Roofing Company Fighting a Tough Legal Battle

By Evelyn Witterholt. 

Stonewater Roofing is fighting for their right to divulge important roofing information to customers with their current lawsuit against the Texas Department of Insurance. 

Since its inception in 2010, Texas-based Stonewater Roofing has taken pride in the way they manage their business operations. But despite the company’s impressive growth over the years, they have undoubtedly run into a few roadblocks, with their most recent obstacle being The Texas Department of Insurance. Although they have tried to maintain a good relationship with insurance companies, their recent lawsuit against the department has put some strain on these relationships. 

In a recent podcast, owners Roland Browne and Jacob Law discussed at length the details of their legal battle against the Texas Department of Insurance. The issue began with a million-dollar roofing job and a problem client. In the contract for the job and also stated on their website, the customer agrees to allow Stonewater to negotiate with their insurance company. But after the roofing job was done, they used these words against them in an effort to null and void the contract, not pay their balance and ask for damages. 

Their customer was able to sue them based on the current Texas rules on Unlicensed Practice of Public Adjustment (UPPA). Jacob states that the current UPPA rules in Texas are inhibiting to roofers, to the point where since his company had stated they would help customers negotiate with insurance companies, that put them in violation of the rules. 

“The way that it's written and the way that it has been ruled upon to date allows them to just railroad us through court without us having any say,” Jacob said. “Because your website said you would walk them through the process, you have violated the law, and there's no other discussion to be had.” 

Because of this lawsuit, the roofing company is now fighting upwards with the Texas Department of Insurance for their first amendment right. They say that based on their experience, all licensed roofers in Texas are vulnerable to the same experience. Roland says that hypothetically, if you were to agree with an insurance company’s changes they’ve made to a claim or if you call them as a contractor and put your name on the claim, you’ve negotiated the claim and violated UPPA. 

“That's essentially grabbed every single roofer out there that may ever send an estimate to a customer and that customer send it to their insurance company. They have affected a claim,” Jacob said. “You don't even have to have the word negotiate or insurance (in your business), especially if it's on the side of your truck. You just have to affect a claim.” 

Learn more about Stonewater Roofing in their RoofersCoffeeShop® Directory or visit stonewaterroofing.com 

Listen to the entire podcast to learn more about Stonewater Roofing and their fight for roofers’ right to exercise the first amendment. 

About Evelyn  

Evelyn works as a writer for RoofersCoffeeShop, AskARoofer and MetalCoffeeShop. When she isn’t writing about roofing, she’s either at the gym lifting weights or curled up on the couch watching a movie.