Roof question - insurance related

[flojo]

We had a bad rain and wind storm this week which caused strips of our shingles to come off of our roof. I called someone to replace them and they asked if I had contacted our insurance, which I hadn’t even considered. The roofing guy said our roof is so old that they don’t make the same type of shingles anymore - I don’t know if that has any significance for insurance or not.

For those of you that have dealt with roof replacement via insurance, what was your experience? I have no idea if it’s worth contacting them or not, and if my premium will go up or not if they get involved. Talk to me like I’m 5, because I hate insurance stuff.

[goldenbird]

If your roof is super old and damaged you may need a new one, in which case you definitely want insurance to pay. And if it's needed from the storm damage they should pay for it. So I'd call insurance and have them come out. We got a new roof last summer. We had them/insurance come out after a hail storm and they said we needed a new roof.
We did have to pay the deductible which was $3k I think. But better than the 20ishk for the whole roof.
So I'd call your insurance and say there was a bad storm and you're concerned there's damage.

[flojo]

Mar 15, 2024 12:42:15 GMT -6 goldenbird said:

If your roof is super old and damaged you may need a new one, in which case you definitely want insurance to pay. And if it's needed from the storm damage they should pay for it. So I'd call insurance and have them come out. We got a new roof last summer. We had them/insurance come out after a hail storm and they said we needed a new roof.
We did have to pay the deductible which was $3k I think. But better than the 20ishk for the whole roof.
So I'd call your insurance and say there was a bad storm and you're concerned there's damage.

Thank you. Did your insurance premium go up after that for the next year?

[goldenbird]

Mar 15, 2024 12:47:16 GMT -6 flojo said:

Mar 15, 2024 12:42:15 GMT -6 goldenbird said:

If your roof is super old and damaged you may need a new one, in which case you definitely want insurance to pay. And if it's needed from the storm damage they should pay for it. So I'd call insurance and have them come out. We got a new roof last summer. We had them/insurance come out after a hail storm and they said we needed a new roof.
We did have to pay the deductible which was $3k I think. But better than the 20ishk for the whole roof.
So I'd call your insurance and say there was a bad storm and you're concerned there's damage.

Thank you. Did your insurance premium go up after that for the next year?

I'll have to ask MH. But honestly it's kind of apples and oranges. Like if you need a new roof you need a new roof you know. If you ignore it or just patch up the problem then you could end up with worse problems from a leak you don't know about or whatever. Ours was a 2008 build with a fairly cheap materials builder so I'm surprised it took til 2022 to need a new one. But we had a few year streak of fairly frequent hail and that was the tipping point.

[trueblue]

Mar 15, 2024 12:10:14 GMT -6 flojo said:

We had a bad rain and wind storm this week which caused strips of our shingles to come off of our roof. I called someone to replace them and they asked if I had contacted our insurance, which I hadn’t even considered. The roofing guy said our roof is so old that they don’t make the same type of shingles anymore - I don’t know if that has any significance for insurance or not.

For those of you that have dealt with roof replacement via insurance, what was your experience? I have no idea if it’s worth contacting them or not, and if my premium will go up or not if they get involved. Talk to me like I’m 5, because I hate insurance stuff.

Re: not making the shingles anymore means the repair contractor won’t be able to match them so instead of having a continuous roof of one type of shingle it will have different shingles in different places and won’t all match (you will be able the see the patches). Before the storm you had a roof that all matched. After you didn’t.

Think about cars with body damage and the owner replaces that panel with one that fits the car but is a different color-functionally it’s fine. Aesthetically probably not so much.

[sweptaway]

If your roof is damaged from storms, insurance may cover it. If it's just age related, then they won't. Often with a new roof your premium will go down a bit, but IDK how that works if they are paying for the roof. I can't see how it would hurt to at least give them a call.

[robotsvswrestlers]

I got a roof replaced with insurance. The roof was maybe 10 years old and due to a severe windstorm, tons of houses in the subdivision were getting new roofs. The roofing company did literally everything. I gave them insurance info and they did all the documentation/communication with the insurance. I got a check from insurance and signed it over to the roofers. It was really easy.

Because your roof is older, the process might be slightly different. I didn’t notice a crazy increase in our insurance premiums or anything.

[AmyG]

The insurance sent a person out to evaluate the roof. She counted the number of holes, damage from tree branches falling on the roof cause we had a big tree come down due to a big windstorm. If there was enough damage that could be attributed to the storm, they'd cover the whole roof. otherwise they might just patch up the damage. our shingle color was also not being made any more which meant that counted towards their decision in our favor.

