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Your insurance carrier wants to avoid extending coverage—that’s how they make their money. As a result, they will often identify obvious hail damage as faulty materials or installation, or everyday wear and tear, to justify the hail claim denial.
Let’s say your roof is damaged in a hail storm, so you call up your insurance company—only for them to tell you that the property damage isn’t hail damage at all, and isn’t covered under your insurance policy. Getting a second opinion from a licensed Public Adjuster on your denied hail claim can help you push back against the insurance carrier’s decision with photographic evidence and get a fair settlement to repair your roof.
Insurance carrier tactics like these are why hiring a Public Adjuster to represent your claim is the best way to ensure you get the insurance settlement you rightfully deserve.
It’s not uncommon for insurance adjusters to claim the hail damage to a roof’s shingles was actually caused by blistering. Shingles blister when poor ventilation or defective asphalt leads to small pockets of lost granules and exposed material.
When you compare a hail-damaged shingle to a blistering one, it’s easy to see how an untrained eye might have trouble telling the difference. This visual similarity is what allows insurance adjusters to take advantage of unknowing homeowners by claiming that their damaged roof was actually caused by blistering, not hail.
Thankfully, while an untrained homeowner may have trouble telling the difference between a hail-damaged or blistering shingle, Public Adjusters know exactly what to look for.
Blistering:
Hail Damage:
But why does all this matter? Because while many homeowners' insurance policies include coverage for hail damage, most don’t include coverage for blistering or wear and tear.
This means that determining the cause of the roof damage could be the difference between you being compensated for it or not.
Another common tactic used by insurance adjusters in hail claim denials is to say that the granule loss on your shingles was actually caused by normal wear and tear, not hail damage.
Granule loss might seem insignificant, but it can cause long-term damage if not properly addressed. Why does it matter whether the shingles’ granule loss was caused by hail or regular wear and tear? You guessed it, because insurance policies don’t usually cover granule damage caused by wear and tear over time.
Your insurance company might also try to claim that there wasn’t a significant enough weather event in your area to justify the damage to your roof, but this is usually easy to disprove with the help of local weather data and a 10x10 roof hail test.
A Public Adjuster will mark out a 10 ft x 10 ft square on your roof and conduct a comprehensive examination, documenting bruises, cracks, and missing shingle granules. The count within this square is then extrapolated to estimate the total damage to the roof. If the damage within the 100 sq ft area of the roof has a high density of impacts, it may necessitate a full roof replacement rather than isolated repairs.
Get a second opinion from an expert you can trust before taking the insurance adjuster’s word for it.
It’s important to remember that just because your damage is covered doesn’t mean your insurance company is automatically on the hook for the full cost of repairs.
Your policy document determines what your insurance company is liable for, and especially if you have an Actual Cash Value (ACV) policy or specific policy limits, you could receive maximum coverage, but it still might not fully cover the cost of repairs.
A Public Adjuster can help you read through your policy, understand your coverage, and advise you on the likely claim outcome based on the facts of the situation.
Don’t forget: Public Adjusters work for you, not your insurance company. We only get paid if, and when, you do, so our interests are aligned with yours. When it comes to getting an expert second opinion on your hail claim denial, hire a licensed Public Adjuster to represent you.
