Tell us what has happened so far and see what comes next.
A roof claim runs through about eight steps, and almost nobody is told what they are at the start. The result is that people go quiet in the middle of a claim that was going fine, usually right after the estimate arrives. Pick the last thing that has happened and see where that puts you. Nothing to fill in, no email, no call.
Pick one to see where you are.
Before stage 1 of 8
You have not started, and the clock is the thing to know about
Nothing has happened yet, which is fine. The only thing working against you at this point is time: the longer the gap between the storm and the inspection, the harder it is to establish which storm caused what, and being unable to answer that is one of the most common reasons a claim gets denied.
What happens next
Do the ground-level checks. Dents along the top of the gutters, torn window screens, and splatter on the green utility cabinet at the corner of the lot.
Get someone on the roof. An inspection is free and it ends either with documented damage or with being told the roof is fine.
If there is damage, the claim gets filed from there.
What to have in hand
Nothing. This step costs you a half hour and no money.
What people get wrong here
Waiting for a leak. Hail damage does not leak at first, it takes years off the roof quietly, and by the time water shows up on a ceiling the storm it came from may be too far back to claim.
You should have seen photographs of what was found, on the spot. If there is enough damage to file on, the next step happens quickly, and it is a phone call rather than paperwork.
What happens next
You and your contractor call your carrier together. They verify your identity with you, then take the description of the damage from the person who was just on the roof.
Your carrier schedules an adjuster, usually within about a day.
What to have in hand
Photographs of the damage
The date of the storm being claimed on
Your policy number
What people get wrong here
Filing alone, in general terms. A claim described by someone who can say which slopes and what size lands differently from one described as "I think we got hail."
Your carrier now owes you an appointment, and it usually arrives within about twenty-four hours as a call or a text. The date itself may be several days out.
What happens next
You get the appointment and pass the date and time to your contractor.
Your contractor meets the adjuster at the property.
What to have in hand
Your claim number
The adjuster appointment once it comes through
What people get wrong here
Not telling your roofer when the adjuster is coming. This is the appointment the whole claim turns on, and a contractor who is not there cannot walk the adjuster to the damage.
More claims are won and lost here than anywhere else in the process. An adjuster works from what is documented in front of them on the day, and damage nobody points them at does not make it into the file.
What happens next
Your contractor arrives before the adjuster and meets them at the property.
They walk the fence, the yard and the roof together. It takes about an hour.
You get a call afterwards about how it went.
What to have in hand
The appointment time given to your contractor
Your own photographs, if you took any
What people get wrong here
Assuming you need to be there. You do not, and most people are at work for it. What matters is that somebody is there on your side.
Within about a day your carrier emails an estimate along with what they are paying. Sometimes it goes to your contractor instead of to you. That varies by carrier and means nothing either way.
What happens next
The estimate lands.
You send a copy to your contractor, who reads it by trade.
You go over what it covers, what your deductible is, and what the options are.
What to have in hand
Nothing yet. This part is waiting.
What people get wrong here
Reading the total and panicking. The number is usually bigger than a roof because it is not just a roof, and the payment is usually smaller than the number because part is held back until the work is done. Both are normal.
If you are here and you have gone quiet, you are in the most common position in this entire business, and it is not a dead end. Two things about that email throw people, and between them they account for nearly every claim that stalls.
What happens next
The total looks too big because gutters, downspouts, window screens and often fencing are separate lines on it. The carrier priced everything the storm damaged.
The check looks too small because part of the settlement is depreciation, held back until the work is finished and then released. On a replacement cost policy that money is yours, just not first.
Which means your real out-of-pocket number is your deductible, not the gap you are staring at.
What to have in hand
The full estimate, every page
Your declarations page, to see whether depreciation is recoverable
What people get wrong here
Being told to call back when you have saved up. That advice ignores the depreciation coming back to you and it is the standard brush-off from contractors who do not know how to run the rest of the claim.
Most denials are about what was documented rather than about whether the damage is real. Three causes account for most of them: the claim was filed against the wrong storm date, the damage was called insufficient on a thin record, or nobody was there representing you when the adjuster walked it.
What happens next
Get the denial in writing, with the specific finding rather than a general statement.
Request a reinspection, and have a roofer at the property for it.
If it comes back the same, ask for a different adjuster.
If it still comes back the same, most Texas policies let you invoke appraisal, where each side appoints its own appraiser. If those two cannot agree, an umpire decides.
What to have in hand
The denial letter
The storm date
Every photograph from the original inspection
What people get wrong here
Treating a denial as final. None of the four steps above costs you anything to ask for, and being told to give up usually means the person you are talking to does not know they exist.
If your mortgage company was named on the check, the endorsement round trip is behind you, and that is usually the longest wait in the whole process.
What happens next
You sit down with your contractor: components, deductible, shingle color, anything the HOA requires, and whether you want all the approved trades done.
Raise anything about the property. A tear-off shakes the house, so this is when to mention flower beds, pets, kids, or artwork that should come off the walls.
Materials are delivered to your address the day before.
What to have in hand
The cleared funds
The approved estimate
Your color choice and any HOA requirement
What people get wrong here
Forgetting the trades other than the roof. If you paid your deductible in full you are entitled to everything on that approved estimate, and gutters and screens are easy to leave on the table.
The roof is the visible part of the job and the claim is not finished when the crew leaves. There is a second payment attached to closing it out properly.
What happens next
The completion documentation goes back to your carrier.
The depreciation they held back is released. That is the second check.
Your workmanship warranty and the manufacturer warranty on the shingles both start.
What to have in hand
The final invoice
Completion photographs
Your warranty paperwork
What people get wrong here
Leaving the claim half-closed. Depreciation is released against documentation, so a job that is finished on the roof but not finished on paper leaves money sitting with the carrier that was meant for you.
Knowing where you are is most of it. Almost nobody is told.
If You Want the Real Number
Four steps, no cost to start.
The inspection is free whether or not you hire us, and that includes hearing that your roof is fine for now.
01
Free inspection
We come out, inspect the whole roof, and show you exactly what we find.
02
Full insurance assistance
We document the damage and walk you through the claim, coordinating directly with your adjuster.
03
We install
Once approved, our crew replaces the roof on schedule and cleans up after.
04
Final walkthrough
We walk the finished roof with you and make sure everything is right.
After another roofing company failed to get my claim approved, Andrew Page made it happen. My insurance company was extremely difficult to work with and honestly, I had almost given up.
Blake G.Insurance claim · Worked with Andrew
Every review quoted on this site comes straight from the Google profile.
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Wherever you are in this, you can hand it to someone who has run it a few hundred times. The inspection is free, and so is reading your estimate with you.
Our workmanship is warranted for life, and the shingles carry their manufacturer’s own warranty on top of it.
