How to Get Insurance to Pay for Roof Replacement
Our home is one of our most valuable assets and should be in good shape at all times. No matter how long you stay outside, you will definitely come back to your house at some point.
Every part of your house, from the kitchen to the toilet, your living room, and your car park, is important to give you maximum comfort.
There are some unexpected events that can occur in your home that might need to be repaired. This is why I advise people, especially my readers, to buy the best homeowner’s insurance to protect their homes from uncertainty.
Let’s say there are some damages to your roof as a result of wind pressure or leakage, and since you are an insurance policyholder, the insurance company should come and fix your roof.
However, some insureds don’t even know how to get insurance to pay for their roof replacement.
If this is your situation at the moment, then you don’t have anything to worry about. I will explain how to get insurance to pay for roof replacement in this blog post.
Average Roof Replacement Cost in the United States
Do you know the average cost of roof replacement in the United States? For an average-sized home, the average roof replacement cost of the entire roof is around $11,500.
However, this can rise to as much as $80,000 for roofs made of copper, as reported by Forbes Advisor after analyzing materials and costs.
Understanding Insurance Coverage for Roof Replacement
Insurance companies provide coverage for roof damage due to a number of factors. The most common reason for replacing a roof due to weather is damage from hail or high winds.
Homeowner’s insurance won’t pay to replace an aging roof, but it may pay if the roof was damaged by fire, vandalism, or a major windstorm.
When there is a damage on your home’s roof, whether as the result of a hailstorm or some other cause, one of the most tedious parts of the repair process is sorting out the insurance claim.
From my experience as an insurance professional, several homeowners with damaged roofs in the United States hate this process.
To begin, I would like to ask you some questions: does your policy even cover the damage? If it does, what damage is included?
The details of home insurance policies can be very different, so it’s really important to understand your own policy.
Indeed, a new roof is a huge investment, and not everyone can afford it. As soon as homeowners receive their homeowner’s insurance documents, they will just keep them in a filing box without looking at them to see further details.
Therefore, you should review your homeowners insurance policy to see details of the risks and what the insurance company should cover.
I can tell you confidently that you will be shocked to know what your policy covers.
Maybe you gambled on a high deductible to lower your premium, and now you have to scratch together $5,000 cash to repair a tree-damaged roof that will cost $6,000.
Anyway, it’s stories like this that make policyholders nervous because they don’t know what may be ahead.
How to Get Insurance to Pay for Roof Replacement
This is the part of the article that you have been waiting for. I hope our article helps you get your homeowner’s insurance company to pay for roof replacement costs.
Here are five important steps to take on how to get insurance to pay for roof replacement:
1. Know Your Roofing Insurance Coverage
Generally, homeowners insurance covers roof damage caused by fire, vandalism, natural disaster, severe rainstorm with damaging winds, hurricane, hail, earthquake, and lightning.
Homeowners insurance can also reject the claim due to poor maintenance on the property.
If it’s due to negligence, such as rust and corrosion, moss and algae, and damage from animals, like squirrels and raccoons, as these are natural degradations of a roof over time.
They also cover damage from trees or debris that hits your roof. Vandalism is also covered under homeowner’s insurance, such as graffiti and other forms of vandalism.
Since many factors might affect the coverage, please contact your insurance provider or agent.
2. Document the Damage for Proof and Contact Your Insurance Company
After there are damages to your property to the extent that its repair involves replacing the roof, and also prior to making any temporary repairs to prevent further damage to your insured property, you should do two things:
- Create visual proof of the damage
- Contact your insurance company.
Your policy covers only damage in a sudden event, such as a hail storm, and not normal wear and tear.
This is why it is very important that one of your first steps should be to prove that the damage was a result of a once-in-a-lifetime storm and not because of the age or condition of your roof.
The sure sign of hail damage is a new impact mark with a shiny, plastic-like appearance. When the roof has been damaged, there will be indentations that have little or no black granular layer on the surface.
You need to take a photo of the damage and then enlarge the photo as much as possible. This will help you determine if the evidence shows all the signs of hail or if it is rather a picture of your old, worn-out roof.
After you are satisfied that you have the telltale signs of hail damage, you need to mobilize an adjuster to come out and take a look at it. The adjuster will assess the potential damage and determine what repairs your insurance company will cover.
Once the inspection has been scheduled, you should call a roofing company to come out with the adjuster.
In fact, I will recommend that a roofer and adjuster inspect your roof together. Do you know why? Well, no adjuster will climb up the roof, and the perfect description from the ground simply will not be adequate.
3. Research Roofing Companies and Hire the Most Reputable
We can’t overemphasize the role of roofing companies in the insurance industry for claim processing. They work for the homeowner, not the insurance company.
Imagine going to court and having lawyers represent both sides. The insurance company has their adjuster or representative, but you shouldn’t trust them, and they shouldn’t trust you not to take advantage of the situation.
This is why a great roofing company can go a long way. When you select a roofing company, you are hiring a representative who will work on your behalf.
The best roofing companies in Texas will advocate for your best interests, look after your safety, ensure you receive the service you deserve, and keep everything stress-free.
Search for professional roof replacement experts who are skilled at working with roofing insurance claims. They will help you with the claims process in order to leverage the insurance coverage you deserve.
Alternatively, you can search for roof replacement near me on Google or any of your favorite search engines to discover the best roof replacement companies near you.
4. Beware of Insurance Scams and Storm Chasers
Scam artists will show up at your door uninvited when damage is known to have occurred in your area. They will ask you to sign contracts, while surveys will be left for others.
These uninvited contractors are also known as storm chasers and are the result of one conclusion at the end of this section: getting multiple angles-proof you of wanted damage.
The storm-chasing contractor will want to put their sign in your yard and promise that the insurance company will accept your claim. They might also say that if the insurance company doesn’t accept the claim, the project would be “no out of pocket to you.”
If a company tells you to sign over your insurance benefits or expects the company not to deliver-to-promise, they are committing insurance fraud.
Companies that engage in these unethical practices are putting pressure on the community by unjustifiably inflating the cost of replacement. This unethical practice is also false advertisement and attracts jail time.
5. Stay in Contact With Your Insurance Agent
Keep in touch with your insurance agent. It is a good idea to keep in periodic contact with your insurance agent. I am saying this especially for those people who have dealt with damage caused by natural disasters before.
Your friends and neighbors must have experienced the professionalism and ability of the insurance company to handle these claims.
Stay in the loop. Be familiar with what the insurance company will end up doing in the event a disaster strikes.
Also, it is worthwhile to ask your insurance agent about any requirements your insurance company may have for roofing material before the project begins.
There are important requirements that certain types of roofing must meet. In some situations, before the project begins, it is necessary to have someone from the insurance department come to inspect the roofing.
Conclusion: How to Get Insurance to Pay for Roof Replacement
Now that you know how to get your home insurance company to pay for a roof replacement, you can take the steps. However, if you can’t do it yourself, you should get an insurance agent and a reputable roofing company.
As we said earlier, the first step is to read through your insurance policy to know whether it covers roof replacement. Reading your policy is the most important thing you can do if you’re thinking of opening an insurance claim.
Print it out, and then write in your questions and talk to your agent. Don’t be ashamed. If you come across anything on the policy that doesn’t make sense to you, ask for clarification.
If coverage is important to you, it must be in your policy, so don’t let an agent convince you something will be covered that isn’t actually in your policy. That is why you need to read it first. You need to understand how your insurance company wrote your policy.
Promptly filing your insurance claim is advisable as soon as you notice damage. Delays could result in the insurance company rejecting the claim or refusing to cover the roof damage because they suspect that there is progressive (gradual) damage.
