Insurance Companies And Storm Damage

mikefromcincy

I have been working the Gulfport, MS area for 3 weeks now, I am having success getting in fron of customers and bidding roofs, however I am running into a huge problem with insurance companies offering ridiculously low settlements to their customers.

Anywhere from $ 90.00 to $ 135.00 per square.

My pricing is anywhere from $ 175.00 to $ 185.00 which is actually competitve with other roofing contractors and is also a fair price.

I have never in my roofing career ran into this kind of trouble with insurance before, usually if its fair and itemized and justifies they pay, but these adjustors are throwing out low numbers and then making themselves unavailable, in all probability they are trying to make the homeowner give up.

Does anyone have any insight on what is going on here ? I heard stories that the same thing happened in Florida last year and after a certain amount of time went by insurance companies started paying $ 200 a square and up.

I am looking for facts that I can explain to my customers, if anyone can tell me that this is normal in the early stages of a catastrophic storm, or if they are just hoping enough people will settle in an effort to save mass dollars I would like to know.

And if there are simple steps that can be taken to get insurance companies to actually pay a fair market value to get their homes restored ?

In other words I am looking for advice and insight and any would be highly appreciated.

Tom R

Hope someone can help you out Mike, - - but I don't see how, - - to me, insurance companies are just 'legal extortion', - - not only do they make their own rules, - - but they also get to keep movin' the goalposts.

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Cole

Tom you hit it on the spot.

Mike, here in Dallas we get about that same for insurance work.

Its tough.

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red_cedar

In a market like what you describe, the only thing to do is to find out what other contractors are doing for that kind of money. I am sure no one is giving a rolls royce for chevy prices. Make money and give what is being paid for, what the area is giving. It may mean cheaper labor, materials.

Teetorbilt

Having recently been through this, I have noted the following;

Most of the larger roofers have at least one person delegated to dealing with the ins. co's.
The HO always has the ability to hire an independent assessor (if available) and their fee is tied into the recovery.
If you have a mortgage, you can contact the co. In many cases, they have as much money tied up in your home as you do and would rather have it repaired as opposed to going into default.

Just some ideas to toss out to potential customers.

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