Today I received an email from Google news about a story written by Tyler Lopez of 7 News in Denver Colorado. Tyler goes on to say that the insurance industry suspects that a 407 percent increase in hail damage claims in the first quarter of 2009 versus 2008 has lead the insurance industry to suspect that people are filing claims because of the bad economy.
This kind of reporting REALLY makes me ANGRY! Tyler Lopez obviously has not checked the facts and is being lead down the path by his sources in regards to weather related claims.
According to the Storm Prediction Center at the NOAA web site the first quarter of 2008 there were 50 storm related events reported. The first quarter of 2009 there were 44 reported storm related events.
The categories that NOAA uses for posting reports are, Wind, Hail and Tornadoes. I hardly see how this equates to a 407% increase over last year.
Another thing to keep in mind is that people have 1 year to file a claim for a storm related loss. What if a significant number of last years losses were not reported until the first quarter of 2009? This small fact can easily askew the figures to make it appear that people are trying to commit insurance fraud by filing falsified claims.
High winds and hail can cause minor to severe damage to asphalt roofing and it is very important that home owners call their insurance company because that is what insurance is for!
The insurance industry reminds me of the poker player at the table who has all the chips. All he does every hand is bluff with large bets knowing that he has all the money at the table. His desire is to scare the other players in hopes that they won’t play a winning hand.
The fact is, if you have a VALID insurance claim you have a winning hand and no amount of bluffing by the insurance company will change that fact. Play your hand by knowing your rights and you will get the money you are rightfully owed!
Russell Hayes
Restore My Home Construction
Tags: asphalt roof · hail · insurance fraud · roofing · tornado · wind4 Comments
I would like to respectfully disagree with most of what you have written. The stats provided by this reporter do seem a bit high, but they are very accurate for GA. I have been an adjuster for 6 years in GA and have handled claims all over. I see many roofing company’s, ( and I don’t want to name anyone to hurt feelings) that go door to door to solicite business, and tell EVERY homeowner that they have hail damage whether they do or not. I have a close friend who used to sell roofs for a large roofing company in the metro-Atlanta area and he told me that they were specifically instructed to tell homeowner’s this. What was so sad is that this is one of the biggest and most respected companies in the Atlanta area. What you said about the insurance companies not caring who does the repairs, just as long as we pay as little as possible is totally not true. Why would you say something like that? Do you honestly beleive we want our customer’s to get a crappy roof that WE pay for and then have to come look at roof leak claims the next month? You know and I know, without insurance business, you wouldn’t be able to put food on the table for your family. It is unfortunate to come to what is supposedly a “reputable” roofing contractor’s website to check and see if they are as good as they tell you, and see articles bashing the insurance business. I was actually checking this site to see if I could find a reputable roofer to help me with my current pending, I will be checking elsewhere.
The facts are we have had 1 major hail storm in GA this year, and 4 smaller ones. This has generated thousands upon thousands of claims, some legit, and some not. It really goes both ways and I would like to think you know thats true. Through our investigators we have un-covered hundreds of thousands of fradulent hail claims from these supposed “severe” storm.
I hope the average homeowner understands and knows that most insurance companies actually care about a home that has legit hail or storm damage. I hope they know and understand that most companies use the same software and pricing as you do (Xactimate) and take price list updates once a month. I hope they stil beleive that if something bad happens they are thanful that we will be there to take care of them.
Hello Adjuster28,
I decided to approve your comment even though you disagreed with most of what I said.
That stats that I mentioned were based on country wide reported hail events, not just for Georgia.
I understand completely where your coming from in regards to roofing companies telling every single home owner they have hail damage when in fact they might not. This has never been our policy and will never be our policy. I feel it is a waste of every ones time to conduct business in this manner. In this I could not agree with you more.
I am not really sure where your getting that I think the insurance company does not care if the contractor the home owner hires is quality or not.
However, based on some of the pricing that I have seen offered to home owners I have to wonder about that. Please take with a grain of salt what I am saying here, if it does not apply to you then you need not take offense.
Yes many of us use Xactimate, and we get the default price list every month. What puzzles me is that some insurance companies have their own special price list code that always ends up being lower then the default. Why is this? We are under the assumption that Xactimate’s economist’s are privy to the moving markets and that their default pricing is a basic standard for pricing insurance remediation work. no?
