It's as if the whole storm restoration industry has lost its collective mind since all these hail storms have been hitting Colorado Springs and Fountain.
Here's some of the crazy things we're seeing out there.
INSURANCE COMPANIES
- Insurance adjusters are acting irrationally. We've seen homes where the roof has been "totaled" by an adjuster, but which have had no, or nearly no, hail damage. One roof in particular comes to mind. It's a huge roof, and part of it is custom metal. There was 2 hail dents on the whole roof, however, the insurance adjuster "totaled" the roof. That was about $22,000 in the insurance claim that was completely unnecessary.
- Yet, while those adjusters are accepting claims that don't need to be accepted, they're also fighting with us about miniscule dollar amounts that have to be added to the necessary claims in order to do the jobs correctly. We've had "discussions" with insurance adjusters about why they refuse to include line items that only total about $100 - $200. They over-pay by accepting unnecessary claims, but then refuse legitimate costs for jobs that actually do need to be done.
- Prior to the May 18th, 2018 storm which hit southeast Colorado Springs, many insurance companies had changed the deductible amounts and/or the coverage of the homeowners' policies. They can't call every homeowner individually to explain that to them - which I understand. Who could take the time to call thousands of homeowners? So the changes were announced in the homeowner's declaration page at the insurance renewal period. Who reads their insurance company's declaration page? Almost nobody does. So that means that almost nobody knew what their out-of-pocket expense would be as part of their claim. We had people who thought their deductibles were $1000 who ended up finding out that they had deductibles of $2000, $3000, or more. Some homeowners discovered they had $5000, $6000, or even some as high as $10,000 and $12,000! Alwaysknow what your share of the claim cost will be before you file a claim.
ROOFING COMPANIES
The best, crazy examples always come from roofing companies.
- One company was door-knocking through neighborhoods right after the June 13th storm, telling homeowners that they would do their roofs, "right now." And they were actually doing it! If they got the go-ahead from a homeowner, they would get on the roof and begin tearing it off and installing new underlayment. I wonder what the insurance adjuster thought when he got to the roof and there were no shingles! How is he supposed to scope a loss on a roof with no damaged shingles?
- That same company was also telling homeowners that they would handle all the necessary repairs to the collateral damage such as paint, windows, siding, etc., and they were collecting all the money up-front from the whole claim, and then they would just do the roof and keep all the extra money, but not do any of the other repairs.
- One homeowner answered her door and the door-knocker asked if he could inspect her roof. When she told him "No," he told her that he was going to get on her roof and that she couldn't stop him!
What You MUST Remember...
- NEVER give a contractor any money before materials have been delivered to your property. Not only is it illegal for a contractor to require any money up-front, it's incredibly risky for the homeowner to pay someone with no guaranteed that he'll get anything for his money.
- NEVER hire a contractor who says he'll pay, waive, rebate, or discount your deductible. That's illegal in the state of Colorado and it is insurance fraud on the part of the homeowner
- According to the State Attorney General and the Department of Regulatory Agency, NEVER let someone in or on your house who has come knocking on your door.
If you have questions about your roof and would like to know what condition it's in after the most recent hail storm on August 6th, 2018, please call our office at 719-433-6991.
