, repairing a roof can be expensive but there are many factors that determine the roof repair cost. Some of the aspects that the roofing contractors check when giving an estimate are the dimensions, roof slope, difficulty, layers that need to be torn off, material, and ridge vent. The price goes up if you have skylights and chimneys, too. So making sure your insurance company will cover as much of the cost as possible is something you want to do.
