When a hail storm rolls in, it has the potential to cause significant damage to your property. These frozen balls of ice can damage vehicles, roofs, windows, skylights, and siding. While the damage to the siding, windows, and vehicles can be noticed quickly, the damage to the roof may not be as noticeable right away, because it dislodges the shingles. If a storm is bad enough, you may even need a whole new roof. After a severe hail storm, it is recommended that you have your roof inspected by a professional who can fully assess the damages caused by the hail.
The roofing granules attached to the shingles on the roof are often what takes the brunt of the damage in a hail storm, and without them, your roof’s life expectancy is going to go down. This is why an inspection by a trained professional is important; it can be difficult to determine granule damage to the untrained eye.
After a bad storm, sometimes insurance companies will try to avoid paying for the damages, claiming the damage already existed before the storm, blaming it on the manufacturer, depreciating the value of the roof, or attempting to avoid paying for a full roof replacement and instead only offering to patch part of the roof.
Since the full extent of the damage may not be visible to the untrained eye, sometimes an insurance company will only be willing to fix or patch parts of the roof. If this is the case, contact the roofer they consulted and compare notes with the roofer you hired to inspect the damages. Between the two of them, you may be able to come up with a better agreement.
Sometimes an insurance company will raise your rates for filing a hail damage claim, but not always because weather damage is not caused directly by you. If you make another hail damage claim within three years, your rate may go up the second time.
There is also a chance that an insurance company will raise the rates of an entire area if too many hail damage claims come in at a single time.
If your insurance denies your hail damage claim, or attempts to underpay it, you have options. A Public Adjuster can help you fight your insurance company to get you the compensation your insurance company owes you.
There are scammers who are known to canvas neighborhoods after storms, knocking on doors and claiming that they can act as an insurance adjuster to help you with your claim. They will get the homeowner to hire them to handle the insurance claim and assign all rights to them for the proceeds of the insurance claim. You will end up with a huge bill and subpar work from these people. They will not stand by their repairs at all and will not provide you with a warranty. It also does not make much sense that a contractor would be experienced in handling insurance claim disputes, as these scammers tend to do. It is wise not to hire someone who contacts you in this way or makes these sorts of claims.