My home has recently experienced hail damage to the roof and siding. I know most homeowners will hire a contractor and have their insurance company approve the work for the contractor. My question is this. I have done siding projects before and am very capable of doing the work myself. Would my insurance agency approve me to do the work on my own and if so am I allowed to pocket the money that would be saved by doing the work myself and only paying for supplies? I feel like it seems deceitful but I don't see why a contractor can make a profit off the hail damage and I as the homeowner couldn't when I would be doing the work myself. Can someone please give me any information on my problem. Thanks!

Mark, the way the work is done may or may not be spelled out in your home owners policy. Invariably, it's still going to cost you additonal money out of pocket to get the necessary repairs made since home owner policies have deductibles and the adjuster sent out by your policy holder will likely go low on the cost to repair figure.

I think you'll need to defer to your carrier and go from there. When I filed a claim on my home, my insurance company just gave me a check and then it is up to me to get the work done.

Let a professional siding contractor and roofing contractor do the work. I can't tell you how many homes I have inspected that had sub-standard work on the siding and roofing that was done by the homeowner. You might very well be qualified to do the work, but if something goes wrong what then?

Most homeowners that get the money from their insurance company tend to not do all of the work that is needed. They see the $$ and skip some the work. The big items get taken care of and the little items are skipped in an attempt to profit from the loss.

If you have hail damage to your roof and siding then you most likely have damage to all of the soft metals around the home. This would include vent, flashing, flue pipes, etc. Also you should look at the outside part of the HVAC system. Take a good look at the condenser coils, if they have hail dents and damage then that unit needs to be replaced as well. Take a look at the windows. Yep, if you have windows that have plastic parts, you will most likely find dings, dents and cracks on those parts.

Call the insurance company and let them send the adjuster and then hire a good contractor.

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Scott Patterson
Spring Hill, TN
http://www.traceinspections.com

Mark,

You are entitled to do the work for yourself, but the Insurance Company may play games with the total amount of funds that rightfully should be paid for the project.

I have seen so many out of town contractors set up in the Algonquin and Lake In The Hills and surrounding areas, that I even noted that the Village of Algonquins website has issued a warning regarding the Storm Chasing Roofing Companies who showed up in abindance right after last months hail.

Open up Last Years Yellow Page Book and have a Local Roofing and Siding Contractor evaluate your roof and write up a written proposal with a price.

Any contractor who has you sign a piece of paper with no specifications and contract price on it, is just playing the game of chance that the insurance company will pay something for the job and they will farm out the cheapest illegal subcontractor that they can find at the last minute and tell you that is one of their professional installation crews.

Ed

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