re: Contractor won't give me an estimate

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We always tell clients not to turn in our estimates until they've received an estimate from their adjuster. That way we can argue with the insurer about #s that are too low and we can bump up our #s that we were lower on. It gets the client more money out of the insurer.

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This is FEMA, not insurance. They aren't going to negotiate with contractors moron.

Tell him to frick off.

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I am an independent and been doing it 12 years, it really isn't an easy field to get started in, unless there is a major event like a hurricane. NFIP requires a minimum number of years to get licensed for flood.

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Also, let's say you removed it yourself. How does FEMA cost that in while others are getting quotes for the whole thing done by someone else?

I understand there is no perfect way and its easy to scam in these situations.

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because he doesn't want to leave any money on the table. How shady is this?

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frick that guy for wanting to run a business to actually turn a profit!!!!

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Report him to the board

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For what?

The board has pretty limited powers and can only enforce license laws. He isn't doing anything against license law.

The estimate is more than likely written in Xactimate, but there are a couple of estimating software out there. The software probably has 100k operations that include labor, material and equipment cost to do a task. These prices are updated monthly for the entire country by zip code. For example, the removal of drywall will be paid the same, buy the software price to remove it. If the homeowner does the work then they can keep/ earn the work that they complete. If demo and cleanup was $5k, then that money should stay with the homeowner.

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he contractor probably wants to know how much his FEMA budget is because if he's only going to be getting $15k back from FEMA and he knows there is at least $80k in damages, plus he knows the OP doestn have insurance, where is the rest of the money going to come from?

He doesnt want give a quote to someone that may possibly not be able to afford it and use that quote to shop around

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Quit using logic here. We all have out pitchforks out!!!!

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Not sure how FEMA works but after Katrina I got 2 checks from my Insurance company, one for structure and one for contents. Then another from SBA....they didnt give a shite what amount went where.

We ended up having enough to add a bathroom and add on 400 sq ft.

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Nothing about Katrina was typical and will probably not be seen again. We were paying out policy limits on flood within a certain zip codes without even going to the home...

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Not shady, it takes a lot of time and money to write and estimate in xactimate. He can take the flood estimate, and look at room by room and determine if items are missing. If so he can get them added to the estimate without spending hours of time duplicating the same thing that the adjuster is doing

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if he can't do his own estimate why allow him to do the work

After looking at this again, so you are saying the contractor told you he isn't going to give you an estimate because he wants to make sure he gives you an estimate based on what you get from FEMA?

Right now I am sure all legit contractors in the Baton Rouge area are busy. When a contractor is in high demand, its not uncommon for them to raise their price (its supply and demand).

You think the guy is saying "if you want me to do the job its going to cost you".