3 Potential Reasons Your Insurance Claim was Underpaid

Your insurance is here to protect you and your business in case anything goes wrong. You trust them to be in your corner and have your best interests in mind – after all, they’re protecting your livelihood, right? While in an ideal world that would be the case, realistically speaking it won’t always be. There are several reasons your insurance could underpay or flat out deny your claim.

Your insurance adjuster is not a roofer.

They have nowhere near the amount of experience and know-how needed to precisely and accurately inspect storm damage. They also are not constantly working with new building codes and requirements and may not be aware of how they’ve changed since your business was built.

Because of this, several things could happen:

1. The adjuster gets up on your roof, takes a look at the damage, and mistakenly determines that it was caused by a previous storm. They state that the damage looks old, not like damage caused by a recent hailstorm would look like. Most insurance policies have a time limit under which you have to claim storm damage in order for the carrier to cover it – typically, a year. They’ll use that technicality to deny your claim.

1. They could determine that the damage only warrants minor repairs or that there is no storm damage at all. They could say the impact marks created by hail are “wear and tear” and appear normal for a roof that age. This will cause them to either deny the claim or severely underpay it.
2. They could be unaware of new city or state building requirements enacted after your building was built, which they would then leave off their estimate.
   1. For example – Updated building codes now require a special underlayment when replacing a roof. The cost for that underlayment will not be on the insurance’s repair estimate. Technically, the insurance adjuster is incorrect and his estimate needs to be “adjusted” to the appropriate level to cover the cost of the code upgrade.

Insurance adjusters are people too.

After a particularly bad storm, they may be overwhelmed with inspections and could inadvertently rush or mess up your inspection. It happens. As a business owner, you can prevent these mistakes by:

1. Getting annual roof inspections. Having a report that your roof was not damaged in the year before the storm will be proof to the insurance carrier that their adjuster was wrong.
2. Consulting a local roofing professional. Someone with experience in the field will know what recent damage looks like. In this case, you’d need the help of a public adjuster to defend your claim against your insurance carrier.

Was your insurance claim was denied or underpaid? You need the help of a licensed, professional public adjuster to help you fight for the settlement you deserve. We 40-years of commercial roofing experience, plus experience in the insurance field. Leverage our expertise – request a claim review!