Share this important information about insurance with your building and property owner clients

By Carolyn Martinson, SureCoat Systems.

At a minimum, annual roof service and maintenance is essential when it comes to prevention, general upkeep, safety, and, course, building INSURANCE!

You may not know it, but if your roof is in poor condition, the insurance company could require a cash value percentage of the roof be excluded from the insurance policy; they could eliminate roof coverage; or they could cancel the policy altogether. Now, this is providing the insurance company requires a pre-coverage inspection for a new policy or the renewal of an existing policy. However, pre-coverage inspections are becoming an industry standard.

Insurance companies want to reduce the risk of payout and repair to a roof – protecting their investment in you, which makes sense, but is a headache to many because this is at the property owner’s expense. Especially, if they are coming demanding maintenance, repairs, or even a new roof in say, 30 or 90 days, even though their might be time left on the lifespan of the roof. It’s frustrating, and it does happen.

Our best advice for this situation? Find a reputable licensed professional to thoroughly inspect the roof to help prove that the roof is actually insurable. It is hard to persuade insurers that they are wrong but having a professional back it up is a good start when it comes to reaching an agreement on the current condition of the roof and building for insurance purposes.

An example of insurance at risk is a property that JemStar Construction worked on just down the street. It’s a commercial property, and unfortunately, there was significant negligence when it came to maintenance. Any claims that were filed were denied because they didn’t maintain the level of expectation that comes with keeping insurability. The building owner had 30 days to fix the disrepair or their insurance would be canceled.

From an investment perspective, whatever maintenance or repairs you put into your roof stays with your property. Better yet, with SureCoat, any repairs can become part of a complete roof system.  So, roof repair money is not wasted, it is the start of a new roof.

JemStar stepped in to handle some reframing that needed to be done – splicing into the old roof, and then went in and installed the SureCoat Roof System, effectively salvaging and extending the life of the roof that had come under such ruin.

The Problem with Losing Insurance

Since insurance is usually a condition of having a mortgage, property owners find themselves in a jam when their insurance company threatens to or cancels coverage. Ultimately, this impacts future insurability making it harder to find coverage again and/or costing more by having the owner pay higher rates of insurance with the new insurance company.

Depending on the reasons for needing repairs, updates, or maintenance, there are always several options on how to can work with your insurance company to avoid any cancelation. And remember, expecting the insurance company to pay a boatload of money for a claim isn’t the reality. They have the right to protect their investment too. Make sure you’re doing your due diligence when it comes to regular maintenance, and you’ll be protecting not only your investment in your property but their investment in you.

Get in touch with one of your waterproofing experts for more information on how to extend and sustain the life of the roof you have now. With a SureCoat partial roof restoration, you can attack your most vulnerable problem areas now and then finish the rest of your roof when your budget allows. Call SureCoat at 877-8 BE SURE or email at info@surecoatsystems.com to get started today.

As a contractor, if you’re looking for a service and maintenance program to help your customers and your business. Check out our recent webinar for RoofersCoffeeShop!