[rmd2]

Originally Posted by Choro&Swing

Perhaps you can answer a question for me. If I buy new shingles for my roof, they come with a warranty, perhaps twenty-five years, or forty, depending on the quality. However, that warranty is pro-rated, so if my shingles start falling apart in ten years, the maker will only pay part of the cost for replacement, and perhaps not the labor for removal or replacement.

But if you claim shingle damage from a storm, do insurance companies usually pay full replacement cost, minus the deductible, which might be only $500? So if someone is willing to climb onto your roof and certify that you have storm damage, you can file a claim and receive a new roof that might cost $25,000? You get this even though you live in a house that is 22 years old, and your shingles were 25 year shingles and were due to be replaced in the near future, paid for entirely by yourself. The damage by storm might be minimal and debatable, but maybe some lawyer is willing to threaten a law suit if your insurer won’t pay, and the insurer would rather pay than have to spend that much having its own lawyers defend it in court.

I realize that with insurance, we essentially pool our money nationwide so those in need can get paid. I realize this is legal, but getting these new roofs seems rather close to insurance fraud. It saves us a LOT of money we probably don’t have (maybe more than we have paid for house insurance in our entire lives), but actually, usually our “storm-damaged” roofs are still working fine and not leaking. Are we sort-of making false claims and passing on the costs to our neighbors? Is this moral? Does it give anyone qualms?

Yes the roof business fraud is alive and well. Just check out all the roofing going on now that is being attributed to a "storm". Also the roofers will put a different amount on the bill but charge less so that they customer does not have to pay any deductible. They just tell the customer they will not have to pay any deductible and that sounds good to the customer and they say "Yes, I want a new roof". The insurance companies are getting gouged by these new roofs that do not even qualify for storm replacement. They have gone to Tallahassee to plead their case with the politicians and State attorney but to no avail. So now if you check your property insurance you will notice for the past 3 years it had gone literally through "the roof". This is so the insurance companies can pay for all the "damaged" roofs.