I'm curious if anyone has had their roof replaced by one these door knocking companies which promise they can get homeowner's insurance to pick up most of the tab. Seems a little dubious to me. Plus, I don't want to get on the bad side of my insurance company. I've been with them for almost 30 years and have really good rates. The last thing I want is to get dropped and then try to find another company in Florida.
(09-02-2022, 08:55 AM)homebiscuit Wrote: [ -> ]I'm curious if anyone has had their roof replaced by one these door knocking companies which promise they can get homeowner's insurance to pick up most of the tab. Seems a little dubious to me. Plus, I don't want to get on the bad side of my insurance company. I've been with them for almost 30 years and have really good rates. The last thing I want is to get dropped and then try to find another company in Florida.
What they do is have you sign over your claim to them. They in turn soak the company for double to triple the cost of a roof installation if you were to pay cash. They are one of the major reasons premiums have tripled in most areas of Florida. If you have a legitimate claim file with your company directly and let them handle the replacement or repair. This is where it may get a little dicey. The insurance company will lean towards repair if the roof is not older then 10- 15 years or so and has less than 20% failed shingles. The storm chasers will always advocate for complete replacement. They will sometimes fold the shingles themselves to reach replacement criteria in turn damaging your roof more even though they might not get a replacement pushed through. No bueno.
I hired a team of Mexican illegals. Saved a bundle!
Of course, they wouldn't disclose their status when I asked them, but...what the Hey!
(09-02-2022, 08:55 AM)homebiscuit Wrote: [ -> ]I'm curious if anyone has had their roof replaced by one these door knocking companies which promise they can get homeowner's insurance to pick up most of the tab. Seems a little dubious to me. Plus, I don't want to get on the bad side of my insurance company. I've been with them for almost 30 years and have really good rates. The last thing I want is to get dropped and then try to find another company in Florida.
super scammy.
Would you enlist the services of a spammer for whatever buisness they offer? That's what I equate door-knocking vendors to in this age.
First thing I'd do is contact your insurer. See what their policies are. They may even send someone out to assess the roof to determine if repair/replace is needed, and potentially estimate your reimbursement. That could give you something to work with when contacting reputable roofers to bid on the job.
The roof isn’t damaged. It’s 19-years-old and I want to get in front of it before it starts leaking.
(09-02-2022, 10:04 AM)homebiscuit Wrote: [ -> ]The roof isn’t damaged. It’s 19-years-old and I want to get in front of it before it starts leaking.
In this case you just have to pay for it yourself. Unless your insurance company is demanding it's replacement because of age I do not believe they have any obligation to pay anything for it. The storm chasers will of course claim storm damage.
(09-02-2022, 10:54 AM)Jagwired Wrote: [ -> ] (09-02-2022, 10:04 AM)homebiscuit Wrote: [ -> ]The roof isn’t damaged. It’s 19-years-old and I want to get in front of it before it starts leaking.
In this case you just have to pay for it yourself. Unless your insurance company is demanding it's replacement because of age I do not believe they have any obligation to pay anything for it. The storm chasers will of course claim storm damage.
Yep. First estimator just left. He bragged about chasing the storms and told me several times after he inspected my roof (where he found damage, of course) "it's not about the roof, it's about the storms".
I've worked in the roofing industry for most of my adult life and was with Liberty Mutual for a couple years too.
Couple things:
He's right "it's about the storms" An insurance company will a lot of times pay a claim without much effort if there's been a big event in your area recently that caused other claims.
Roofers literally have classes from shingle manufacturers on how to get ins companies to authorize a replacement. He very likely can get a good chunk of the roof replaced claiming unseen damage, granule loss, color fade, etc. All of these things add up.
They'll most likely charge you more than just a local certified roofer, but with offsetting some of the cost from ins you may have quite a bit less out of pocket now.
Insurance will absolutely raise your rates even if you're claim free. Well, 99% of the time they will. Roofs are expensive, especially now. They don't want to pay that much.
Lastly, beware of a roofer wanting to sell you on a payment plan instead of a grand total. If they offer financing that's cool, but I can't tell you how many interviews I've had with companies that prey on selling people a monthly payment that sounds reasonable but charges you 2-3x more overall than you could find elsewhere.
