Okay, so there was just a major hailstorm in Eden Prairie, and you are wondering if your roof was affected.
The first thing you should do is contact a local roofing company and have them come out and inspect your roof for hail damage.
“Don’t go look at the roof yourself,” advises Guy Grussing, the owner of Eden Prairie-based Grussing Roofing.
“You want a professional to come over and do a full examination of the exterior of your home because they have been trained to spot hail and wind damage on your roof, gutters, and windows.”
After a roofing company inspects the exterior of your home, they should show you photos that give a clear idea of the current state of your roof, and your home.
A reputable roofing contractor will then go over the appropriate next steps.
For starters, if you have hail damage on your roof, then your roofing contractor will encourage you to file a claim with your insurance company.
For most people, the process of filing an insurance claim is as simple as contacting their insurance agent and letting them know that their roof has been inspected, and that hail damage has been found.
Following the conversation with your agent, your insurance company will send an adjuster out to your home to inspect the property for hail damage.
“Depending on how many claims your insurance company has received, an adjuster will come out a few days after the claim has been filed,” Grussing notes.
Grussing also advises homeowners to have a roofing contractor present for their adjuster’s inspection so that the adjuster does not miss any damage on the roof or the exterior of the home.
“It’s important for a roofing contractor to be at the inspection because we have seen adjusters, both intentionally and unintentionally, miss key areas of hail damage,” Grussing says.
For context, the adjuster’s inspection for hail damage can take anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours.
After the inspection is over, if your insurance company determines that your roof has not incurred enough hail damage to warrant a roof replacement, then as a policyholder you are entitled to a second inspection from your insurance company.
“Most homeowners don’t know that they can get a second inspection if they are not satisfied with the adjuster’s findings,” Grussing says.
Grussing then explains that second inspections sometimes lead to insurance companies amending their initial assessment.
“I would say that in 2022 alone, about 10% of the roof replacements we did came after a homeowner got a second inspection on their roof and hail damage was approved,” Grussing reveals.
“What we often see happen is that for a second inspection, the insurance company will send out a third-party adjuster, meaning someone who is not directly affiliated with the insurance carrier, and so that new adjuster is objectively examining the roof for hail damage.”
Of note:
Most homeowners are unaware that they’re afforded a second roof inspection, and often that’s because insurance companies don’t freely share that information.
“This isn’t breaking news, but it isn’t in an insurance company’s best financial interests to replace a roof, and so in that sense they don’t proactively make sure that their clients are aware of all of the options that are available to them,” Grussing says.
“I don’t think insurance companies are inherently bad or evil for this, but it is something that homeowners should be aware of so that they can properly manage expectations throughout the insurance claims process.”
Assuming that your roof gets approved for replacement after the first or second inspection, then over the course of the next week your insurance company will send you a report that includes all relevant information for your upcoming roof replacement.
Within that same week, most insurance companies will also send homeowners a check for the Actual Cash Value (ACV) of their current roof.
That ACV figure can easily be found on the report that your insurance company sends you.
The ACV is important because the majority of homeowners will use this initial check to pay a 50% deposit to roofing contractors so that their roof can get replaced.
“The ACV check allows homeowners to get their roof replaced right away because they have the money to pay their roofing contractor a down payment that goes toward material and labor costs,” Grussing says.
Then, once the roof replacement is completed and proof of completion paperwork has been submitted by the roofing contractor to the insurance company, then the insurance carrier will release the remainder of the funds that go toward the roof replacement.
This number can also be easily accessed by looking for the Replacement Cost Value (RCV) on the report issued by the insurance company.
So then the question becomes:
How much do homeowners have to pay for their roof replacement?
“Put simply, the only expense homeowners have throughout the insurance claims process is the deductible on their policy,” Grussing says.
“It doesn’t matter if your roof costs $20,000 or $30,000. As a homeowner, the only thing you’re required to pay is your deductible. Insurance will cover the rest.”
At Grussing Roofing, before they meet with the adjuster for the first inspection, they ask homeowners to sign what’s called a contingency agreement.
The contingency agreement states that Grussing Roofing will perform the scope of work, as outlined by your insurance company, for the amount of money allocated by the insurance carrier.
This agreement makes the entire process seamless for homeowners because no matter the cost of their roof, their only expense is still just their deductible.
“Another reason we encourage homeowners to sign contingency agreements instead of traditional estimates is because sometimes the insurance company does not allocate enough money for the roof replacement,” Grussing shares.
“And so instead of homeowners coming back to us and saying that our estimate is more than their insurance company is paying out, when we work off the contingency agreement, that allows us to work directly with the insurance company to make sure that we are being appropriately compensated for the scope of work.”
Ultimately, the goal throughout the entire insurance claims process is to make sure that homeowners can get their roof replaced, without having to worry about pesky paperwork or juggling estimates from several roofing contractors.
“That’s why it’s so crucial that homeowners partner with a local roofing company that they trust,” Grussing emphasizes.
“The insurance claims process isn’t complicated, but if you hire a roofing company that has never handled an insurance claim, then getting your roof replaced could quickly turn into a headache.”
Grussing also mentions that with insurance claims, trying to decipher all the language in the report, and figuring out how much your new roof costs can seem overwhelming, especially if you have never gone through the insurance claims process.
If this applies to you, then Grussing suggests taking this simple, straightforward approach:
“Don’t worry about which materials are being used or the total cost of the job because if you hire a roofing contractor who has gone through the insurance claims process thousands of times, like we have, then they will handle the production aspect of the job,” Grussing says.
“Instead, just look at the fact that you are getting a new roof for the price of your deductible, which is much cheaper than if you were to pay for the roof out-of-pocket.” QS
If you have more questions about the insurance claims process, or if you want to schedule an inspection of your roof, call Grussing Roofing today at 952-935-0557!