Your Contractor Should Be Present During Your Insurance Adjuster Inspection
In the aftermath of a storm, many homeowners find themselves facing one of the biggest catastrophes that can befall a home: damage to the roof
It’s fair to say that the structural integrity of your home’s roof is, quite literally, a disaster. Without a sound roof, the elements can expose your home, and water damage can quickly wreak havoc throughout your property. If your roof is compromised, treat the situation as an emergency and ensure the repair process is as smooth and efficient as possible.
After identifying the roof damage, most homeowners will immediately turn to their insurance company for assistance. If you ever find yourself in this situation, you will likely expect – as thousands of other homeowners have before you – that you can just make a call to your insurer, then sit back and wait for the repair process to fall into place.
However, the reality is that when you make that first phone call, the issue with your roof goes into a queue for the insurance company to deal with. Unfortunately, while your roof damage may be an emergency that needs immediate remedy from your perspective, your insurer is unlikely to see the situation with quite the same urgency. This is especially true if a storm that has affected many people in your local area has damaged your roof. As a result, you will have to wait for a your insurer to have the availability to send a loss adjuster to your property.
This is far from convenient, but it becomes inevitable when a small area faces the same serious storm. The wait for an available adjuster to visit your home is problematic enough, but there is another cause for concern regarding this claims backlog: it may mean that the adjuster, when they eventually arrive, has to rush through a claim.
This has an unfortunate consequence of meaning that you can find yourself in a situation where you:
- Wait longer than is ideal for an adjuster to assess the damage to your roof
- When the adjuster does arrive, the fact they are dealing with a heavy backlog of multiple claims in the area may mean that they are not quite as thorough in their assessment.
Although waiting for an adjuster to arrive is inconvenient, missing pertinent information during the assessment is arguably more damaging. If we rush the assessment, we are likely to face the following scenario:
- As the adjuster rushes through the assessment process, they overlook areas of damage that need repair.
- The adjuster’s findings will process your claim, meaning it will be based on inaccurate and insufficient information.
- You will hire a roofer to complete the repairs to your roof. The roofer, an expert not constrained by the insurance company’s time limits, will identify significant damage and advise that it requires more extensive repairs than the insurance company has approved.
- The repair is even further delayed, as you will likely have to go through the adjuster visit/claims process a second time in an effort to ascertain a correct assessment of the repairs that you need.
Remember: the repair process has already been delayed by you having to wait for the first adjuster to visit, so a second delay is going to set you back even further.
Thankfully, there is something you can do to ensure that you don’t experience this issue: find a licensed roofing contractor near you and ask them to attend the initial assessment with the insurance loss adjuster. As a reliable, professional, the roofing expert will be able to examine your roof repair needs with a thorough eye. The professional will highlight any necessary repairs to ensure they are included, so you only need to go through the process once.
In conclusion
Insurance Adjuster Inspection
Ultimately, asking your roofing estimator to be present for the loss adjuster’s visit is a good move. The claim you submit will be accurate, and the roofing estimator will be able to familiarize themselves with the project before work commences. We can thus conclude that asking your roofing estimator to attend the adjuster’s inspection is the simplest, most effective solution for everyone involved in the repair of your damaged roof.
If you have a damaged roof and wish to obtain ARP’s assistance with the entire claims process, please do get in touch with us today!
