Earlier this year, I wrote a series of blogs that started with a puddle on the floor. We filed a claim with our homeowners insurance company, and things got resolved. Next, the insurer wants us to fix our roof, even though their inspector said the roof was fine. Here is an update on what happens now.
Several months ago, we found a mysterious puddle on the floor. To make a long story, (that I’ve already blogged about), much shorter, we filed a claim with our homeowners insurance company. This led to an inspector coming to check out the damages, and to write us a check for repairs (minus the deductible). At that time, he said the roof was fine. He should know! Not only is he an inspector, he also climbed up onto the roof and walked around.
Shortly after that, the insurance company sent us a letter that said that they wanted us to repair our roof. The letter was worded in a way that implied that they might drop us, or raise the cost of our premiums, of the roof was not repaired. How, exactly, does one repair a roof that is not damaged?
Today, my husband called the insurer, and explained the situation. The insurance agent said she would make some phone calls, to see what was going on, and would call him back. A little while later, the agent called back. She said it looked like the letter was from the underwriters. The agent wants to see a copy of the letter, so my husband will be bringing it over there sometime tomorrow.
She also said the claims adjuster that originally handled the claim would call my husband as well. When he called back he verified that the letter came from the underwriters. He said that the claims department doesn’t deal with the underwriters, and that we would have to go through our insurance agent for that.
He also said that we probably got the letter because we actually filed two claims. One was for the puddle on the floor, and the other one was for a water leak in the closet in the same room. We did not need the insurance company to fix the closet, because we already had someone scheduled to come and do that for us. The claims adjuster recommended that we hire a local roofing contractor and have them do any repairs on the roof, or, if none are needed, to have them provide documentation that states it.
Image by Enrique Dans on Flickr