Any questions feel free to PM me. I currently work for a roofing supplier, have done sales, and installs, and owned my own company for a bit. I'm not local to Jax, but I did work for a supplier when I was in Tampa for a few years.
Well my experience with one of those companies was opposite of other people.
With my insurance, roof/siding damage was covered under an “act of god” clause. Meaning if the storm caused the damage, they can’t raise your insurance.
So we had a guy knock on our door, tell us about the shingles, and then we called the insurance company and made a claim. Insurance guy came out and inspected the roof and siding and saw damage from hail. Super nice dude. Ended up giving us 20K total. I talked to the roofer guy and we negotiated a total of 17.5K for a brand new roof and siding. Pocketed the other 2.5K which I put towards a patio I installed later that summer.
So while others have bad experiences, mine was amazing.
We used a company that knocked on the door. But there is a bit of a caveat. At the time our roof was about 20 years old. We were like you. Let’s get it done before we have an issue. Problem was, all these damned people saw we had an old roof but said it was fine. Idk if that is good news or not. One day we finally had one or two shingles blow off from a storm. A nice looking woman was trying to sell a roof. I figured I’d hear what she had to say. She even admitted we didn’t really need one but would try for us. An insurance rep came out. A good ole boy from Callahan. My wife is from there and home at the time. Small town, they didn’t know each other. He walks the roof. Says, you could use a patch job. But, I’ll go ahead and sign off on a new one for you. Saweeet! Funny thing is, it started to leak a week before they replaced it. Worked out great.
Also, I’m not sure how much I’d worry about your insurance and being in their good graces. My parents are very adamant about not using insure of any kind. (They actually paid full price for their roof). Over 20 years in their house and never filing a claim they were dropped. Why drop someone whose never used it?? Free money!! So they’ll [BLEEP] you over just as quick.
Don't do it, I had some shingles come off my then 18 year old roof a few years ago so I called a few companies for quotes and to tell me what I had going on up there. Two of them gave me quotes one more then the other but said the roof was still ok and I had a few years left. The third came out and scared the life out of my wife. Convinced her we had days left on the roof has all kinds of chalk and pictures to show us after some talking I was convinced. He said it was hail damage and pulled out his laptop. Sure enough yup there was hail in our area so he said call your insurance this will be covered. I wondered why didn't the other guys tell us this so I called my insurance. Long story this guy tried to get me to sign a benefits claim, which at this point I was getting a little suspicious and read it over and asked questions. The paper would give them permission to do the roof regardless if the insurance paid or not and at triple the cost of the other guys. Later I found out that was the scam either they get triple the rate from your insurance or a lean on your house. The insurance adjuster came out and confirmed what the other two guys said and admitted there was some limited damage from over the years. He cut me a check for $1800 told me where to get the shingles, I watched a few videos climbed on my roof and in an afternoon repaired the missing shingles for less then $400. It's been three years no issues but I plan on replacing it next few years. But I know I'll be paying out of pocket
Sounds like you’re getting a bit of mixed answers here.
You know what you need to do now. Just buy a new house with a newer roof and ac, etc. but before you sell, you want top dollar. So make sure you replace that roof first.
(09-02-2022, 03:10 PM)Cleatwood Wrote: [ -> ]Well my experience with one of those companies was opposite of other people.
With my insurance, roof/siding damage was covered under an “act of god” clause. Meaning if the storm caused the damage, they can’t raise your insurance.
So we had a guy knock on our door, tell us about the shingles, and then we called the insurance company and made a claim. Insurance guy came out and inspected the roof and siding and saw damage from hail. Super nice dude. Ended up giving us 20K total. I talked to the roofer guy and we negotiated a total of 17.5K for a brand new roof and siding. Pocketed the other 2.5K which I put towards a patio I installed later that summer.
So while others have bad experiences, mine was amazing.
Kinda like mine storm chasers came, i called my ins company they came out and inspected. I claimed hurricane damage this was after the hurricanes several years ago. I did have to pay the hurricane deductible, but i got a new roof for like 1600 out of pocket.
Guess roof prices have gone up a lot my total was like 9500.00 and its a decent sized roof.
My roof was like 25 yrs old.