Roof replacement from hail damage!?

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Southwest Virginia
So this guy shows up at our house last month and talks to my wife about our roof. He is a Project Manager from Weatherguard Roofing & Restoration and tells her about a hail storm that hit us a year ago. He shows her a map on his phone indicating we had 1.75” hail and our roof is undoubtedly damaged, which will be replaced by our insurance company. My wife asked me to talk to him, which I declined. No way, I tell her, is an insurance company going to completely replace a 25 year old roof for just our deductible as he claimed. I am suspicious of salesmen who show up unannounced, and I had her get his card so I can check him out.

An online search showed that his company is legit and highly rated, and I called them to confirm the salesman who visited was indeed their employee.

He came back two weeks later and this time I agreed to speak with him. He just wanted to go up on the roof to inspect it, and I agreed after making sure he was insured. He takes pictures of some dents in the asphalt shingles and tells us he is absolutely confident our insurance company will replace the roof and we would only pay our deductible. Furthermore he says our insurance premiums cannot increase by law. I’m still very skeptical, but agreed, with his assistance, to call the insurance company and file a claim.

Last week the insurance company sent out some adjusters who spent a good 30 minutes inspecting and photographing the roof with the roofing salesman. They found dents in the house and shed roof shingles and some gutters. We did have some minor leaks, but mostly around the skylights which I had already resealed.

Today I get a call from our insurance company telling me they have approved a payment of $22,930 to completely replace our roof and repair the shed and gutters, and will be sending me a check minus our deductible! And I can choose any contractor I wish. I am stunned!

All of this seems to be on the up & up. Do insurance companies do this? Can anyone think of any way this could be a scam?
 
I went through this in late 2016, I let the guy climb on my roof and he did indeed find damage from a previous hail storm. Insurance approved it and sent me a check, and I then put a deposit down with the roofing company. They did a fine job and everything worked out, however, 3 months later, the famous Wylie hail storm came through and destroyed our brand new roof, along with the skylight over the kitchen. Instinctively, I called the same roofing company to do the repair work again, and this time got scammed out of some money. I just signed over the entire insurance check to them, and they never did replace my skylight or two broken windows and screens. Take a lesson from me, don't give them all the money up front even if you have positive prior experience with them. If you give them no reason to come back, they won't.
 
I've heard of this particular thing being very common in Florida. My understanding is this ordeal has caused everyone's home insurances to skyrocket and many insurances companies to pull out of FL.

My question is - how is said company making money? If the insurance company is sending you a check, and you can pick whatever roofer? How is the company making money?
 
We had a bad hail storm and a contractor replaced eight roofs on the block - all covered by their insurance companies. I guess my house has a super roof, because my claim was denied. That was a weird storm. How it damaged everyone's roof but mine. Oh well. :rolleyes:
 
Your experience may be different, since your homeowners company said it will send the claim payment check to YOU. For about two years in Florida some roofing companies have been running a scam where they have the homeowner sign a contract and/or form that enables the roofing company to receive the check directly. It's some type of "assignment of benefits." Good for you and your insurance company though. As for increases in future insurance premiums, the roofer's explanation doesn't sound right. Every year insurance companies file with state insurance commissions to increase rates, which have gone crazy in Florida.
 
My question is - how is said company making money? If the insurance company is sending you a check, and you can pick whatever roofer? How is the company making money?
All salesmen make calls with no guarantee of getting any business. They only invested a hour or so, and are in pretty good position given their help. I'll get their quote and if they are higher than the insurance estimate I will get some more quotes.
 
Your experience may be different, since your homeowners company said it will send the claim payment check to YOU. For about two years in Florida some roofing companies have been running a scam where they have the homeowner sign a contract and/or form that enables the roofing company to receive the check directly. It's some type of "assignment of benefits." Good for you and your insurance company though. As for increases in future insurance premiums, the roofer's explanation doesn't sound right. Every year insurance companies file with state insurance commissions to increase rates, which have gone crazy in Florida.
Good points. I didn't sign anything, and will certainly control the money. The salesman claimed the insurance company cannot increase my rates by law because it was an act of god. We'll see. I have been with this insurance company for three houses, six cars and an umbrella policy over the past 27 years. So far they have been good.
 
Hail storms are a regular thing in Calgary. Afterwards you see stacks of new shingles on roofs everywhere. Makes you wonder how often an insurance company will pay for a new roof. And what does that do for the insurance costs in a city or area?
 
My 18 year old roof started to leak. Called roofers who never returned calls. Put a feeler out on Angie's list or whatever it's called and had a guy call in 5 minutes and show up in 20 minutes and climb up on the roof. Said there was hail damage and asked our home owners insurance company. Said he knew the adjuster there. Insurance sent a guy out, he wrote it up and they came up with a number to replace the rear roof and ceiling in a bedroom that had minor water damage. Worked out a deal with the roofer to replace the whole roof with the insurance proceeds and I'd deal with the ceiling myself.

Yeah, it seems like a scam but insurance is in on it so why not take advantage of it. My insurance premiums did not increase.
 
Had a guy at my door last Thursday offering to inspect my roof for storm damage. My wife was talking with him first, but as soon as I came up to the door, I told him we were fine. He left IMMEDIATELY.
There are only a couple of instances when I will have my roof replaced. Either the insurance company will tell me that I need to, or it will leak, OR have significant wind/sun damage.
As has been stated above, this scam is being perpetrated all over Florida, causing people to have insurance bills of $3000/MONTH, or not be able to get it at all!
I have witnessed a crew of Mexicans (an English word was never spoken), completely remove a roof in one day, and have a new one installed the next day! I'm not talking small roof either, easily 20 square! If underlayment work needs to be done, or complete fascia installed, it MIGHT take them 3 days!
Now THAT'S hustling! In fact, I counted the nail gun operator one day, 5 nails in a shingle in under 2 seconds! These guys are amazing.
 
