My mother has roof damage from a recent storm. The roof is about 30 years old and in need of replacing soon. She thinks they can get a few more years out of it before its a real concern to fully replace it. She has been planning on switching her insurance carrier before the damaged occurred but has yet to do it.
Q: If she files a claim with her current carrier, will her premium go up? Could they require a full roof replacement to continue to insure the roof?
Posted by entrepreneurgoals
2 Comments
30 year old roof? The new company will want her to put in a new one before they will cover her.
Her current company will only pay for the part that was damaged by the storm and only for actual cash value (cost of repairs less depreciation, less deductible). While their taking care of the roof the insurance company may require her to replace the rest of the roof to continue to insure her, so premium going up is the lesser of concerns.
Immediately notifying your insurer of damage is a condition of your policy. There is no benefit to waiting after a loss and only makes adjusting the loss more difficult, it only raises red flags to the adjuster and gives them cause to look at your claim with a thicker magnifying glass.
Allowing the damaged roof to persist and cause eventual further damage to the house will lead to a denial of those inevitable future damages. Covered losses have to be sudden and accidental. Not chronic and preventable.
As for your policy, since there is probably very little actual cash value left in that roof, since she has enjoyed the full life’s value of the roof, I dont suspect it would be affected much. But I’m not an underwriter.