We're in a messy situation where our claim is under SIU because of so many things that went wrong from the beginning. Add on our ignorance as first-time homeowners, and first-time ever making a claim.
- The roofer, recommended by our realtor, called the insurance claim on our behalf (he did not say he would be doing so)
- The roofer gave the wrong address — the contact address was the address we had prior to moving to the insured home.
- The insurance adjuster said he found man-made damage on our roof (but according to him no hail damage). We mentioned this to the roofer who was unconcerned because the insurer is justdoing what they normally do, play hardball, and that it's very common.
- The claim initiated a special investigation, and an engineer eventually investigated the roof.
- An investigator came to our house and made a recorded interview. He mentioned that what the roofer did was illegal, and asked if we would sue the roofer if they could prove that he did intentional damage. We were not willing to make that decision yet. We told the roofer, and he still sounded confident, even cocky, about the outcomes. At one point he pretty much said, they should bring it on!
- We received a Reservation of Rights letter from the insurance, with a request to appear for an 'Under oath interview', separately, at the courthouse. Again, told the roofer and that we're getting concerned about needing a legal representation. He referred us to a firm that he's worked with before. Turns out they're friends.
- While all this was going on, another hail storm happened. We contacted another roofing company because we're beginning to question the roofer. We initially wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt, but as we learned more, we began to realize things were wrong from the beginning.
- This 2nd roofer showed us pictures of our roof, which had lots of hail damage, but also had man-made ones. Now we could tell the difference.
We're now in a situation where we want to make things right, cancel/withdraw the claim, and cut everyone's losses. With that said we are concerned that canceling the claim while under investigation could lead to a red flag. What should our next steps be? How can we make it right? We don't want this situation to follow us.
advice needed, messed up roof claim now we’re under SIU (Texas)
byu/AllAboutData inInsurance
Posted by AllAboutData
8 Comments
You don’t need to cancel anything, just literally tell your insurance company exactly what you just told us.
Roofers, especially in Texas, are just operating in the wild wild west. Your adjuster will understand. Just tell them the truth, you were referred to this roofer, he says everything was legit, but now you see that it may not be and ask them how best to handle your 2 claims at this point.
Hopefully you are with one of the few insurance companies still allowing 1% hail deductibles, because if yours is 2%, you may not have a claim to make anymore. (spoken from experience).
FWIW – If this realtor is a CLOSE friend, I’d let them know their referral is shady. If it’s just a realtor, I’d never work with them again.
>The roofer, recommended by our realtor
Yep, that was your fatal mistake, taking a referral from a realtor.
The insurance carrier I work for would pay the claim under vandalism and sue/subrogate against the roofer that caused the damage. That would be best for you.
If you file another claim for the new hail, you’re riding into uninsurable territory. 2 claims in a short period of time. Nope.
Edited to add: this is why insurance is going to hell in a bucket. It’s expensive because of greed and fraud like this.
Wow well SIU involvement is completely warranted so all you can do now is cooperate. If you get the claim approved do NOT use this roofer for repairs and do NOT trust a realtor about these matters, ever again. If you need a referral you’re better off asking your insurance agent. Not a great option either but at least they might have a clue versus the realtor who is clearly getting a kick back and should be reported to whatever authority oversees RE agents in your area.
Absolutely do not try to withdraw the claim being investigated. You don’t get to run away when they catch you attempting fraud, sorry. These are the people you invited onto your property and the insurer’s investigation is justified. You’re probably already going to see negative effects from this as you’ve proven yourself to be a risk insurance companies will not want on their books moving forward. Even if you didn’t vandalize the roof yourself you trusted people that you should have known were not good sources, bad look for you. The fact you asked the roofer to recommend legal representation after learning he likely intentionally damaged your roof is unbelievable to me. Hard to feel sorry for you honestly because you seem complicit, even if it’s out of ignorance. As if being a roofer wasn’t already enough to completely disqualify him from making legal referrals to anyone with common sense.
Your realtor and roofer are clearly both criminals, fraudsters, should not be trusted. Maybe take note of that in case you have trouble remembering.
When the roofer or legal representative suggest a public adjuster—stop and think if they should be trusted further and refer back to your notes if needed.
Nothing you can do now but let the investigation continue. Stop being a hypochondriac about your roof too. I’m really scratching my head that you felt you needed to urgently get it checked for hail in the middle of all this. You’re solidifying yourself as a walking red flag and nothing you can do at this point can erase that or make yourself look like anything other than an insurer’s nightmare. Even if you didn’t make countless foolish mistakes during the course of this claim, you’ve wasted their time and resources and proven for a fact that you are gullible, or desperate to replace your roof on their dime ASAP no matter what, or both. And that’s just if they decide to shine a favorable light on you. At worst, you’re a straight up fraudster who is conspiring to obtain insurance funds you’re not rightfully entitled to. Homeowners like you cause rates to go up for everyone else. Bad risk, period. There’s no reason they will want to continue insuring you after this, understandably. You can’t undo what you’ve done.
Does a murderer get to call off a police investigation once investigators start honing in on him? Of course not. They have a right to investigate anyone who tries to commit fraud and they will continue, whether or not you *want* them to. Attempting to call this off is going to look even *worse* than it already does. Filing a new hail claim, likewise. If this were me I would cooperate fully and when SIU concludes their work I would quietly walk away with my tail between my legs, put on my big kid pants and pay to replace my own roof.
What is missing here is why you needed a roofer in the first place. Is your roof already old? Why file a claim for an old roof that needs to be replaced, this is common maintenance. Why purchase a house with an old roof?
How long have you owned the home?
Gotta wonder if insurance has seen similar behavior with this roofer in particular and they’re ready to deal with him finally.
The SIU investigation might be focused on the ROOFER and not you. Man made damage found by a roofer who filed a claim on your behalf without telling you he was going to? Shady AF. A roofer with a buddy he happens to know at a law firm willing to represent you? That’s real convenient.
SIU can and does investigate companies like that because it’s very likely this roofer is doing this same thing over and over.