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Had a guy at my door last Thursday offering to inspect my roof for storm damage. My wife was talking with him first, but as soon as I came up to the door, I told him we were fine. He left IMMEDIATELY.
There are only a couple of instances when I will have my roof replaced. Either the insurance company will tell me that I need to, or it will leak, OR have significant wind/sun damage.
As has been stated above, this scam is being perpetrated all over Florida, causing people to have insurance bills of $3000/MONTH, or not be able to get it at all!
I have witnessed a crew of Mexicans (an English word was never spoken), completely remove a roof in one day, and have a new one installed the next day! I'm not talking small roof either, easily 20 square! If underlayment work needs to be done, or complete fascia installed, it MIGHT take them 3 days!
Now THAT'S hustling! In fact, I counted the nail gun operator one day, 5 nails in a shingle in under 2 seconds! These guys are amazing.


The speed at which they do the job depends on the number of guys working. I’ve seen a couple of cases where a double wide was stripped and reroofed in half a day. Those workers were following the strippers with new felt and right after that new shingles. This was six guys on the roof plus one down below.
 
It is not a scam.
They have maps of where the hailstorms go.

In TX, they are called public adjusters.
They inspect your roof for damage and will call your insurance company for you.
I have had my roof replaced once that way.

Last time there was not enough damage for a complete roof, so I did not proceed.
 
So this guy shows up at our house last month and talks to my wife about our roof. He is a Project Manager from Weatherguard Roofing & Restoration and tells her about a hail storm that hit us a year ago. He shows her a map on his phone indicating we had 1.75” hail and our roof is undoubtedly damaged, which will be replaced by our insurance company. My wife asked me to talk to him, which I declined. No way, I tell her, is an insurance company going to completely replace a 25 year old roof for just our deductible as he claimed. I am suspicious of salesmen who show up unannounced, and I had her get his card so I can check him out.

An online search showed that his company is legit and highly rated, and I called them to confirm the salesman who visited was indeed their employee.

He came back two weeks later and this time I agreed to speak with him. He just wanted to go up on the roof to inspect it, and I agreed after making sure he was insured. He takes pictures of some dents in the asphalt shingles and tells us he is absolutely confident our insurance company will replace the roof and we would only pay our deductible. Furthermore he says our insurance premiums cannot increase by law. I’m still very skeptical, but agreed, with his assistance, to call the insurance company and file a claim.

Last week the insurance company sent out some adjusters who spent a good 30 minutes inspecting and photographing the roof with the roofing salesman. They found dents in the house and shed roof shingles and some gutters. We did have some minor leaks, but mostly around the skylights which I had already resealed.

Today I get a call from our insurance company telling me they have approved a payment of $22,930 to completely replace our roof and repair the shed and gutters, and will be sending me a check minus our deductible! And I can choose any contractor I wish. I am stunned!

All of this seems to be on the up & up. Do insurance companies do this? Can anyone think of any way this could be a scam?
I had the same experience 3 years ago, but with hidden wind damage (the roofer called it zippers), on a 24 year old roof. After an inspection by the insurance company adjuster, my insurance covered the cost (around $12000), minus a $1000 deductible. I was very surprised. A dozen neighbors in my block also had the same deal. My premium went up the next year, by about $100/year. The 2 young Mexican roofers did the job in one very long 14 hour day. No roof leaks since then.
 
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In Wisconsin we refer to these people as "hail chasers" and they go out of their way to find people to sell stuff to after a hail storm and coordinate with insurance companies so that they can mutually profit.

One thing that I can most assuredly guarantee is that if an insurance company is involved in the replacement of something like a roof, they will seek to get it replaced at the Lowest cost possible. You may get "a roof" but in my experience it tends to be something of very low quality and workmanship that you get. If you just want to think about a roof in similar terms as you think about getting another consumer product such as a gallon of milk than it is what it is. That being said roofing has a lot of complexity and much of what constitutes problematic in roofing cannot be solved by simply throwing on "a new roof."
 
This is definitely a thing, I used to (very briefly) work in roofing sales that only dealt with insurance replacements. I'd say less than 2% of what we did was "cash" jobs.

Here's the thing, if your neighborhood got hit by a hail storm it's truly in your best interest to have it inspected and submitted for a replacement if damage is apparent. Not because the roof will fail the next rain, but because if your roof was damaged, so too was your neighbors. So lets say your roof is not replaced but several of your neighbors did, your premium would likely still be increasing because the rates are adjusted for a geographic area (in the instance of hail) as opposed to your particular house. So if you're going to have an increased premium even if you did not make the claim, most people will make the claim as a just in case. We had one home owner that sticks out in particular, two roofs in five years were replaced just for the cost of his deductible.

That being said, be VERY careful of the contractor you're choosing. Storm chasers are definitely a reality. They'll bounce city to city following storm cells and getting checks but never perform the work.
 
A roofer was inspecting a neighbors for hail damage and I asked if he had time to look at mine. Damage yep, insurance looked and said yep, cut me a check and told me to use any roofer I wanted. Hundreds have been done since the hail storm 3 years ago.
 
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