Getting the most money out of insurance companies.

Many roofing companies don't deal with insurance companies, because they don't understand how to get more money out of the insurance companies.

If you do get more money out of insurance companies than most companies do, you better be justified in doing it. Do not ruin it for everyone and offer rebates and discounts and all that other non-sense when doing storm related insurance work. Be honest, be strong and do good work.

If I was an insurance company and found roofing companies giving discounts and other nonsense, I would lower what I pay HO's too and be perfectly in the right. If a roofing company can afford to give a discount to a HO it means that the roofing company was unethical and inflated the invoice, so that the HO didn't have to pay their deductible. When you sign your signature on an insurance contract you are giving "your word", that in the event of a claim you will pay your deductible. Otherwise, why would insurance companies put that in their contracts?

Now that the foundation has been laid. This is what you need to know to get started. Learn the laws pertaining to insurance policies and how insurance companies are legally obiligated to perform. Also, learn the legal channels to notify legal authorities about insurance companies who don't comply with the laws. Learn which media sources report on these issues.

Once, you know what is legally right and legally wrong. Never waver on what is right, become a persistent annoyance to the insurance company. Most insurance companies will bow down and let the right thing take place.

Once, an insurance company folds to the truth it is much harder for them to ever go back to low prices. Find a roofing company who is familiar with this and form a bond, good roofing companies are not our enemies.

Points to remember- Not all roofing companies have the same over head. Not all roofing companies pay their labor the same. Not all roofing companies work out of their home. Not all roofing companies do things illegally. Some roofing companies, pay taxes, pay for proper insurance, get the roof inspected. Roofing companies are not all the same, some are apples and some are oranges.

Mr. Insurance employee do you know that by following these practices that you are contributing to a corrupt system. You are endangering the financial future of your customers, you are potentially subjecting them to hiring inferior roofing companies, fraudulent roofing companies or even worse you are potentially putting your company in a position to get sued, because if the HO find a roofing company to do the roof for the price you are suggesting, it is unlikely the roofing company has proper insurance. The HO could easily be sued if something goes wrong and that has the potential to fall back on the your insurance company, and your insurance company having to pay out another claim. Don't tell me that hasn't happen before, because we both know it has. Now don't make the mistake that I'm an uneducated high school drop out roofer. I understand what you are legally obiligated to pay and do, I will not go away and you can not persuade the HO to take your side, they now too understand what you are legally obiligated to do and pay.

Terry Said: We do not bill the insurance company. We bill the HO. If the HO has replacement value on their insurance then they will have to decide if they want our help or not. I am not going to submit 1 invoice for the insurance co and 1 for the HO with different pricing.

We have had several homeowners groups request estimates for their work to be done at the same time, most of the time it is to request a group discount. This we know in advance and price accordingly (if 3 roofs are installed at the same time there will be a discount of $---- per roof). It is not a large discount but just something to say thanks for everyone in one area getting the work done at one time.

If you never submit a bid.... how do you compete against others in your area? There are over 200 roofing companies in this area, people like to compare what they are getting for what cost.

I only do insurance work and if you only do insurance work you don't have to give bids to get customers.

We do not bill the insurance company. We bill the HO. If the HO has replacement value on their insurance then they will have to decide if they want our help or not. I am not going to submit 1 invoice for the insurance co and 1 for the HO with different pricing.

We have had several homeowners groups request estimates for their work to be done at the same time, most of the time it is to request a "group discount". This we know in advance and price accordingly (if 3 roofs are installed at the same time there will be a discount of $---- per roof). It is not a large discount but just something to say thanks for everyone in one area getting the work done at one time.

If you never submit a bid.... how do you compete against others in your area? There are over 200 roofing companies in this area, people like to compare what they are getting for what cost.

jimAKAblue Said: Mr. Insurance employee do you know that by following these practices that you are contributing to a corrupt system. You are endangering the financial future of your customers, you are potentially subjecting them to hiring inferior roofing companies, fraudulent roofing companies or even worse you are potentially putting your company in a position to get sued, because if the HO find a roofing company to do the roof for the price you are suggesting, it is unlikely the roofing company has proper insurance. The HO could easily be sued if something goes wrong and that has the potential to fall back on the your insurance company, and your insurance company having to pay out another claim. Dont tell me that hasnt happen before, because we both know it has. Now dont make the mistake that Im an uneducated high school drop out roofer. I understand what you are legally obiligated to pay and do, I will not go away and you can not persuade the HO to take your side, they now too understand what you are legally obiligated to do and pay.

If Im hearing you right, the insurance company will pay higher amount on the claim, beyond what their softwares tells them, if the company demands the extra amount and is willing to stick the their guns and battle it out?

Most of the time yes, all the time no. It also depends who the insurance company is. Many times these software programs update/ their prices and insurance companies are sometimes slow to upgrade to the increased prices.

Terry Said: ** How would you do this? What price would you put on the invoice? Would the widow send in the higher first invoice price to the insurance company or the lower invoice price?

I am not sure how you bid insurance work but we give the customer an estimate that can convert to a contract with their signature. The estimate would be for the actual cost of the job. The homeowner submits this to their insurance company. The IC either agrees and sends the HO a check minus the deductible OR calls us to hash it out. Most of the time, the insurance co. agrees with our price and adjusts their payout to the customer. The IC then sends a check to the customer. The final invoice would show the total amount agreed on less any discounts that we chose to give.

We do not inflate the bid for the insurance co.

** If you give the roof to the widow at cost and the neighbors see the price you gave the widow it might be hard to justify why theirs is so much higher, sure you can say you gave her a lower bid price because see is a poor widow, but then they might want a discount too.

