Berto Posted April 10, 2012 Report Share Posted April 10, 2012 Hoping to get the opinion of folks in the insurance industry on this. Or whomever I guess. a little over a week ago we got a pretty bad hail storm after the fact, I went around looking at the damage. On one side of the roof there is pretty good hail damage. Not leaking but you can see it clearly. My roof is about 15 yrs old too. My A/C got beat up pretty good. On one side you can see divets in the cooling fins. My fence needs re-stained, you can see the hail divets on it. My screens have holes in them (no biggie), then also there is a small chip on one of my pieces of siding. I have heard a horror story of a co-worker that got dropped from home insurance. Even though he only made 2 claims in 3 years, one of them got divided into 2 claims so it put him into the '3 claim' magic number for getting dropped. Now he has a hell of a time getting home insurance. I personally have never had an insurance claim. Now to the questions: - Should I go ahead and have the adjuster come out or wait till the end of the storm season? Worried we may not have damaging storms like this an then I'll be SOL. - Is the 3 claim number legit? I'm paranoid about submitting this claim then getting hosed again and being hosed, or am I being paranoid? - Does the cost of the claims factor into the decision of getting dropped? I had on guy climb on the roof and look around, but he said 'we're expensive' Granted they have been around for 20 yrs and are insured, on angies list etc etc, none of this fly by night stuff. - I have my home insurance with the same provider as my car. If I have a car claim and a house claim do they count against me? I am looking at getting out of this house in the next 4-5 yrs. Am I being paranoid should I just use insurance (now that I get to) and not worry about it? Any tips on dealing with adjusters? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TTQ B4U Posted April 10, 2012 Report Share Posted April 10, 2012 We had a bad hail storm in 2003 and I fought with State Farm to get all the damage covered. IIRC it was like $24k in damages. All new roof, garage door, all new windows, siding, deck and fence refinished, etc.... They sent me a letter basically stating my premium would stay put but my deductable went from $250 to $1,000. I can live with that. I have $0 deductibles on my cars which are more likely to get hit anyway so fuck 'em. Zero issues otherwise. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TTQ B4U Posted April 10, 2012 Report Share Posted April 10, 2012 don't let the weasels coming out of the wood work to get your insurance money rape you either. fuck them too. depending on your insurance company and your amount of equity in the home, they may try and make the check out to your lender. we argued it given our equity position at the time and they made it out to me. most of the weasels will try and let you put them as the negotiating point with your insurance company. i.e. we'll do the roof for $xxx and work with your insurance company to get it all covered. again...fuck that...get quotes for cash in hand and pay them yourself. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Berto Posted April 10, 2012 Author Report Share Posted April 10, 2012 don't let the weasels coming out of the wood work to get your insurance money rape you either. fuck them too. depending on your insurance company and your amount of equity in the home, they may try and make the check out to your lender. we argued it given our equity position at the time and they made it out to me. most of the weasels will try and let you put them as the negotiating point with your insurance company. i.e. we'll do the roof for $xxx and work with your insurance company to get it all covered. again...fuck that...get quotes for cash in hand and pay them yourself. Had 2 come by already (1 of them being the ones to climb up on the roof). Seemed knowledgeable and asked to be on site as and advocate for the damages. Which in theory seems like a good idea being I have no experience with insurance companies. On the other hand i'm worried about getting hosed by the adjuster.... :-/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
datsunissan28 Posted April 10, 2012 Report Share Posted April 10, 2012 When was this storm from? A lot of how a claim affects your rate will be your date of loss. There are specific storms that become catastrophe coded after so much damage is made in a certain area. If your claim falls into the dates listed for a specific code in your area it does not affect your rates at a personal level at least. It does go towards your total number of claims file, but unless your agency or carrier were already looking at getting rid of you that won't be a problem. There are two catastrophe codes listed for IN recently. One from March 18-25 and one from March 2-3. A side note depending on which carrier you are with and your policy there may be a 6 month deadline to report hail damage. I would recommend filing a claim if the storm fell into one of those dates I listed. If you can easily see the damage than any adjuster should probably find more. Some other quick questions: What is your deductible? Do you have a separate deductible for hail/wind? If you don't mind listing your Carrier. I haven't personally dealt with these specific storms as we don't have many policies in that area. I know you mentioned possible selling in the next 5 years. If there is enough damage to require a full roof replacement than it would be the perfect time to upgrade to architectural shingles. Having a new nice looking roof can't hurt in selling a house. If you would rather PM me, feel free. I'm on here quite a bit just lurking. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
evan9381 Posted April 10, 2012 Report Share Posted April 10, 2012 You pay for the insurance, file the claim, get new roof. Every time i see hail forecasted, i pray it hits my house. i would love new roof/siding/windows/all of the above. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GRN96WS6 Posted April 10, 2012 Report Share Posted April 10, 2012 We had a bad hail storm in 2003 and I fought with State Farm to get all the damage covered. IIRC it was like $24k in damages. All new roof, garage door, all new windows, siding, deck and fence refinished, etc.... They sent me a letter basically stating my premium would stay put but my deductable went from $250 to $1,000. I can live with that. I have $0 deductibles on my cars which are more likely to get hit anyway so fuck 'em. Zero issues otherwise. This we had a hail storm in MD and I got a new roof and new siding, plus money for damaged patio furniture and damage to my cooling fins of my outside AC unit. I think my total was around 24-26K as well, I had aluminum siding so they replaced it all, I've heard that if you have vinyl they try to only replace the bad pieces which sometimes leaves it mismatched but I can't speak for that as I had a positive experience. I had one of the companies that came around that I felt was looking out for me the best and overall was a positive experience. I paid nothing out of pocket not even my deductible. My annual premium did increase around $120 because of it but they said it was a cost of living but I know it was because of the storm and the damage in my area that it caused, and them trying to recover some of their costs. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smokey Posted April 10, 2012 Report Share Posted April 10, 2012 They sent me a letter basically stating my premium would stay put but my deductable went from $250 to $1,000. State Farm just did this to me over a damn $5,000 basement flooding claim, I was caught a bit off guard about it since it's the only claim I've ever had with them. A lot of how a claim affects your rate will be your date of loss. There are specific storms that become catastrophe coded after so much damage is made in a certain area. If your claim falls into the dates listed for a specific code in your area it does not affect your rates at a personal level at least. It does go towards your total number of claims file, but unless your agency or carrier were already looking at getting rid of you that won't be a problem. My basement was flooded last July when the power went out and just about everybody from Westerville to New Albany flooded. I believe it was listed as a catastophe as they had to bring in adjusters from across the nation to handle the volume. Do I have a leg to stand on with my insurance company to fight my deductable increase or do I just have to take it? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Buck531 Posted April 10, 2012 Report Share Posted April 10, 2012 When we had the hail back in 03 or what not I had to fight for 2 years to get a new roof and siding on mine. It was a HUGE clusterfuck of a mess. After it was all done my insurance on the house went from $650 a year to a nice $1300 and the WORK wasn't even done yet. It was Safeco insurance. Stay FAR away from them if you can. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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