Insurance Scope Writing

Sometimes acts of nature can be devastating to our property that’s why most of us protect ourselves with Homeowners insurance. Lets say a storm runs through your neighborhood with strong winds, rain and maybe even hail. What is the first thing you should do? You should call your roofer to come out and inspect your roof to check for damage, he should be able to tell you if the damage is great enough for you to file an insurance claim. If you determine that you should file a claim it is advisable to  have your roofer present when the insurance adjuster comes out they can sometimes catch things the adjuster might miss. This can also be a disadvantage if your roofer is of the aggressive  kind (you roofers know who you are). Your roofer should never interfere with the insurance adjuster’s job at hand and is just there to answer questions the adjuster might have.

Every insurance company has criteria that must be meet when adjusting a claim this is where it is beneficial to have those larger insurance company’s as some insurance company’s can use loop holes to not pay claims.

Documentation is everything in the insurance world you have to have proof of a loss you just cannot say there’s damage and expect to have the loss covered.

As outlined here this is a typical Shingle roof adjustment procedure for a hail claim.

1. Photograph the front of the property this is so the correct address can be verified.

   Front of House

2. Measure the eves

   eve measurement

    

3. Haag Gauge which measures the shingle.

   Haag Gauge

    

    

    

4. Check for the number of layers of roofing.

   Layers of roofing

    

5. Check for damage on soft metals. If there is soft metal damage that usually means shingle damage. As you can see in the picture below there are lots of hail dents in both the awning and the tie-in metal

   Check soft metals

    

6. Create a test square this is a 10 X 10 area. You would then look for hail hits circle them with contrasting chalk then photograph them. Most insurance company’s require at least 10 hits within the test square to total the roof some require more some require less.

   Test Square

    

7. As you can see in the picture below there was no damage found

   No damage Test Square

   This house was kind of unique in the fact I did find hail damage on the soft metals but none on the shingles this is because this roof was replaced only month prior from a previous hail storm but the awning was not. There however was new hail damage on some of the new soft metals from hail but was only a couple and  not enough to amount to any kind of measurable loss. This is just a basic overview the adjust would also include siding, pool decking, garage doors, sheds, A/C units, and gutters to name a few.