Insurance Claim Advice

[J Scott]

Just looking for any advice or thoughts from those familiar with homeowners insurance claims...

I made an insurance claim for my personal residence last year because I was pretty sure I had hail damage (my roof is tough to see from the ground, but I trust my roofer). My insurance company (Allstate) sent out an adjuster who denied the claim -- he said there wasn't any damage.

I decided not to put up a fight, and assumed that the damage wasn't that bad given that the adjuster said there wasn't any (and yes, I know the insurance company is going to be biased and wants to deny my claim, but I didn't feel like fighting it).

Fast forward 18 months and I've been told by several other contractors and an inspector that my roof has hail damage. I plan to go back to Allstate, but I'm not sure the right tact to take -- Should I file a new claim? Should I appeal the claim from last year? Should I escalate above my agent?

Is there anything else I can do to help my case? Clearly, there's damage, and clearly, the insurance company doesn't want to pay. Not sure where I can get leverage in this situation...

Any thoughts are appreciated!

[Timothy W.]

I'll preface this by saying I hold 7 state licenses in insurance adjusting, have handled about 3-4 thousand claims in half the country, have handled claims up to 15 million dollars in size, and I will NOT adjust claims for Allstate under their current parameters. Post the original "Date of Loss" of your first claim and I can check for you to see if it is a known hail date or even a hail CAT (catastrophe) in your area. I assume it's Atlanta? Have there been hail storms since?

I don't know any public adjusters who bother with hail claims to a residence. Too small for them. I only know one and he is a roofer who got a public adjuster's license. He makes his money off of being a roofer but got the license so he can directly negotiate with the adjuster.

If I were to get aggressive with Allstate, I would get a HAAG certified roofing consultant to tell me if my roof is hail damaged to the point of requiring replacement. If they denied the damage and I had a HAAG certified report that said there is sufficient damage to warrant replacement I would go immediately to my state department of insurance and file a complaint. This is just what I would do though based on my claims experience. This isn't legal advice.