Update: I'm getting a roof today!

Back in mid-December, we had a mini-tornado go down our street. In Oklahoma, this is fairly common. It didn’t do major distruction, like what appears on the news so often. But it did blow the shingles off my roof.

We called the insurance company to come and inspect the roof, and got a real jerk, of course! He refused to give us full replacement value on the roof - which is the type of coverage we have - but offered us only a small fraction of what we needed.

We protested. The claims adjuster said, get a roofer out there to give us a bid and we’ll talk. So, we interviewed a few roofers, all of which said we needed a whole new roof, and we got back in touch with our insurance company.

First, we scheduled the jerk to come and re-inspect with our first choice roofer, but the guy mysteriously stopped returning our calls (What’s up with that?!) So, we scheduled him to re-inspect with our second choice roofer.

The jerk never called roofer #2, so he was a no-show at the appointment. SO, blaming roofer #2, he says - in essence - “you’re not going to get a whole new roof anyway, why are you bothering?”

Needless to say, we need a miracle, because we need a roof! We’ve had nothing but a tarp over our heads for months, and the understructure is rotting away. We need a major miracle!!

So, all you prayers, start sending them up for me please! I’ve seen some amazing things in my time in response to devout people’s prayers, so I have no doubt that prayer works.

:grphug: :heart: Thank you! :heart: :grphug:

Is there anyone you can contact that is senior to The Jerk?

[COLOR=“#300090”]
MoniDew, I empathize. We did some emergency repairs to our roof recently. It wasn’t caused by weather, but what we thought was just an old house. We didn’t go to our insurance agent and just did it as a DIY project. I’m not a roofer, but I’ve worked Habitat projects and helped my dad who did work as a roofer (long time back). Our roof wasn’t a steep slop and had the common asphalt shingles.

Once we pulled up some shingles, it was clear that our leak was caused by bad construction work. No roofer would ever cut the roofing felt down the valley between two slopes! :!!!: But that’s another story. :sad:

Good luck with your roof. [/COLOR]

You should not have to wait for over two months to get a claim settled!!! I would call your State Insurance Department and make a complaint!!!

Dear Lord!! Who’s your insurance company anyway??? That’s insane.

You need to go above “the jerk”…lol…seriously, if you’re paying for that coverage, and, the type of damage done to your roof is covered, your roof should be replaced. If you’re still not getting the results you want, file a complaint with the attorney general, and, threaten to contact your local news station as well. And, don’t hesitate to actually call either.

We have something out here, on one of our news stations called Contact 2 where consumers call in with complaints about a company, and, not only does the news station most of the time resolve the issue but they cover your story as well. I was having huge problems with our former cable company and after calling the news, they resolved my issue, and, interviewed me about it (and I got on the news…haha). The last thing a company wants is publicity detailing how badly they screw people over.

Be persistent…If your insurance company can screw you over, they will but you have to be vigilant and assertive. And, never hesitate to take action against them, such as contacting the attorney general and/or local news stations.

I hope it gets settled for you, having to deal with that stuff is a pain in the butt! :hug:

hugs for you MoniDew.

not having a proper roof over your head must be horrid and made even worse by useless insurers.

Definately try and speak to somebody above The JErk. And start doing things in writing backed up with a phone call. I have found that in an age where most things are done by telephone or emal, an actualy paper letter to the manager can have one hell of an impact.

Im not the praying sort, but my thoughts are with you that this situation gets sorted.

Unfortunately I work with people trying to get claims processed through insurance every day. This does not surprise me one bit. Insurance companies are not truly in the business to help you, they are in the business of making money and that means keeping claims unpaid, dragging feet and low ball settlement offers. You do need to go to the insurance commissioner or an attorney. Unfortunatley, in many states the insurance commissioner is really just an insurance company hack anyway though. We represent clients with uninsured motorist claims that are going on 4 years old.

Good luck! Unfortunatley the only thing that works is persistence. Its annoying I know. Call the supervisor of the jerk. Write letters and cc the Insurance Commissioner. They need to get the darn roof fixed!!!