That is my biggest beef with the whole pricing issues! Some insurance company’s out right REFUSE to bring up their pricing even after we have submitted irrefutable proof that what they say singles cost and what I actually paid was more then $10 dollars per square different!
Another thing I would like to point out about Xactimate is that the line item unit cost’s have never nor will ever include a company’s overhead and profit. The line item cost depicts cost for materials, labor, and labor burdens. Yet the insurance industry has continually ignored this fact when it its brought up by legit business’s who know the truth. I am beginning to rant now and get a little off topic so I will leave this for another post.
To answer your question, I am not sure what insurance companies have their “own” Xactimate line item pricing system. As long as they take the price list up date sent out by Xactimate every month (assuming they are on version 25) they should have the same pricing that you have.
I appreciate you willing to approve my comment even though it was critical of some of the things you stated in your blog. Ir is just frustrating to see so many roofing companies that attack the industry that has helped them make a living and provide for their families. I still have to disagree with you on the quality of the roof repair. At the company I work for the last thing we encourage is for the insured to use some storm chaser or some carpet bagger working out of the back of this truck that hires a different demo crew from the side of the street everday. The reason I know this is true (and is also true for most major insurance carriers such as State Farm, Allstate, Traveler’s, Nationwide, etc) is that we want to continue to insure the home after the work is done. What we don’t want is for our customer to get a roof done that is going to leak in two weeks and generate more claims. We do not want a particular property to loose value because of a bad roof replacement. This effects the value of the property and how much the particular risk is valued at. This should make perfect sense, no?
FYI the price of three tab shingles has gone up around $10.00 a square which is the highest I have seen it at in three years. So if you have the most recent version of Xact you will see that.
Thanks again. I hope you will reconsider that not all insurance companies are as you say they are and know there a good bit that actually do care what goes on and the entire repair process on legitimate covered losses.
Hello Adjuster28,
There are insurance companies that do have their own price list code which is easy to identify on the claim paperwork. The code contains additional letters/numbers, and these price list codes are not available for download from Xactare from the services menu. Granted not all carriers do this, but the major ones do.
I understand how it can make you feel frustrated that roofing companies attack the insurance industry. It can come across the wrong way and I hope that I have not come across that way. I am thankful that I can generate business in the Atlanta area that comes from storm claims, but it is not like the insurance companies are being merciful in deciding to approve claims so I can feed my family or pay my bills. You and I both know they have a contractual obligation to pay a valid claim. right?
I am not saying the insurance companies sit in meeting rooms and conspire to pay at little as possible because they don’t care about the quality of contractor the insured hires. It does make sense what you are saying about future risk due to poor installation of materials. Yes it is usually the guy roofing out of the back of his pickup truck that shows up to the job with a go-t down to his belly button, two sons and the three legged dog that installs a roof that leaks two weeks later. There are commonly referred to in the roofing industry as nailer’s and not legit business’s. These are the guys who will take a job for default Allstate pricing and then pay the deductible and throw in a 30 year upgrade and ridge vent. I can do this if all I had was concerned about making was labor!
Here is an example of what happens to us on a regular basis with some insurance companies. The very first job picture with our truck in the driveway is a perfect example. This roof was covered as a hail loss, Xactimate pricing said this roof should cost $22k. The initial estimate from the insurance company who I will not name was 12k. Some how this job slipped through our system and got built before we could go back to the insurance company and resettle the claim. I ended up meeting with an adjuster at the job 3 months after the job was complete. I brought all the cost’s for the job which totaled 15k. So up to that day I actually paid 3k to replace this roof. The whole time the adjuster acted like my documentation was forged or something! It took another 2 months for them to pay additional monies and they still cut 3k off the Xactimate estimate! So it took the company 5 months to see the profit on this job! They also made me sign a waiver saying that the settlement amount was a one time deal and not to be considered standard pricing for future claims!!!
These experiences are not uncommon for insurance repair contractors and I think this is where most of the complaining comes from in the industry. It is like giving you a ton of claims where you have to review the policy, do the inspection, scope the job, and everything else your required to do and then wait 5 months to get paid for the work! Would you be happy about that? I know you wouldn’t, and neither would I! = )
All in all “MOST” insurance companies are not in the light that I have cast upon them but even a few bad apples makes the whole lot seem sour.