What To Do If Your Insurance Company Denies Your Claim
Three Ways to Get Your Storm Damage Covered if Your First Claim is Denied
What happens if your insurance company denies your storm damage claim?
If you’ve recently had an inspection for storm damage, and your insurance carrier denied the claim, there are a few things you can do:
You can call the insurance company and request a reinspection;
You can try to substantiate the claim yourself, preferably with evidence and aid of a contractor; or,
You can hire a third party engineer or public adjuster to evaluate the damage and causation and allow them to make the argument for you.
With reasonable and legitimate storm damage, it is unusual for the insurance company to deny your claim a second time if you initiate any one of these three options. Of course, if you do not have legitimate storm damage you may still be denied. As roofing contractors, we would like for insurance carriers to approve all claims, but not all claims are legitimate and reasonable. . . the two qualifiers with which we must live by on both sides of the fence. As a roofing contractor that would like to stay in business, we realize at Roof It Right that if we encourage illegitimate or unreasonable claims, carriers will deny more claims, and more frequent denials will result in a poor reputation over time. There can be many negative consequences for homeowners that file storm damage claims that result in denials, so we do the absolute best at making sure a denial does not happen.
Some contractors believe that they have no skin in the game when it comes to filing claims. If the claim gets approved, all is well, and they get a roofing job. However, if the claim is denied, they walk away with little loss of their time. If the homeowner is left with a denial, but the insurance adjuster discovers items that must be corrected in order for the homeowner to continue to be insured, the homeowner must pay for those items out of pocket. If the homeowner does not have the finances available to make those repairs, they will be dropped by their carrier and left without insurance. To make sure this doesn’t happen to you, find a contractor that has been in business for a long time and has a good reputation for being honest and fair. A good bet with roofing companies can be made by finding one that has been around long enough to have a good online and social media presence, lots of positive customer reviews, and a knowledgeable professional workforce. Companies that invest in their employees are able to train them on how to properly diagnose storm damage and how to address insurance carriers that make decisions in their own financial interests rather than that of the people they insure.
That is why we at Roof It Right invest in our people to make sure we do the job RIGHT!
I’m James Hannon, the assistant general manager, and I would like to say thank you for checking out our BLOG at Roof It Right, LLC. We are a Louisville, KY based company that specializes in exterior home products, insurance claim services, and most importantly educating our community about what we do!