If your roof is over five years old they will prorate it. It keeps people from waiting and waiting to get their roofs repaired until they can blame it on a natural event and use their insurance to pay for it. Most people don’t realize this until it’s too late but they do it in Florida all the time.
If your roof is new or you can show that it was only the wind damage that caused it (ie no wood rot, old shingles, etc.) then you should definitely keep hassling them until they pay the full replacement cost. You’ll have to get documentation from reputable roofing companies declaring your roof was in good shape before though or they’ll just pay the prorated amount.

What insurance company?
If Country Companies it sounds exactly like what my friend went through with them.

My friend’s was on his machine shop. When he started hitting them up for all the residual damage for everything that went bad because of the insurance company dragging their feet they started moving on it.
I think he did have to go above the adjuster’s head.

He ended up getting his maximum payout and I would hope the adjuster lost his job for costing them thousands trying to save them hundreds.

:hug:I hope you can get it all worked out soon…I agree that you need to get above the jerk…and our local news does the same thing and they have gotten some fast results by taking it to the news…you might wanna try that :thumbsup:

We asked for a different adjuster, and they have said they will send one out next week. Roofer has the flu this week, so no-go on getting anyone on the roof soon.

I am terrified to say which insurance company it is. But it’s a biggie, and they probably have a ton of claims due to bad winter storms, etc. If I mention their name here, they could send Guido the Arm-Bender after me! :oo:

We do have a version of “action news” here. (Channel 2 Works for You.) I could contact them. But I think the county insurance commissioner sounds more promising. I’ll try that route if they are still dragging their feet after the roofer is well.

Forgive my ignorance here, but why in the world are you afraid to tell us the name of your insurance company? How are they going to find out your telling us your situation?

I’m sure if anyone else has them on these boards they aren’t going to up and cancel their policies. That would be too much work, IMHO. I hate shopping for insurance. :ick:

And I think it’s illegal for anyone to send Guido the arm bender to your house. It’s called harrassment. That’s a no-no. :teehee:

I would also contact your local Better Business Bureau. It’s amazing the kind of results they can get.

I’m just being completely rediculous and petty, playing the sympathy card and trying to be funny. Operative word being, trying.

It’s State Farm.

Now I must change my name, move out of state, and join witness protection. Yeah, still trying

I think you’re safe, Moni. I seriously doubt if State Farm is patrolling a knitting forum. But really, if they were…what difference would it make? You were just making a valid complaint and in reality I bet it was a lot nicer than some people would have made! Don’t sweat it, you did nothing wrong. :hug:

Regarding State Farm… I think as a whole they are probably a fine company, we’ve had them before, too. I think you got a really lazy, lousy claim adjuster. There are bad eggs in all business. :hair:

Definitely go above the guy’s head, and talk to your agent.

That is not SOP for State Farm. He probably hears about their problems in disaster areas and thinks he’s doing his part to help.

The only thing I can imagine anyone sane trying to do is to prorate the roof.

We had a different adjuster out to the house today. Still only gonna give us half a roof (back half) Roofer says if he can’t match the shingles, he won’t do it. Wants to protect his name by not having if associated with a half @$$ job. Can’t say as I blame him.
We have to pay deductible plus depreciation, even though the whole time they are telling us we have full coverage. Makes no sense to me at all.
By the time all is said and done, we will have paid 2/3 of the cost of this roof. We’ll need to take out a loan in order to do that. Uh, anybody checked lately on how excited banks are to give out loans? (sarcasm - I have noticed that my sense of humor needs to come with an explanation, and warning labels.)
Yeay. I’m so excited. :BLAH:

Sorry you’ve gotten the run around from insurance !! As for matching shingles, unless you have something really unique it shouldn’t be an issue. I had some roof damage and while many roofers wanted to put on a entire new roof (ins was not happy) so I consulted a few more roofers and found that the problem could be easily repaired and it was far cheaper for me to provide the contractor with supplies and just paid one of his guys labor. I was able to take an old shingle to our local building supply company and buy the new shingles no problem.

Hope it works out !

Yeah, shingles are rarely that rare and special, unless you live in a very old or very unique house.
Doesn’t it sometimes feel like you’re trying to get untrained puppies to jump through hoops?