A few months ago we had a hail storm (in Midwest U.S.) and a roofer recommended we file an insurance claim on our 6 year old roof. We did, and the insurance company approved a full value payout (minus 1% deductible).
I had a trusted friend who’s a GC look at the roof and he said my roof in no way needs to be replaced. He’s not sure why insurance approved a payout, but recommended I just pocket the money.
On a side note – I’m about to change insurance companies. Already written for a future dated policy, based off my old roof.
Some questions:
- Does insurance actually write me a check and not the roofer directly?
- Do they not require you to actually replace the roof? Or require proof you did?
- Is pocketing it illegal? I don’t want to do it if anyway related to insurance fraud.
- Will this cause any issues with my new insurance covering the roof in the future? Since they technically wrote the policy for my 6 year old roof (and my rate is higher than a new roof)?
- Anything I'm not considering?
Posted by teknoprep
2 Comments
Im not a lawyer or an insurance professional but Ive had the recent displeasure of learning a lot about insurance as a homeowner.
Did you sign anything giving the roofer power of attorney or whatever to represent you in the claim? If yes, they’ll get the check. If no, you’ll get the check.
State laws differ but I know in my state it is illegal to “profit” off of an insurance claim as a claimant. I don’t know who would come after you for it tho….
My insurance tried to jerk me on a roof claim and gave me a measly amount. I dogged them for months for more. Their check randomly showed up in my mailbox and they havent inquired at all about repairs. Then they renewed me a few months after zero questions.
My understanding is that the point of your insurance policy is to make you whole for your loss. If you had a good roof insured and experienced a loss, and your insurance company determined your roof was shot and paid you out for it then youve been made whole regardless of what you spend the money on. Theyre not your mom. They dont care if you sleep in the wet.
But…
You now have an un-insurable roof per their records. Why would they want to insure that? It seems likely to me that theyll drop you soon and that’ll make it difficult to get coverage elsewhere. You might need to hire someone to inspect the roof and certify that it is good. I wouldnt volunteer that to your old company tho lol. Your new company will ask about the claim history and see the value of the claim. They’ll be able to figure out you got paid for a roof replacement. Their underwriting team may refuse to give you the policy.
Edit: also who’s your insurer that’s just gifting roofs???? I need them
Your roof claim will be in a CLUE report, your new company will eventually see it and may ask for a copy of the repair receipt. CLUE is a database of insurance claims insurance companies report and use.
If you didn’t fixed the roof and bought a boat instead, that’s up to you. However if you file another claim for that part of the roof, that may be considered insurance fraud.
Another scenario is the insurance company makes a partial payment and tells you to send the final “paid” repair bill when you’re done fixing the roof before they pay you the balance.