We paid $1k for deductible, insurance paid up the remainder of the 15k (barely pre covid)
If the insurance does go up, it's unlikely to go up 15k. ours barely went up and then went down more because of new roof.

[spicysalmonroll]

I've always been advised by friends who work in insurance to not use home insurance unless it's absolutely MAJOR like 30k+ tree through your roof situation. Not a few shingles or needing regular maintenance/ new roof due to age. They can and very likely will ding your premiums going forward and can even drop you, making you uninsurable because others will ask if you have had a claim and then simply say eh no we won't insure you because of that. It's also the reason most of us have seen home insurance premiums raise significantly over the past few years even though we have no claims, is to cover everyone else who does charge claims (so it hurts everyone in the long run). We replaced our old roof last year and it was "only" 8k, of course that will depend on your area and size of house and everything. If you have absolutely no other funding option at all then I'd try insurance but if you "can" make it work to pay for it yourself, I'd do that.

[smilesp]

We recently had a bathroom remodel done and the contractor found some spots of water penetration along the roof line when they took the walls down. I called a few companies to get estimates for a new roof and one suggested trying to go through our insurance because we had a big hail storm last summer. I was skeptical because our roof is probably 20+ years old (we’ve lived here for 13 years). The roofing company came out for the estimate and did find and document hail damage. I called our insurance company and they came and did an inspection. Our claim was approved the same day as the inspection and we’re getting a new roof and we just have to pay our $500 deductible. It was very easy and I’m very grateful that the roofing company suggested using our insurance because I never would have thought to do that.

ETA The total cost of the replacement is over $16k

[AmyG]

Mar 15, 2024 14:41:36 GMT -6 spicysalmonroll said:

I've always been advised by friends who work in insurance to not use home insurance unless it's absolutely MAJOR like 30k+ tree through your roof situation. Not a few shingles or needing regular maintenance/ new roof due to age. They can and very likely will ding your premiums going forward and can even drop you, making you uninsurable because others will ask if you have had a claim and then simply say eh no we won't insure you because of that. It's also the reason most of us have seen home insurance premiums raise significantly over the past few years even though we have no claims, is to cover everyone else who does charge claims (so it hurts everyone in the long run). We replaced our old roof last year and it was "only" 8k, of course that will depend on your area and size of house and everything. If you have absolutely no other funding option at all then I'd try insurance but if you "can" make it work to pay for it yourself, I'd do that.

I've not had that experience for anything. We use insurance because we have insurance. Like we've had a claim for jewelry, water damage, roof damage, and several other things. our insurance has never increased by a lot, we've never had a policy cancelled we've never been uninsurable.

I honestly believe that many Insurance people will try to get you to not use the insurance because the company makes more $ if they don't have to pay out on claims because people don't put in claims. 

[GhoatMonket]

Mar 15, 2024 15:26:03 GMT -6 AmyG said:

Mar 15, 2024 14:41:36 GMT -6 spicysalmonroll said:

I've always been advised by friends who work in insurance to not use home insurance unless it's absolutely MAJOR like 30k+ tree through your roof situation. Not a few shingles or needing regular maintenance/ new roof due to age. They can and very likely will ding your premiums going forward and can even drop you, making you uninsurable because others will ask if you have had a claim and then simply say eh no we won't insure you because of that. It's also the reason most of us have seen home insurance premiums raise significantly over the past few years even though we have no claims, is to cover everyone else who does charge claims (so it hurts everyone in the long run). We replaced our old roof last year and it was "only" 8k, of course that will depend on your area and size of house and everything. If you have absolutely no other funding option at all then I'd try insurance but if you "can" make it work to pay for it yourself, I'd do that.

I've not had that experience for anything. We use insurance because we have insurance. Like we've had a claim for jewelry, water damage, roof damage, and several other things. our insurance has never increased by a lot, we've never had a policy cancelled we've never been uninsurable.

I honestly believe that many Insurance people will try to get you to not use the insurance because the company makes more $ if they don't have to pay out on claims because people don't put in claims. 

Yeah, I have definitely not have that experience at all. We've had a roof replaced and injured claim. We switched carriers with those both being recent without issue. No increases with either, we only switched because we moved and found a better rate elsewhere.

[spicysalmonroll]

Mar 15, 2024 16:53:12 GMT -6 GhoatMonket said:

Mar 15, 2024 15:26:03 GMT -6 AmyG said:

I've not had that experience for anything. We use insurance because we have insurance. Like we've had a claim for jewelry, water damage, roof damage, and several other things. our insurance has never increased by a lot, we've never had a policy cancelled we've never been uninsurable.

