Insurance Companies Are Not Your Friend

 

Insurance companies portray themselves as friends who are there for you in your time of need. However, the reality is they’re a business. Their number one priority is making money, not what is best for you. I’ve been dealing with a hail damage insurance claim since May for exactly this reason.

Original Claim

The first round of our hail damage insurance claim didn’t turn out well. The adjuster originally approved to have one side of our home resided and the front side of our roof shingled.

The explanation given was only one side of our home and the front of the roof had hail damage. I did not accept this conclusion. Our home is 14 years old, the siding has faded and shingles are worn significantly. If only one side of our home was resided, it would be a noticeably different color  from the rest of the home. If only one side of the roof was shingled the front would look significantly different than the back. Plus, in a few years when we would have to shingle the backside, the shingles may be discontinued and we’d have to do the entire roof.

Extenuating Circumstances

The insurance adjuster did admit that if the siding color was not a close match, they would replace the siding on the entire home. A siding sample was requested, and sure enough the color was noticeably different. We were sure we would be approved to have all our siding replaced.

After every one of our neighbors were approved for an entire roof replacement we questioned whether there was hail damage on the backside of our home and had our contractor take another look at our roof. Additional hail damage was found, and we were sure our entire roof would be replaced as well.

Second Inspection

The inspector and contractor came out a second time to look at our home. The contractor showed the inspector both the color difference in the siding as well as the hail damage on the backside of the roof.

When we heard back from the insurance adjuster, he gave us mixed news:

  • He agreed with the contractor regarding the hail damage on the backside of the roof and approved full replacement of the roof. He said to expect the additional funds, amounting to thousands of dollars, would be mailed to us in about a week.
  • While he didn’t disagree the siding sample color was significantly different, he explained the company’s policy is to replace what was damaged and then assess if the rest needed to be done. He said there have been contractors taking advantage of the situation and providing inflated estimates for upgraded materials and colors when a full replacement was approved.

The Final Verdict

For the roof, we’ll be working with our contractor to pick out shingles similar in color to what we currently have and scheduling replacement.

For the siding, we’ll have to get the damaged siding replaced, then have the adjuster come back to our home a third time to inspect the color mismatch and make a decision on the rest of the house.

What We Learned

Our insurance company hasn’t made the process easy. We’ve been dealing with this for two and a half months. Had we accepted their original assessment, we would have half a roof shingled and one side of our home resided. We fought for what we knew was right, and got them to replace the entire roof. We’ll continue to play their game and have some siding replaced and then have another inspection done. They may think we’ll give up, but they’re wrong.

How about you, EOD Nations, have you ever had to fight your insurance company on a claim? What was the outcome?

About Travis

One Response to “Insurance Companies Are Not Your Friend”

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  1. Sorry to hear about this situation. I haven’t ever had to fight an insurance company over an issue, but the only claims I’ve really ever had were simple issues related to car insurance.

    At our old house our neighbor had a small amount of siding replaced by the builder because after our house was built the sun was reflecting of our windows and melted part of their siding. It happened to several other houses in the neighborhood as well. The builder came and replaced our window so it wouldn’t keep happening, and the replaced the melted siding, but only the pieces that had issues. The neighbor’s house was 3 or 4 years old and it looked pretty bad with the fade being obvious. I don’t know if our neighbor fought to get it all replaced but I know I wouldn’t have been happy if that was my house.

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