Hi everybody! This is Tracy Bookman owner of Homestead Roofing and welcome to
today's weekly walk in the park where we take three minutes to answer your
questions about roof repairs, roof replacements, and the insurance claim
process. And today we're going to answer your question: what should I do if it
hails again?
Now it's a beautiful day in mid-May 2019 and bad weather is probably the furthest
thing from anybody's mind but weather patterns are shaping up and indicate
that this could be a pretty wild year for storms. If we do get another
hailstorm here in this area what should you do? Well let's first talk about what
you should not do. There are a couple major mistakes that most homeowners make
after a pretty big hailstorm. First one is calling the insurance company. Many
people make the mistake of thinking hey we had a hailstorm I better call my
insurance company and have them come out and check to see if there's any damage.
The reason that that's a mistake is because once you call the insurance
company and ask them to send somebody out to look at your property you have
just filed a claim. Most people don't understand that but you call you ask
them to send an adjuster out to inspect the property and that files a claim in
the system for your insurance company. The adjuster is coming out not to
inspect your roof to see if there's any damage. Yes he wants to know if there's
any damage. But he's actually coming out to make an assessment of the cost of the
damage that you know that you have on your property. So what that means is if
the adjuster comes out because you've called them and asked him to come look
at your roof if there's no damage guess what? You still have a claim on your
record and yes it still will count against you
for the one two three strike kind of policy that most insurance companies
have. If you have so many claims within a certain number of years that will count
against you big time. Another mistake that a lot of homeowners make is letting
a door-to-door roofer get on your roof. I don't know if you knew this but the
Colorado Attorney General and the Department of Regulatory Agency
recommends that Coloradans not let anybody in or on your house who has come
knocking on your door. The reason that this is a big mistake
letting somebody up on your roof who's just come knocking on your door
it's because that person really has one objective and that is either to get you
to file a claim so that he can sell you a roof or she or to get you to file a
claim so that they can then set an appointment to have a salesman come over
and sell you a roof. So keep that in mind when the guys are coming knocking on
your door that that's their objective is to sell you something. And you may not
need a roof. So what should you do? Call your insurance agent and ask him or her
if he can recommend a roofing contractor who will come inspect your roof. If you
don't have an insurance agent, no problem! Ask some of your neighbors ask family,
friends, co-workers, if they've used a roofing contractor who they like and
trust and have that person come over and inspect your roof. All roofing
contractors in El Paso County will come inspect your roof and give you an
evaluation of whether or not they think you should file a claim. But remember the
main point is you want to get a referral from somebody who trusts a roofing
contractor who can come do that for you. You don't want to let the door-to-door
guys do it you don't want to let the phone solicitors do it because then you
have no frame of reference to know whether or not that person is
trustworthy. I know that was really quick down and dirty. But I hope that answers
your question on what should I do if it hails again this year. If you've got
questions that were unanswered by this video please contact our office right up
here at this phone number 719.433.6991 and
we'll help you through the process. You can also visit our website right down
here HomesteadRoofingColorado.com we've got a ton of information out there
lots of other videos lots of education for homeowners. And if you
liked this video please be sure to give us a thumbs up be sure to hit the
subscribe button up there and click the little bell icon so that way you get
notified when we have new videos. Be sure to leave a comment especially if you've
got questions that you would like us to answer on our weekly series put those in
the comments section below and we'll try to make a video based on your question.
In the meantime, I'm Tracy Bookman owner of Homestead Roofing and we'll see you
on our next weekly walk in the park.