We got hit pretty hard with the storm over the weekend, and my house has quite a bit of damage. The season is VERY early though, and I heard a story this morning about a friend of a friend JUST got new siding on her house from the last storm and now she needs it again.....
I am wondering, if I should wait it out before I make a claim. I have a broken window that will be fixed asap, but as far as the roof and siding, I would like to wait. A) So our insurance doesnt go up for making several claims, B) So I can avoid paying our 1k deductible several times.
Is that bad? Or considered insurance fraud or something??
You have up to a year from the time of the storm to make the claim. We just got our roof replaced from the storm last May. They also paid us for the trees we had to have removed but paid out of pocket for last year.
I would contact a company who deals with siding and roofing and have them go with the insurance adjustor to look at the roof and siding, etc.
Our insurance was not wanting to pay until they went up there with a trained installer who pointed out the damage... you have to be persistent, the adjustor's job is to save the company money.
I would report it now. Get the window fixed so that can go towards your claim deductible. Depending on the severity of the storm your repair mayn not count against you. You don't have to get siding repaired immediately. There is a time frame for closing the claim, but its not like 6 days. Ex. when the tornados went through Missouri last week. That storm damage will be treated differently then hail damage from a non-tornado spawning thunderstorm.
In 2007 a tree beside our house was hit by lightning. That threw bark into the side of our house. We filed a claim. It was close to 3-4 weeks before the siding was fixed and the claim closed.
Definitely get estimates prior to filing a claim. It may be something you can handle out of pocket. Do not call the claims office immediately. They will file a claim on your behalf. A company can nonrenew you for multiple CAT losses or renew your policy with a much higher deductible. You can speak with your agent and ask how it will be handled.
In Tennessee, where I work in the insurance industry, we are seeing huge rate increases (5% to 50%) due to weather related losses. It has been rough on people with tight bugets.
Homeowners insurance claims should only be filed if absolutely necessary.
Fix the window. keep the reciept and take pictures. You don't have to file right away. I don't reccomend it right after a storm. There is an army of cranky claim adjusters that travel around the country working storms. They are not easy to deal with.
BTW - your home should not go up for filing a claim. It's not like auto insurance. It will be filed as a catastrophe claim. You have no control over catastrophes so it won't be surcharged. However, If you have a claim free discount, you would lose that.
It's not bad or fraud. It's what smart people do.
I would call a contractor to handle it all. Both time I have had roof damage, the contractor does not charge me my deductible, he eats that, so I end up paying nothing.
I wouldn't wait, catastrophe claims aren't like claims on auto policies, they shouldn't make your premium go up.
Jo is exactly right. We waited several years to replace our roof because we didn't have any leaks and it didn't look bad. We live in an area where we have hail and tornadoes every spring, so we knew we would have storms each year that we could use to make our claim. We waited until we were ready to get a new roof, and then made the claim. Our old roof was 15 years old, and our insurance did not go up after making the claim.
Do not wait if you want your insurance to fix it, or you might have to fix it yourself. If you don't show a claims adjuster the damage right off the bat you really have no proof that if happened in the recent storm like you claim.
If there is a lot of damage then you should file a claim. I would get an estimate first and see if it even comes close to your deductible. Sometimes it is cheaper to just fix the little things. You may not need to replace all of your siding most often they can fix pieces that are coming off.
We went through this when we lived up north. Our house (and the others on our street) would always lose roof shingles and siding with windy storms and it was always cheaper to fix what came off. We always kept any extra roof shingles and siding because we got used to them coming off in the windy storms.
I don't think making claims is insurance fraud unless there is nothing wrong. Worst case is that if you need or want to change companies the big ones will not take you if claims have been made in the past. We went through this with one of our rental properties. I filed a claim and never collected (or tried to collect) any money and then they dropped us and we had a hard time finding another company.
If it were me, I would make the claim if there was significant damage done. Like, roof is destroyed or something structural. If it's cosmetic I would just repair it on my own when time and money allowed.
