Right after a hailstorm, people are oftentimes in a big rush to file a claim
but there are some reasons why you should wait.
Hi everybody this is Tracy Bookman owner of Homestead Roofing and welcome to our
walk in the park video series where we take just a few minutes to answer your
questions about roof replacements, roof repairs, and the insurance claim process,
and today we're going to answer the question: should I file an insurance
claim right after a hailstorm? So if your property's been hit by just like a
devastating hailstorm like what we had in 2018 and also in 2016 where you've
got broken glass you've got holes in your siding, holes actually all the way
through your roof well then yeah you do need to call your insurance company
right away and file a claim but if it's just our our average what I would call
damaging hail storm that we get here in the Colorado Springs area and there's
just no reason in my mind why you need to call your insurance company and file
a claim right away despite what all of the door-knocking canvassers roofing
solicitors are telling you right because they're they're knocking on your door
sometimes just within 30 minutes after a hailstorm wanting to get on your roof
wanting to inspect it and then wanting you to file an insurance claim
sometimes even while they're right there sitting in the house with you but after
years of working in this industry I have come to realize that it can be better
for you as a homeowner if you wait and don't turn in an insurance claim right
after a storm. Again like I say if you've got pretty devastating damage then yeah
you do need to file your claim pretty quickly but after a normal hailstorm
there's no reason that you need to rush it. So here's why I say that and here's
what the benefit to you as a homeowner would be for waiting what
we have found is that when there's been a storm and everybody's filing claims
right after the storm, the insurance companies this is my opinion but they
tend to clamp down and when I say clamp down what I mean is they start being a
lot more stringent a lot less flexible on what they're
going to include in an insurance claim. Well that's important for you because if
they're clamping down on what they're going to include in your claim that
means less money in the claim for you to get the work done that you need to have
done. Now because your insurance claim can always be disputed it can always be
supplemented well that's not always a big issue however it does delay the
process if you have to go through the supplementing process if you have to go
dispute with your insurance company and that kind of stuff it just slows
everything down and it builds up some ill will between homeowners and their
insurance company or contractors and the insurance company or sometimes even
contractors and homeowners and that's never a good thing. So right after a
storm when everybody's filing these claims and the insurance companies are
really taking big hits on the amount of losses that they have on these claims
that's when they're going to start looking for ways to save money on every
single claim they're going to they're going to they're going to they're going
to minimize that's probably a better way to put it they're going to minimize the
things that go in the claim then what they normally should do. So again based
on our experience, if you wait to file a claim until after all of the craziness
is over after all the door-to-door guys are done going door-to-door after you
know well after everybody else has filed their claim the insurance companies are
far more generous it seems okay again that's my opinion that's my perception
but insurance companies just seem to be far more agreeable far easier to work
with and they just include more things in the claim than what they normally do
so one important thing for you to remember as a homeowner is if you have
hail damage on your roof if it hasn't penetrated all the way through the
shingle then your chances of there being any kind of long-term damage because of
that very very minimal in fact on my house I
had hail damage on my house for probably eight or nine years before we re-roofed
our house. Most hail damage is not going to cause
immediate damage to your home so there's no real reason to rush filing that claim
again although the door-to-door guys are definitely going to try to convince you
that if you don't file the claim right now and get this taken care of you could
possibly end up with a lot of problems it's just not true okay so I hope this
has been helpful for you if you've got any questions about this topic or other
topics please give our office call right up here 719.433.6991
you can also visit our website that's right down here at
homesteadroofingcolorado.com we've got a ton of videos out there lots
of other information for you lots of answered questions also if you
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in the park video I'm Tracy Bookman owner of Homestead Roofing.