Contractor question

ask the GC who is roofer will be.
investigate the roofer and his references
make your decision then

The roofers will work for insurance proceeds. Let me explain why you should take price out of the equation and pick the best roofer when dealing with insurance proceeds. Your policy will have depreciation withheld, for most policies this is money you get back after the work is completed. I am going to use some hypotheticals:

Insurance estimate to replace roof: $12,000
Deductible: $1000
Recoverable deprivation: $4000
Initial payout from insurance $7000

Let’s say you can negotiate and get the roof replaced for $10,0000, your insurance isn’t going to give you $4000 when the work is completed, they will give you $2000.

That is: $10000
Previous payment ($7000)
Deductible ($1000)
Second payment $2000

As I showed in my example negating down from the insurance amount provides no benefit for the homeowner, choose the roofer that is going to install the best roof.

quote:

---

We have already received payment from the insurance company and they depreciated the heck out of it. No matter who we go with we are coming out of pocket at least $2k.

---

My roofer worked with me, he did job for what insurance paid me. Of course, there are limits to how low they can go.

quote:

---

I was wrong, I called our insurance company and they will reimburse our depreciation. I’ve never had an insurance protected project like this so I wasn’t aware.

---

Excellent.

I am also currently getting bids for a roof replacement. The process has changed since I last used insurance to replace a roof.

My insurance adjuster estimated the following:
Roof replacement: $26k
Subtract for depreciation: $11.8k (recoverable upon completion)
Subtract deductible: $5.6k

The adjuster reminded me that accepting the lowest bid will not generate personal savings - that their final payout will be the balance of the actual invoice. If the total invoice is $18k, I will only be reimbursed for the balance of that invoice, not the total $26k.

The first bidder was a roofing company that has served my community for over 20 years. I chose them because of their professional reputation. When the owner of the company showed up, he started with a discussion of how the business works and explained that he will give the insurance company a separate invoice different from what I would pay for his service - so that I could recover the deductible, and possibly some amount over it. He stated their final invoice will come very close to the max allowed by the adjuster. Their bid was $18k.

Of course I view that as insurance fraud. I can’t in good conscience do business with them. Even if my personal ethics were flexible enough to do this, I would not want to spend a period of years (statute of limitations) wondering if my roofing company would become under investigation for insurance fraud - and evidence of my transaction would cause me to be charged as a co-conspirator.

Another bidder I have lined up does more than just roofing. They have also served the community for over 20 years and also have a great reputation. But I am considering them because they also specialize in “whole house” remodeling. I am hoping I can have them also address some additional exterior damage issues at the same time, even if I end up paying for that separately.

My reason for posting this in response to the OP is that roofing does not seem to be a highly skilled profession. There are sketchy businesses out there. I will probably go with a home repair business because I want something more than a quick and inexpensive roof replacement. I want some additional work done to some areas of wood rot around some windows, soffit and fascia - things a roofing company may not do.