What is the 'roofing scam'?
 

I have read of a 'roofing scam' (https://www.talkofthevillages.com/fo...urance+premium) as though it is a well-known thing, but I don't know what it is.

Could someone please enlighten me?

TIA!

- Potential Future Resident of TV

They come and inspect your roof then ask you to assign the benefits to them. As usual it’s a scam.. what’s new these days.. most company’s are flat out scam artists. Welcome to Covid

They have never inspected a roof without telling you that you have a damaged one.

It goes something like this. A week ago, the weather was windy. Not during a hurricane, simple windy weather.

A roofer knocks on your door. "Hey, my team just finished putting a new roof on your neighbor's home. The windy weather last week destroyed the shingles. If you want, I will check your roof. No cost to you! "

You are puzzled and respond. "My roof is only ten years old. I doubt anything is wrong with it."

Roofer explains it is better to be safe than sorry. I have my ladders on the truck, I'll check it for you, if you'd like.

You are now worried. Since it is no cost you allow him on your roof.

Ten minutes later, the roofer explains why you need a new roof. That windy weather caused damage to your home too.

"Are you sure?" You ask. "It's supposed to. be. good for thirty years."

"Yeah, this happens frequently. But, as long as you have homeowners insurance, your policy will pay for it. I can check for you. Just give me your insurance information and I will call them."

Yada yada, yada....the homeowner gets a new roof paid in full by the insurance company.

While his workers are finishing the roof, the owner knocks on the door next door. Wouldn't you know? That windy weather destroyed that roof too!

The roofer puts on 5 or 6 new roofs in the neighborhood, then moves on. All the roofs were paid in full by the insurance companies.

This scam happens frequently with HVAC, as well. Darn it! Your system was struck by lightening. Needs replacing! But don't worry, the insurance company will pay for it.

I know of one man who convinced an eldely widow who bought a smaller home she needed a water heater. He couldn't understand why anyone would remove it from the garage and not replace it. The widow paid for a new water heater. There was nothing wrong with hers. She had a tankless water heater outdoors. The widow had no clue.

I had a leak and knew were it was coming (around a vent). So I went to Lowes and got some roofing caulk and went up on the roof and caulked around the vent. Good thing these roofs are not very steep. At 75 I don’t like getting up on roofs anymore but as a retired property adjuster I have been on many hundreds of roof. I had a roofing contractor that had many good recommendations to come out and inspect the roof. They said it looked fine (which I knew) but I needed to replace that vent because the Village builders use very cheap vents. This is a vent for an outdoor kitchen and was not installed by the Villages. The vent is just fine. The contractor said it would cost $350 to replace it with a new good one!

I can see a need for a business that just does roof inspections and does not sell roofing. An experienced person who would charge a reasonable fee to look over your roof… maybe $50-100.

You might well be on to something.

Spot on. The rest of the story is the insurance companies decides to head off more of these claims and refused to reinsure a house unless you put in a new roof at your expense. On top of that raises everyones rates to pay for the free roofs.

There are two, unrelated, roofing scams.

In the first, someone will inspect your roof "for free" and tell you it needs repairs when it doesn't. This will be at your expense.

In the second, they will tell you that you need a whole new roof. Often they can get the insurance company to cover this.

The second has been accelerated by some insurance companies refusing to insure a roof over 20 years old, so it has been hard for them to deny that older roofs may need replacing due to wind damage over the years. A vicious circle for which they are partly responsible.

Maybe insurance companies should prorate the life expectancy of roofs. A 30 year roof that is 15 years old, they pay 1/2 you pay 1/2.

I was just walking my neighborhood, the new section of village of Charlotte, and noticed on rabbit run six homes out of 13 had assigned roofing by skylight roofing. These homes must be less than 10 years old. This sounds like a scam to me.

But Why Would Insurance Company Pay Without an Inspection?
 

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Okay, this is really good. That is, like the OP, I also kept hearing about the "roofing scam" and wondered how it worked. And this explanation from Randall55 is excellent, thank you.

But my question is this phrase is Randall55's explanation: "a new roof paid in full by the insurance company."

WHY would the insurance company pay for a new roof without confirming that the roof was in fact damaged? With automobile collision damage the insurance company sends out an adjuster to evaluate the claim. Wouldn't the insurance company do the same thing with an alleged damaged roof? Could someone please explain this. Could the insurance companies really be that dumb? And finally, once this scam became widely known, couldn't (wouldn't) the insurance company put a stop to it by starting to send out adjusters to confirm the damage? Thanks for any insights you might have.

The roofing company sues the insurance company because it won’t cover the claim. It costs more to defend themselves than the cost of a new roof, welcome to Florida.

Here’s the real problem with the roofing scams. In my opinion it’s often not the fault of the homeowner (who wouldn’t want a free roof?) or roofing company scamming homeowners by claiming they need a new roof when they really don’t. The blame is squarely on the insurance companies for choosing not to pay for legal fees to fight theses lawyers the roofing companies have hired. The insurance companies have chosen to just pay for the new roofs and pass the expense off to all of us homeowners by upping our premiums. Insurance companies will always take the least expensive option on any matter when deciding to honor any claims including unfair claims. Rather than paying for expensive legal fees fighting cases they often choose to just pay and pass the expense off to the homeowner by raising insurance premiums. SO; by THEIR DECISIONS ALONE not to to pay for litigation and fight such faults claims as the roofs in Florida your premiums go up or in some cases they just fold up and and move on refusing to operate in your home state anymore.

Scam?
 

The insurance company sends out their adjuster once the roofing company says you need a new roof. If he says your roof is fine, case closed. In my case the adjuster said I didn’t need one and the roofing company called them back and after a second look the adjuster from Travelers Ins. Said he missed some bad shingles and I would get a new roof. It’s not free, you must pay the deductible.

After a roofing company told me I needed a new roof, My insurance company sent out an independent adjuster from Orlando who went over the roof live with my insurance adjuster remotely.