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Hail claim denied, how do I document this?

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xd9rottie

Junior Member
State = Missouri

My question is, how do I go about documenting things *in the event* that I end up having to sue my insurance company?

Background - Major hail storms him my area March 2nd, with the National Weather Service reporing up to 2 and 1/2" size hail stones. After a few days I noticed roofing signs going up around the neighborhood so I contacted three contractors to look at the roof. All three said I had hail damage, along with wind damage (falling tree limbs etc) and that I should file a claim.

I filed the claim, but the adjuster could not come out for two weeks (I would later find out that he picked this date because his bosses were both on vacatoin that week). When he did arrive I had one of the roofing contractors meet him, they clearly recognized each other and there were clearly bad feelings between them. What transpried next (as far as evidence I'm gathering) is I have security camera footage that shows that the adjuster spent a total of 7 minutes on my roof, then denied my claim because the damage was caused by "algae".

Following the advice of my insurance agent I called the company and complained about the adjuster and his rudeness and attitude, they agreed to send out someone for a 2nd opinion. They sent a forensic engineering company to write a study of the roof. I would later lookup the engineer in Missouri's Case.Net system and find that he's got 3 pages of lawsuits against him. Anyway, I was told it was going to take 2 weeks for the report and that 3 people would be going over his evidence to write it. After 3 weeks the insurance company finally provided a copy of the report, when I found out that the report had been written 3 days after the engineer's visit and his was the only name on it.

Not surprisingly at this point, the engineer is claiming that the hail that fell was not of sufficiant size to cause *any* damages and that the damages to my roof were a combonation of moss and a manufacture's defect. His included evidence photos are the biggest joke I've ever seen. He took pictures of things like downspouts and windows from the opposite directoin of the storm (protected surfaces). His photo's of the dented roof vents are zoomed in on the smaller dents and do not show the big dents. In one section he talks about the metal gutter covers and how they are not dented in his photo, but the photo is of a 3 foot section on the back of the house, again from the opposite directoin of the storm, and he makes no referances to the damaged sections where the tree limbs fell, and the front gutter section that's over 20ft long with dents all over it, etc. I feel this report is "falsified" in that he ommitted relevant and material information. I have taken my own photo's of the damages and have even taken photo's that show how his were zoomed and left out the bigger dents.

Since he did include the wording about a manufacture's defect, I have contacted them and submitted a claim with the warrenty program. They are going to test samples of the roof and then decide what to do.

Getting back to my orginal question, I'm concerned that the manufacturer is going to say that these roof shingles are hail damaged and refuse to pay. The Insurance company has already stated their position as "no damage, won't pay".

I think my steps are to prove that the Engineer created his report in such a way as to leave out important facts and photos, I've contacted a few companies on my own and have found the costs to having my own report done. I'm currently holding security camera footage of the storm, photographs of the damages to various surfaces around my house, including the roof, and copies of all emails with my insurance company and agent, along with copies of the report and photographs.


What other things should I be documenting? What is the best way to go about finding a lawyer who can help me?
 


xd9rottie

Junior Member
The roof is 10 years old. It has a 25 year warranty. The home is approx 40 years old. Gutters, vents, etc were done 4 years ago. I've lived in the home for 15 years. I had this roof and other work done.
 

xd9rottie

Junior Member
We've had another major hail storm in my area. Now one of my metal roof cap vents is "folded" in two (My personal feeling is the cumulative effects of the damages, but that's just my gut), and there is certainly more damage than there was before. I have not gotten up on the roof yet, I'm almost afraid to go up there now.

I'm still waiting for the roofer to come take the shingle samples to send to the lab for testing, but with the additional damage I'm not sure what to do. (For those of you that didn't see the news story's there are plenty of reports of the widespread damage in this area, even some injury's and a death).

I could really use some advice as to my next move.

Based on the engineers report and the insurance company's reaction the first time, I'm thinking that the manufacturer should replace the defective shingles, and the insurance the rest of the roof (especially now that it's even MORE damaged than before from the latest round of storms).

I supposed I'm lucky in a way, there's a chance that if the insurance company would have paid in the first place, the new roof would have been on that this next storm could have done damage to it as well. So in a strange way I'm happy that this has delayed things a bit.

I'm worried that the manufacturer is going to find the hail dents and claim that the roof is hail damaged and not a defect, and the insurance company will want to fight over that. However, I'm stuck in the middle, in what I feel should be a fight between the two companies over who pays.

I just want my roof repaired :(
 

Banned_Princess

Senior Member
We've had another major hail storm in my area. Now one of my metal roof cap vents is "folded" in two (My personal feeling is the cumulative effects of the damages, but that's just my gut), and there is certainly more damage than there was before. I have not gotten up on the roof yet, I'm almost afraid to go up there now.

I'm still waiting for the roofer to come take the shingle samples to send to the lab for testing, but with the additional damage I'm not sure what to do. (For those of you that didn't see the news story's there are plenty of reports of the widespread damage in this area, even some injury's and a death).

I could really use some advice as to my next move.

Based on the engineers report and the insurance company's reaction the first time, I'm thinking that the manufacturer should replace the defective shingles, and the insurance the rest of the roof (especially now that it's even MORE damaged than before from the latest round of storms).

I supposed I'm lucky in a way, there's a chance that if the insurance company would have paid in the first place, the new roof would have been on that this next storm could have done damage to it as well. So in a strange way I'm happy that this has delayed things a bit.

I'm worried that the manufacturer is going to find the hail dents and claim that the roof is hail damaged and not a defect, and the insurance company will want to fight over that. However, I'm stuck in the middle, in what I feel should be a fight between the two companies over who pays.

I just want my roof repaired :(


At least at this point you have really good documentation of what your roof and gutters were like before the second storm. they cant argue with that.
 

expatrie

Junior Member
Hail claim denied

Generally you have two paths - Finding a Missouri Public Adjuster who will work with the insurance company in the dispute, or find a law firm that works with these. Lastly, you could try hiring an engineering firm that works with hail damage directly, they might have a local PA they work with.

Be a little careful when you are looking for a public adjuster, the history with the insurance companies is pretty unfriendly and in the past PAs made a lot of money without a lot of effort, and sometimes without there being damage. Now, the insurance companies can fight pretty hard, but if you get a more progressive PA they can be useful. Generally a PA will take 5 to 10% of the money recovered from the insurance company (some states restrict the percentage by law, or when special storms are involved (Joplin springs to mind). If you have a full denial, the percent the PA will take is of the full amount.

What I would also suggest is getting up on the roof to check your gutters - look for granules in the gutters, and if they are there, photograph them before the next big rain washes them down the downspout. They might still be there, but you want to capture that evidence. Also photograph anything you think is hail damage (dents, vents, chipped paint on chimneys, etc.)

NACHI (the home inspection people) have material on what hail damage looks like. http://www.nachi.org/

As you already have a forensic engineering company (working for the insurer) if you have a problem with the ethical nature of that report, report it to the Missouri board of Engineering, and be prepared to provide your photographs and document the situation as best you can.

As you now believe you have more hail damage, you might call them and report that damage as well. I'm not sure if you should open a new claim for the second event or continue under the old event.

--Brian.
 
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