On an insurance roofing job you inspect the roof, the homeowner files a claim, the carrier’s adjuster inspects, and the carrier sends a first check. You build the roof and send the final invoice, and on a replacement cost policy that invoice brings a second check for the depreciation the carrier held back. Before your first claim, learn where your part stops: in Texas the roofer doing the work cannot also act as the homeowner’s adjuster, and Minnesota has a similar rule.
The homeowner files the claim, and you document the damage
The Texas Department of Insurance (TDI) lists an offer to file the claim for the homeowner as ad language a Texas roofer cannot use, so the homeowner makes that call. Your part at this stage is the inspection and a written estimate with photos.
Ask how long ago the storm hit. Some homeowners policies set a one-year deadline to file unless the policyholder can show good cause for the delay. On an older storm, have the homeowner read that clause before you put more hours in.
TDI tells homeowners to get estimates from more than one contractor and to be available when the adjuster inspects so they can point out the damage. Give the homeowner your photos and estimate before the adjuster comes, so they have something to point to.
Go into the adjuster meeting knowing your scope, then track the carrier’s deadlines
A storm-company owner coaching his reps in a Facebook video tells them to know their scope before an adjuster appointment. They should also know the baseline, what the insurance company said and the gap between the two. Write it down before the adjuster arrives.
Texas gives the carrier about two weeks to acknowledge a claim. It then has 15 business days from receiving everything it needs to accept or deny the claim, or up to 45 more days if it tells the homeowner why.
Once the carrier agrees to pay, Texas gives it five business days to send the money. Put each of these dates in the job file so you know when to ask the homeowner to call the carrier, and look up your own state’s deadlines if you work elsewhere.
On replacement cost, the first check is the estimate minus depreciation and the deductible
TDI explains that a replacement cost policy pays in two checks. The first comes after the adjuster inspects and covers the estimated repair cost minus depreciation and the deductible. In TDI’s example, a $10,000 roof with a $2,000 deductible, the insurer pays $8,000 on a replacement cost policy.
On an actual cash value policy the same roof might be worth $7,000, so the insurer pays $5,000 and the homeowner covers the other $3,000 beyond the deductible. Ask which kind of policy the homeowner has before you sign the job, because on actual cash value the depreciation is theirs to pay.
The repair check is usually made out to both the homeowner and the mortgage company. Ask at the first visit whether the house has a mortgage.
Supplements add what the adjuster’s scope left out
When the roof needs more than the adjuster wrote, you send the carrier a supplement for the extra items the work requires, code items included. A contractor commenting on YouTube said “I supplement every single claim,” partly because “sometimes supplementing is the only way to find out if they have code upgrades” on the policy. Under the same video, a contractor described skipping the supplement on a small roof and then finding spaced decking that needed re-decking mid-build.
Another contractor says that in his experience a State Farm claim moves to desk adjusters or a catastrophe (CAT) team about 21 days after the inspection, though the timing changes. He says desk adjusters respond to photos, building codes and city ordinances. Send photos and the code or ordinance behind each item with every supplement.
A Pennsylvania and Maryland contractor reports that once a claim went to appraisal, State Farm would not pay supplements beyond the award. That held even for items such as plywood that could not have been part of it. File every supplement before a claim goes to appraisal.
One rep supplemented Travelers for overhead and profit on a claim covering the roof, gutters, exterior paint and more, and was refused though he had subbed out the trades. Price a multi-trade job so it still pays if the carrier won’t add overhead and profit.
Roof Insurance Supplements: How Roofers Get Carriers to Pay the Full Scope
The second check waits on your final invoice
TDI says the carrier pays the depreciation it held back “after it gets the bill for the finished job,” and that repairs usually must be finished within a period the policy sets. Read that deadline in the policy before you schedule the crew, and send the final invoice the day the roof is done.
A slow depreciation check holds money you already spent on materials and labor. A small roofing contractor wrote in a YouTube comment that “having 3-4 claims over 90 days old is killing me.” In a separate post, a contractor described a homeowner paying the depreciation out of pocket to close a house sale after the carrier went silent on the final invoice. Keep a dated list of every final invoice you send, and follow up on the oldest first.
Roofing Invoice Template, Including the Invoice an Insurance Carrier Expects
Texas and Minnesota bar roofers from adjusting claims or covering deductibles
The Texas rule against acting as the homeowner’s adjuster is Insurance Code 4102.163, and it also bars advertising that you will. TDI’s sheet Roofing and insurance: Know the law lists ad lines that cross it. Among them are offers to negotiate the settlement, promises to recover “every dime you are owed,” offers of help avoiding “incorrect settlement pricing,” and claims to the carrier that you represent the homeowner. A website counts as an advertisement, so read your insurance page against that list.
Texas also bars a contractor from offering to waive, rebate or absorb the homeowner’s deductible (Business and Commerce Code 27.02). Any contract of $1,000 or more that involves an insurance settlement must include a notice that the homeowner has to pay the deductible. The insurer may ask the homeowner for proof it was paid, so take the deductible by check or card.
Minnesota sets similar rules in statute 325E.66. A residential contractor there cannot promise to pay any part of a deductible or offer anything in return for inspections, claims or referrals. Without a public adjuster license, it cannot interpret the policy or adjust the claim. It also has to give the homeowner a good-faith itemized estimate, and a written notice of these rules with its first estimate.
When a homeowner wants someone to negotiate with the carrier, Texas has public adjusters for that. They work for the policyholder, need a TDI license, and cannot give legal advice or take part in the repairs. An owner commenting online drew the contractor’s line in the same place: send the code items and supplements the work requires, and leave negotiating to a public adjuster or an attorney. Look up your own state or province’s rules before you write about claims on your website.
What a Roofer Can Legally Do on an Insurance Claim, From Deductibles to Contingency Agreements
Insurance work carries costs a retail job doesn’t
A commenter discussing supplements listed the overhead insurance work adds: a supplementer, Xactimate (XM8) software and time meeting adjusters on roofs. He said none of it can be billed to the job directly, so he raises gross margin to cover it.
Xactimate is Verisk’s estimating software, and adjusters and contractors both write claim estimates in it. A mostly retail contractor posted in a roofing Facebook group that he almost never needs Xactimate pricing and was stuck pricing a supplement. Before your first claim, decide whether you will pay a supplementer or learn Xactimate yourself, and put that cost in your price.
A new owner on YouTube described the opposite move, into retail, as his insurance jobs dwindled. Keep your retail selling going while you learn claims.
Settle these before your first insurance claim
- Read your state’s insurance department rules for contractors, and check your website against them.
- Put a deductible notice in your insurance contract if your state requires one, as Texas does.
- At the first visit, ask when the storm hit, which carrier insures the house, whether the policy is replacement cost or actual cash value, and whether there is a mortgage.
- Have the homeowner file the claim and be there for the adjuster.
- Walk into the adjuster meeting knowing the carrier’s number, your own scope and the gap between them.
- Send supplements with photos and code citations before any appraisal.
- Send the final invoice the day the roof is finished, and keep a dated list of open ones.
- Decide who prices supplements in Xactimate, and build that cost into your margin.
Once you can run a claim from inspection to final check, the work left is getting homeowners to call you after a storm, and the free Google Maps heatmap shows where you come up when they search. Pick your Google profile and a search, and in a few minutes you’ll see your rank at 49 points around your office.