Ever Filed an Insurance Roof Claim?

The last time our community replaced its roofs was about 18 years ago. I live in a townhouse community and tge roofs were coming to the end of its useful life, but our reserves were in bad shape and we were trying to figure out the best way to address it. We also knew we'd probably need a special assessment and we're looking at how to break the bad news to the homeowners.

In the end. Mother nature intervened with a hailstorm that affected a number of communities. Dome of our building had mild damage, some a lot more, and so our insurance company decided to replaced all of them in one shot. It may have taken about 6 months or so, from the storm to installation. Although we're currently in a similar situation, although our reserves are a little better. The board decided two years ago that assessments would be increased at the maximum 5% every year indefinitely so we could try to avoid special assessments. That was accompanied with a current reserve study and tge specialist made a presentation at our annual meeting. I'm sure not everyone was thrilled but numbers don't lie (although liars figure).

As for you, was that $5k per building or the entire community? Was the $500k based on the opinion you got from your own contractor? If so, did you make his/her inspection available to the insurance company when the claim was filed? Does this offer factor in a deductible the association would have to pay? Does the association have the money to cover the deductible? This is something that could come out of your reserves, so do you have a reserve fund? Has it been funded according to a reserve study? How old is that study - if over 5 years, you should have had a recent study done.

Those are some issues you may want to think about when you file your appeal- and you'll need to file one. I can't say how long it might take because insurance companies are getting more hard nosed about claims in light of storms becoming more vicious because of climate change. The community's regular inspection of the roofs might also be an issue and/or the policy no longer covers certain things but no one looked at it recently to see what those changes were. Good luck to you.

We are just now getting our roofs replaced on our two clubhouses after damage that was done in Hurricane Irma (2017). It is common for the insurance company to stall you as long as possible. Our three condo sub-associations also got new roofs from Irma. Two were done within the last few months, one is just getting their roof.

All three sub-associations had to hire attorneys to get more money. Every insurance company is going to low ball you. You used a public adjuster, which is great, but if they cannot get more money than that, you should probably hire an attorney who specializes in going after insurance companies.

Many HOAs here in Florida find that public adjusters get them part way there, but they need an attorney to get the rest of the money they are entitled to.

We put in a Hurricane Ian claim for $500,000 in damages (not roofs, since we were still in negotiation for our roofs from Irma) and we got an offer of $59,000 from our insurance company. We are now in negotiations between our attorney and theirs.

It is not a fast process at all, but worth it. You still will pay the deductible, but you paid all those premiums and the insurance company should pay up for real damage.

If you absolutely can't wait, one of our sub-associations got a loan from the SBA to help pay for their roofs while they were waiting for an insurance settlement. There may be funds out there to help you out.