Insurance is always a bureaucratic headache for our clients. The last thing you want is to go through the whole process with a Claims Adjuster and get less money than it takes to fix storm damage to your roof.
As we touched on in a recent blog, there’s a hazard in relying on insurance companies to give you a fair claim for storm damage. They employ an insurance claims adjuster to scope out the damage and report what he or she thinks you’ll need to cover it.
Unfortunately, there are two problems with this:
1. The adjuster is not a commercial roofing specialist and might miss something.
2. The adjuster has an inherent bias in favor of the insurance company, not the policyholder.
m not trying to bash insurance companies at all, but you do need to remember that the less they pay out in claims like yours, the more profitable the companies are. They’re simply never going to be as committed to evaluating the actual costs to fix storm damage as you are.
In case you’re new to the process, here’s what it’s like to work with a claims adjuster (and how Storm Hawks can help).
Working with the Adjuster
When you submit a claim to your insurance company, it’s the adjuster’s job to come out and assess the damage to your roof. The claims adjuster will usually take pictures or videos, interview witnesses, document everything, and then get back to you with an estimate. This is how much the insurance company thinks it will cost to repair or replace your roof (and insurance companies are never inclined to go with the replacement cost if they can get away with just repair).
After the insurance company gives you an estimate, you decide if you want to give up and take it, or go through an appeals process.
Please note this critical point: once you take an insurance settlement, it’s over!
In other words, if you accept what your insurance company says a claim is worth, that’s the money you get. Down the road, if it turns out the damage was more extensive than you thought, you’re out of luck. That’s just the way it works, so you should get a second opinion sooner rather than later.
One of the biggest areas where an adjuster differs from an actual contractor is in the analysis of roof damage.
Structural Versus Cosmetic Damage
Not long ago, we mentioned our experience working with a client who had storm damage on his metal roof. He had some dents and scratches due to hail that seemed like they were cosmetic. What the claims adjuster didn’t understand is that damaging the outer coating of a metal roof can lead to serious structural damage.
In a nutshell, adjusters look at the roof for superficial damage. If it doesn’t look too bad, you’re not getting much money. Storm Hawks has sophisticated equipment to evaluate your roof for true structural damage, which means you won’t be putting a Band-Aid on a scratch while there’s internal bleeding going untreated.
Let Us Take Care of It
If you hire Storm Hawks to help you fix your commercial roof, we take all the cost and hassle out of the process. We deal with the insurance company directly, and we know roofs, so the insurance adjuster won’t be able to pull a fast one or try to undercut you on a roof that needs extensive work.
Best of all, since the insurance company is covering the damage, you get our expertise and professionalism at no cost to you!
Storm Hawk Commander-in-Chief,
Rudy Rodriguez