If the widow chose to discuss the cost of her roof with the neighbors, and they questioned us on it, we would just have to explain to the neighbors that we were assisting someone at our cost. I am sure that everyone understands that no one can stay in business without making a profit.

Tell me one thing... do you discuss your bills with your neighbors? I sure dont.

If the roof leaks, then we fix the leak. The main objective is to make the original repair in such a way that the roof wont leak and that is what we pay the crews to do.

As for giving her the repair/installation for free, yes, if she had no insurance to cover the damages, we have done that. BUT, if she has insurance, then why not at least get the materials and part of the labor covered if you can?

On the other hand.... how many times have you given an estimate only to have the HO go with a cheaper contractor and pocket the money?

Good points the problem is if the Ho has a rcv policy and you submit a lower priced invoice into the insurance company the Ho will get a smaller recoverable depriciation check. In that case the HO would not benefit. Now if your price is as low as the 1st insurance check, the acv check then you'd be able to help the widow and not break any rules.

I don't check my neighbors bills, but I have seen it several times were neighbors collaborate and look at pricing. On the extreme side, I've experienced a neighborhood that had their own forum style website and people discussed prices on there. Also, I had a situation where the neighborhod had several meetings discussing roofs and pricing. These were in very large storms.

I never give bids, ever so I don't have to worry about the HO submiting my higher bid to the insurance company and the HO getting more money for the roof and pocketing it.

** How would you do this? What price would you put on the invoice? Would the widow send in the higher first invoice price to the insurance company or the lower invoice price?

I am not sure how you bid insurance work but we give the customer an estimate that can convert to a contract with their signature. The estimate would be for the actual cost of the job. The homeowner submits this to their insurance company. The IC either agrees and sends the HO a check minus the deductible OR calls us to hash it out. Most of the time, the insurance co. agrees with our price and adjusts their payout to the customer. The IC then sends a check to the customer. The final invoice would show the total amount agreed on less any discounts that we chose to give.

We do not inflate the bid for the insurance co.

** If you give the roof to the widow at cost and the neighbors see the price you gave the widow it might be hard to justify why theirs is so much higher, sure you can say you gave her a lower bid price because see is a poor widow, but then they might want a discount too.

If the widow chose to discuss the cost of her roof with the neighbors, and they questioned us on it, we would just have to explain to the neighbors that we were assisting someone at our cost. I am sure that everyone understands that no one can stay in business without making a profit.

Tell me one thing... do you discuss your bills with your neighbors? I sure don't.

If the roof leaks, then we fix the leak. The main objective is to make the original repair in such a way that the roof won't leak and that is what we pay the crews to do.

As for giving her the repair/installation for free, yes, if she had no insurance to cover the damages, we have done that. BUT, if she has insurance, then why not at least get the materials and part of the labor covered if you can?

On the other hand.... how many times have you given an estimate only to have the HO go with a cheaper contractor and pocket the money?

"Mr. Insurance employee do you know that by following these practices that you are contributing to a corrupt system. You are endangering the financial future of your customers, you are potentially subjecting them to hiring inferior roofing companies, fraudulent roofing companies or even worse you are potentially putting your company in a position to get sued, because if the HO find a roofing company to do the roof for the price you are suggesting, it is unlikely the roofing company has proper insurance. The HO could easily be sued if something goes wrong and that has the potential to fall back on the your insurance company, and your insurance company having to pay out another claim. Don't tell me that hasn't happen before, because we both know it has. Now don't make the mistake that I'm an uneducated high school drop out roofer. I understand what you are legally obiligated to pay and do, I will not go away and you can not persuade the HO to take your side, they now too understand what you are legally obiligated to do and pay. "

If I'm hearing you right, the insurance company will pay higher amount on the claim, beyond what their softwares tells them, if the company demands the extra amount and is willing to stick the their guns and battle it out?

Terry Said:

insuranceroofer Said: ... If a roofing company can afford to give a discount to a HO it means that the roofing company was unethical and inflated the invoice, so that the HO didnt have to pay their deductible.

I dont necessarily agree with this part of the statement. What if the company bid the job at their normal rates and then found out that the old widow just cant afford the deductible and CHOOSES to lower their profit margin to assist her? Although the company has the right to make a profit, they can choose to not do so. How can that be unethical?

How would you do this? What price would you put on the invoice? Would the widow send in the higher first invoice price to the insurance company or the lower invoice price?

The intent of your question is what I'm worried about, sure yeah its great to help a poor widow, but I know for a fact that almost 99% of the time roofing companies do this for another purpose. That purpose is to get business, by offering a discount when doing insurance work or sending in false invoices to insurance companies.

If your helping a widow you would be best to just do the roof absolutely free, not charge anything. If you give the roof to the widow at cost and the neighbors see the price you gave the widow it might be hard to justify why theirs is so much higher, sure you can say you gave her a lower bid price because see is a poor widow, but then they might want a discount too. I'd rather just do the roof absolutely free for the widow.

What happens in the situation if the roof leaks for the widow, wouldn't that suck for you? Would you offer a warranty for this free roof?

Bottom line is if the insurance companies would just simply pay fair market value for what is on the roof without all the games that they play trying to save money. Then it would make it that much easier. For everyone that saves their deductable there is 20 that got underpaid by the insurance company but never say anything.

insuranceroofer Said: ... If a roofing company can afford to give a discount to a HO it means that the roofing company was unethical and inflated the invoice, so that the HO didnt have to pay their deductible.

I don't necessarily agree with this part of the statement. What if the company bid the job at their normal rates and then found out that the old widow just can't afford the deductible and CHOOSES to lower their profit margin to assist her? Although the company has the right to make a profit, they can choose to not do so. How can that be unethical?