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Originally Posted by Calgary14
I had some hail damage to my house in early July and the insurance company just got back to me with the details of the claim.
The damage isn't as bad as the NE hail storms (I'm in the deep south) but there is a lot of siding damage, roof, eavestroughs etc.
The insurance company is offering a cash settlement and I could either use one of their preferred contractors, do the work myself or use a different contractor. The amount of the settlement is higher than I assumed it would be.
I have a contact with a roofing company that's done work in the past and they did a good job so I could use them, but that's not to say they would necessarily be the cheapest. The work by the preferred contractors is guaranteed, if I use a different contractor it is not guaranteed.
There are quite a few companies going door to door offering their services. One of them deals with insurance directly on behalf of the homeowner and they claimed they could get a substantially higher amount than the original settlement offer simply by looking for things that might have been missed in the original estimate. I'm not sure exactly how that works or if its a good idea.
I'm not sure what to do - take the settlement offer and use a different contractor, try to get a higher settlement amount (not sure how - negotiate?), or just use one of their preferred contractors. I've never had a substantial insurance claim so not sure what the best option is. Does anyone have experience with a hail insurance claim and if so any advice?
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I had Hail damage from 2017, required a new roof, gutters, downspouts, window trim, gazebo, and shed. I took the cash payout found good quality contractors and ended up with about 4k in my pocket.
Run away from anyone who knocks on your door reputable companies dont need to do that and lots of the door knockers are drumming up business then either slow to execute or they hire a bunch of non skilled labour to meet the labour demand. I ran across one particularly shady contractor called Shield - they were high pressure, glossy brocure types, my neighbor ended up using them and it was a disaster.
If you are the least bit capable of managing a project, I would choose to manage it yourself - also get your own quotes and use that to negotiate with the insurance company.
I ended up using Roof-Right solutions for the roof and gutters, they did a great job.