How to Band Together With Your Insurance Adjuster to Fix Your Roof

By DaVinci Roofscapes. 

10 tips to building a beneficial relationship with your insurance adjuster and making the process go smoothly. 

There is no such thing as a risk-free home. Severe weather can strike your home at any time. From hailstorms to strong  winds, some freak weather accident can always threaten your roof. You will, no doubt, be familiar with discussing funding to repair your roof with your insurance adjuster. Insurance adjusters put in long hours to keep up with assessing damage of a stressed homeowner’s home and determining how much their company can offer to fund a roof repair or replacement. The thing is, insurance adjusters are people, just like all of us. Here is some advice for dealing with insurance adjusters for the best results. 

Pack your patience 

Trent Lovewell knows about working with insurance adjusters. As a leader at John Higgins Weatherguard, Inc., located in Omaha, Nebraska, he has witnessed repeated storm problems requiring insurance claims. 

“We’re in an area that gets lots of storms, so insurance adjusters are kept busy all the time,” says Lovewell. “We see many of the same adjusters after these storms. These folks work days and weeks for long hours and away from their families. Not a lot of people want to do that type of stressful job.” 

Skilled insurance adjusters are in demand, according to Lovewell. When a storm hits and adjusters are pulled in many directions, it can be stressful for both you and for the adjuster. 

“Homeowners need to have some patience with adjusters,” says Lovewell, whose company has installed more than 500 composite roofs from DaVinci Roofscapes. “That patience can go a long way in helping gain a fair resolution for a claim. 

“You need to really understand how few adjusters there are across the country, and how they can get backlogged during different seasons with weather-related issues.” 

Tips for working with insurance adjusters 

Tip 1 – Be on time for an adjuster appointment. 

Tip 2 – Participate in your first adjuster overview appointment. Do not leave the meeting to your contractor, roofer or remodeler. Adjusters want to meet just with the homeowner for the first meeting and not have a contractor looking over their shoulder. 

Tip 3 – If you have pictures and other documentation of the initial damage, make sure to show the adjuster. Sometimes you need to remove a tree or tarp off an area of the roof. Take pictures before you do that and then share those pictures with the insurance adjuster. 

Tip 4 – Make a checklist of anything that got damaged as a result of the storm or situation and present the full list to the adjuster. 

Tip 5 – Understand that the adjuster will be at your home for several hours. Adjusters need to thoroughly review the damage resulting from the storm, which can include areas both outside and inside the home. 

Tip 6 – Not happy with the evaluation of the inspector? Ask the claim center for another inspection. You’re allowed a second inspection by law in most states. 

Tip 7 – If a second inspection is provided, don’t be surprised if the insurance company asks to have your contractor on site for this inspection. You can still participate, but a second inspection may be more thorough and require the expertise of your contractor. 

Tip 8 – Still not satisfied after the second inspection? Then talk to the claim center again. Ask if they can bring in an engineer to help evaluate the situation. 

Tip 9 – Don’t beat up on the adjuster. Sure, you may have had your home insurance for 20 years and never filed a claim. While you may “feel” like you deserve a new roof, it doesn’t work that way. The adjusters follow a specific set of parameters to determine what type of reimbursement their agency will provide to you. 

Tip 10 – Honesty counts. In other words, the adjuster is there to evaluate the storm damage, so don’t try to include pre-existing problems in the claim. Just stick to pointing out what happened as a result of the storm. 

Re-roof with a performance product 

From his experience, Lovewell recommends that homeowners needing a new roof take the opportunity to upgrade to a high-performance product. 

“Why go back to the same type of roof that will get damaged in another hailstorm?” asks Lovewell. “You’re going to keep paying the deductible for repairs and that can get expensive. Investing in a high-performance roofing product makes good, common sense. 

“Here’s another benefit. We’ve definitely seen where homeowner insurance premiums drop when people select a composite roof, like a DaVinci roof. The insurance companies recognize that these man-made roofs outperform natural materials and asphalt. That performance brings confidence to the insurance company that you’ll have fewer long-term claims.” 

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Original article source: DaVinci Roofscapes