Home Insurance/ Insurance Payouts
Roof repair
Insurance companies are not all the same
Last year we had experience some hail damage to our roof. Everyone around us received estimates and their insurance companies replaced their entire roofs. We thought that we would also received the same benefits. Boy, were we wrong. Our insurance co. Ohio Casualty only gave us $2000.00 towards the repair of our roof. We fought it. We had different roofers come out to access the roof damage. We really needed to replace the roof, not just a few shingles.
There is also something else I was unaware of and this is the city or town that you live, might have rules and guidelines about roof repair. The town that i live does not have strict guidelines and so the insurance companies can skate by with shingle repairs not matching in color. Insurance companies want to pay the least and if they are in within guidelines of repair, they see that you get the minimum. We were very upset because we pay our monthly premium for insurance, never lapsed and did not receive any of the benefits. What is the point of paying for home insurance if you can't get coverage for repair? In our case the entire roof.
Its been a year since the hail damage report and we are in the mist of repairing our roof. We are paying for it all out of pocket. I will add that while everyone else was getting estimates last year, I noticed there were a a lot of storm chasers claiming to be roofers. BUYER BEWARE! If those storm chasers do a lousy job and your roof starts leaking or shingles start flying off, you can be sure your insurance company won't pay another a dime, they will double your premiums and consider you a liability cost or they will find you uninsurable because of mutilple claims within 5 years.
We have been getting new estimates for insurance now. We were not happy with the way Ohio Casualty handled our situation. All those insurance companies want your money and after receiving new quotes, they all sound the same. They all charge about the same. I think they need to be more transparent about the actual payout they will pay the customer for damages of any kind. But they need to prove to me in lay-man's terms what I am getting for my money when a problem arises. Have you had any claims that they refused to pay?
