Types of Roof Damage Covered by Homeowners Insurance

For roof damage to be covered by your insurance, it must result from extreme weather. This includes the straight-line winds (also known as damaging winds) that accompany severe thunderstorms, hailstorms, snowstorms, and tornadoes.

Your homeowner's insurance should also cover roof damage caused by tree limbs that have fallen due to severe storms. Depending on the coverage, homeowner's insurance should cover the cost of replacing your roof if any of the abovementioned incidents damage it.

Remember that it ultimately depends on what your insurance adjuster discovers during the inspection to determine if there is sufficient damage to warrant a total roof replacement. As long as the damage is caused by severe weather, however, your homeowner's insurance should cover your roof replacement.

What should you do if your roof has sustained damage?

Now that you know what types of damage are covered, you must determine how to proceed. If you have roof damage, you should always contact your homeowner's insurance carrier first.

What happens after you contact them and provide all pertinent information depends on what your insurance provider wants you to do. They will either dispatch an insurance adjuster to evaluate the roof damage or direct you to contact a roofing firm.

Let's examine these two scenarios in greater detail.

The insurance company dispatches an adjuster to assess the roof for damage.

In the initial situation, your insurance company dispatches an adjuster to evaluate the roof for damage. After the inspection, they will either approve your claim or deny it if they find no evidence of roof damage.

If your insurance claim is accepted, you will begin searching for a local roofing contractor with experience managing insurance claims. However, if your claim is denied, you can still double- or triple-check for roof damage.

The best method is to request a second insurance adjuster from your insurance company to check your roof. They may notice details that the initial adjuster missed or neglected, thereby approving your claim.

Occasionally, though, the second adjuster will insist that the roof damage is still not compensable. If you are displeased with the second adjuster's denial, you can request an engineer's inspection.

They will be able to provide evidence to your insurance carrier (if they have any) that the roof must be replaced due to storm damage. However, your insurance provider ultimately has the authority to approve or deny your roof damage claim.

Consider Enlisting an Insurance Lawyer to Make Your Insurance Claim

Insurance companies pay hundreds of millions yearly for favorable laws and rulings from judges. In that regard, property insurance companies are not in the business of paying valid insurance claims. Consumers are well served to hire an experienced lawyer before making an insurance claim.

Enlisting a highly skilled lawyer early generally provides the following benefits:

• You don't have to speak with the insurance company,
• The insurance company will have a more difficult time trying to trick you into saying the wrong thing,
• The lawyer will review the policy and file a notice of claim that complies with local laws,
• The lawyer will obtain experts to generate reports to support your claim,
• The lawyer may engage the services of meteorologists to prove weather patterns were ample to cause storm damage to your home.
• The lawyer may obtain the assistance of an estimator to generate an evaluation of your loss.
• The lawyer may enlist the services of a content expert to generate reports on the value of your personal property.
• The lawyer can hire an insurance agent to create a report verifying that the policy covers the type of loss claimed.
• The attorney could hire an engineer to review the causation of your loss.