I honestly believe that many Insurance people will try to get you to not use the insurance because the company makes more $ if they don't have to pay out on claims because people don't put in claims. 

Yeah, I have definitely not have that experience at all. We've had a roof replaced and injured claim. We switched carriers with those both being recent without issue. No increases with either, we only switched because we moved and found a better rate elsewhere.

That’s good!! Maybe I’ve heard outdated advice

[GhoatMonket]

Mar 15, 2024 18:08:59 GMT -6 spicysalmonroll said:

Mar 15, 2024 16:53:12 GMT -6 GhoatMonket said:

Yeah, I have definitely not have that experience at all. We've had a roof replaced and injured claim. We switched carriers with those both being recent without issue. No increases with either, we only switched because we moved and found a better rate elsewhere.

That’s good!! Maybe I’ve heard outdated advice

Also potentially #regional or by policy.

[goldenbird]

I know if you make a bunch of claims on car insurance they will sometimes eventually drop you. It happened to my dad.
But really roofs need to be replaced at some point and that's a part of life. You have the insurance for a reason. I hope it goes smoothly for you!

[flojo]

Thanks everyone! I’m going to call insurance today. I don’t think it can hurt to have them look into it.

[Sweetjane]

Mar 15, 2024 15:13:39 GMT -6 smilesp said:

We recently had a bathroom remodel done and the contractor found some spots of water penetration along the roof line when they took the walls down. I called a few companies to get estimates for a new roof and one suggested trying to go through our insurance because we had a big hail storm last summer. I was skeptical because our roof is probably 20+ years old (we’ve lived here for 13 years). The roofing company came out for the estimate and did find and document hail damage. I called our insurance company and they came and did an inspection. Our claim was approved the same day as the inspection and we’re getting a new roof and we just have to pay our $500 deductible. It was very easy and I’m very grateful that the roofing company suggested using our insurance because I never would have thought to do that.

ETA The total cost of the replacement is over $16k

This is exactly the scenario I was going to use to suggest you go through insurance.
That's what you're paying for anyway, might as well use it. The roofers can definitely point towards storm damage in order rti make the claim.

[theseaword]

There have been many changes to the industry stance on roof claims over the last few years.
If your roof was damaged from a windstorm, you will likely have coverage under your homeowners insurance and as long as the damage exceeds your deductible you can submit it.
As far as what coverage you may have and what deductible applies will very greatly. A lot of companies have been adding special deductibles for windstorm, or paying what’s called actual cash value (vs replacement cost) for roofs. I know it’s not the easiest thing in the world, but I recommend you do check your policy for any of that specific wording/coverage/deductibles.
If your roof is on the older side you are better off replacing vs making small repairs if you can. Companies are being really really strict and punitive about roofs and while most things are regional, this is not, except in the sense of the US.

[dc2london]

Mar 15, 2024 14:32:30 GMT -6 robotsvswrestlers said:

I got a roof replaced with insurance. The roof was maybe 10 years old and due to a severe windstorm, tons of houses in the subdivision were getting new roofs. The roofing company did literally everything. I gave them insurance info and they did all the documentation/communication with the insurance. I got a check from insurance and signed it over to the roofers. It was really easy.

Because your roof is older, the process might be slightly different. I didn’t notice a crazy increase in our insurance premiums or anything.

My mother just had her roof replaced in the fall and this was her same experience. It was very easy and only cost her her deductible. They even sent more guys out to redo some paint on the stucco that the adjuster thought didn't look as good as it should.

[dc2london]

Mar 15, 2024 15:13:39 GMT -6 smilesp said:

We recently had a bathroom remodel done and the contractor found some spots of water penetration along the roof line when they took the walls down. I called a few companies to get estimates for a new roof and one suggested trying to go through our insurance because we had a big hail storm last summer. I was skeptical because our roof is probably 20+ years old (we’ve lived here for 13 years). The roofing company came out for the estimate and did find and document hail damage. I called our insurance company and they came and did an inspection. Our claim was approved the same day as the inspection and we’re getting a new roof and we just have to pay our $500 deductible. It was very easy and I’m very grateful that the roofing company suggested using our insurance because I never would have thought to do that.

ETA The total cost of the replacement is over $16k

Yeah some of the companies have bots that use google maps to find incidences of hail at your address and they can use that to get insurance to pay for roof repair/replacement. That worked for a couple of our neighbors in the last year or two.