First HOI claim - New roof and kitchen repairs!

[jc4]

Hi all, I'm filing my first HOI claim. The roof was damaged and kitchen flooded in a storm. Full story here: https://forum.mrmoneymustache.com/real-estate-and-landlording/roof-blown-off-ceiling-collapsed-kitchen-flooded-figuring-it-out/

All ?questions? are in bold.

I'm initiated a claim yesterday. They're sending a contracctor out today. I think my company is weird. They don't send an adjustor. They send a contractor who puts a bid on the repairs. Then they either pay the contractor for the repairs (less my deductible) or write me a check for the difference, and I can figure it out from there.

Any advice with dealing with insurance claims or anything to document track? I'm taking pictures and listing reciepts.

The policies they said cover our damage:

Roof: Only 49% covered bc ours is old.
Home: Covers kitchen repairs etc.
Additional living: Offered to pay for hotels, eating out, etc as needed.
Personal property: We have trashed towels, broom, mop, shoes, kitchen supplies, a rug. All this should be covered.
Other structures: We have a shed, and it's roof / shingles are pretty shot and took a beating too. Maybe they're pay to replace that. We at least have the policy.

Our deductible is $10,000 and the roof is only half covered. If the roof costs $10,000 then we have to pay $15,000 total, before insurance covers anything.
We're hoping they'll cover enough to actually be helpful, but we shall see.

On the roof. Mostly the kitchen area is damaged, but the rest of it's really old. What do we have to do to get the whole roof replaced? Can we replace the roof with architectural shingles if the current roof is 3-tab? Will they still cover it?

Interior: How damaged does it have to be to be replaced? The cabinets and floors are definitely damaged, but not unusable. Will they cover replacing them still.

Additional living: Is it worth trying to use this? They said they'd pay for hotel, meals out, laundromat, etc, for up to a year. This seems rediculous to me, but we may take them up on the free food. We're waiting to see if they go over the deductible to see whether we'll be paying for this ourselves first tho.

Personal property: Any luck getting these things covered? Is it pretty normal that we send them a list, pictures, and costs, and they give us the cost of them?

Other structure: Is it reasonable to think they'd replace the shed roof? It needed it anyways, but it'd be nice if they'd help, since it lost some more shingle this week.

I'm mainly wondering what we need to do to make sure everything possible is covered. With our deductible, I know we're footing most of the bill, so I don't want to miss out on any help we can get. Any advice on how to get stuff to count would be great!

[couponvan]

First, I'll say I'm sorry you had damage. We've had both roof and kitchen flooding claims, but not at the same house.....although at almost the exact same time. It wasn't pretty.

Keep receipts for EVERYTHING.  You will be surprised how many receipts there will be.

You said the roof is old - when you are fixing the kitchen, make sure you don't have asbestos.  If so, the insurance company will have to pay to have that abated as you fix the kitchen. This alone could be thousands of dollars. (Our had asbestos tile they had to remove.)

Living expenses: Yes, they will pay for hotels if you cannot live in the house. Ours was a second home, so this was not an issue. Although in hindsight, we should have just rented another summer home as we were doing the repairs on our.  Keep receipts for the meals out. Yes, they should cover up to a year, but you need to be making reasonable progress on the damage.

3Tab vs. Architectural shingles: They will quote you the cost for 3 Tab - it's on you to pay the difference for architectural.  NOTE: the actual cost of roofing is mainly in the labor, so it's well worth it to upgrade to architectural shingles.

Interior: Cabinets and floors they should pay for without problem. If they are old and wood, you are going to be lucky and get a nice settlement for nice new cabinets. Also, if you cannot match existing flooring, they will replace an entire open concept flooring area vs just the damaged area.   We had to argue for upper cabinets because our were not damaged and they didn't want to pay for new ones. However, the old ones were discontinued and would no longer match the lower cabinets so they did pay for them. If you have a laminate counter top that can be removed and replaced, they will not pay for you to buy new counters. Any damage and they have to replace (warped cabinet bottoms on the sides not even visible from the front equals new cabinets for you.

Personal property: Anything damaged they should pay for replacement cost. Take pictures or write it down. Every little bit adds up.

Other structure: You shouldn't expect them to cover the shed roof unless you have a separate structures piece on your policy. Then it should be covered if it was also damaged in the same storm. It will probably have the same 49% coverage limit as the other.

 You have to prove you've fixed everything to get the final $ from them. We ended up using some basement $ for granite counters in the kitchen and that was kind of a challenge to get the final check.  We didn't have a loan on the house, so you may have some issues with your mortgage lender if you have a loan. They are on your policy until you pay off the house.

You should definitely hire your own contractor to meet with the insurance company initially - the contractor they send will lowball everything.  Our contractor went back and argued a bunch of items with the insurance company which they ultimately ended up paying for. It was well worth it.  Go through their estimate with a  fine tooth comb. Ours "forgot" several thousand dollars worth of construction elements. 

[jc4]

This is all really helpful.

Glad to know they'll cover asbestos removal. There was no insulation in the kitchen, but only above the rest of the house. The perimiter of the kitchen insulation is wet tho. Other materials could have some asbestos though.

Living Expenses: We haven't decided taking them up on this yet. I'm thinking once repairs start we may want to stay somewhere else.

Shingles: We'll probably do the architectural.

Cabinets: Ours are really old. The problem is DW likes them (hardly a problem really). I'll pitch to get them replaced.

Structure: We have a seperate structure policy. There shed roof is shot and definitely took some additional wear in the storm but not catastrophic. We'll see if we can get them to cover it.

How does proof and payment work? I'd like to do some work myself (like the roof) to save some $. Do photos count or do I have to send invoices and receipts Can I invoice myself for personal labor? We do have a lender, so we'll have to deal with that trouble.

Big question: Having a contractor to me only seems helpful for arguing with the insurance company. I'd really like someone to assess and argue up to the real cost of repairs. I don't know that I'd want to do all the work though. Would they be willing to do the initial claim for a fee or go back and only do half the work after quoting all of it? I also don't know how to find or test a good contractor.

[couponvan]

Photos count for work done yourself. They quote the contractor rates in the claim reimbursement. We did most of the work on the kitchen ourselves (not plumbing, asbestos or electrical). Our contractor was already doing a master bedroom renovation so he charged $50/hr on the insurance review. He was well worth it.

[trammatic]

Almost every insurance company sends a contractor.  They have local providers who typically do quality work for a fair price and have contracts with them to make these insurance estimates.  They then know that the estimate is reasonable, and also can be done for that price in your area.

If you want to do some of the work yourself, then just take the payout from the company and contract directly with a contractor to do what you don't want to.  They should either repair or replace the cabinets, and often time, they'll prefer to just replace them all to standardize the work.  Your estimate should cover all of your loss, but it's up to you to figure out what to do with it.  For example, if a Dyson vacuum that costs $400 was destroyed, you should get the $400 from them, but you can choose to buy another vacuum or a used one for less money and keep the difference.