Filing a storm damage claim: what actually happens

The letter is an opening position, not a verdict

Almost every homeowner who calls us after a storm assumes the insurer decides what the damage is worth and that the only thing left to do is wait. Neither is true, and the waiting is what costs people money.

A first estimate is written quickly, sometimes from the ground, and almost always without anyone arguing the scope from your side. Knowing what happens at each stage is the difference between a repair cheque and a full replacement.

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The first forty-eight hours

This is where claims are quietly lost. Photograph what you can safely see from the ground, including the garden — hail that dented your gutters and shredded your patio furniture is corroborating evidence for hail that bruised your roof. Write down the date and time the storm came through.

Do not climb up yourself. Beyond the obvious safety problem, walking a hail-damaged roof smudges the impact marks an adjuster needs to see. Get a contractor up there, and get the inspection done before you file rather than after.

Filing with evidence rather than adjectives

The wording of the initial claim matters far more than people expect. “There is some roof damage” and a documented scope with impact density mapped per square land very differently in an adjuster’s queue.

• File against the storm date, not the date you noticed the problem
• Attach your contractor’s photo documentation to the first submission
• Keep receipts for emergency work such as tarping — it is usually recoverable
• Note the name of everyone you speak to and when

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The adjuster visit is the whole game

It is the single most important hour of the process, and most homeowners spend it in the kitchen. Have your contractor on the roof alongside the adjuster, walking the same evidence with the report in hand.

An adjuster shown twelve documented impacts per square reaches a different conclusion than one left to find them alone in twenty minutes.

None of this is adversarial. Adjusters carry enormous caseloads after a regional storm and most are entirely reasonable once the evidence is laid out. What they cannot do is approve a scope nobody demonstrated to them.

Supplements, and what you should actually pay

Once tear-off starts, conditions appear that nobody could have assessed from above — rotted decking being the usual one. That is what a supplement is for: the new condition is documented, submitted, and the scope adjusted. A contractor who has never filed one is a contractor absorbing those costs by cutting something else.

At the end you should pay your deductible and nothing more, unless you chose upgrades outside the claim. If you are being asked for more, ask which line item it covers and why the insurer declined it.