Tips on hiring contractors after a hurricane

The FTC posted a consumer alert on scammers posing as home repair contractors - they're everywhere, but have a knack for showing up in an area that's had a natural disaster. Since Hurricane Beryl is doing what it do in Texas, you might find this helpful if you need to find someone to fix your home - or the HOA needs work in the common areas. Good luck and God bless!

https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2024/07/protect-yourself-scams-you-recover-hurricane-beryl?utm_source=govdelivery

By the way, this is also helpful in case of tornadoes, wildfires, floods or whatever else Mother Nature dishes out.

Been there - done that. It's a very lucrative business for roofers. If you are lucky, they actually get the insurance settlement for a new roof and they do a decent job to replace the roof. Remember, you still have to pay the deductible. If you are not lucky, you can wait years for the case to wind it's way through the insurance company and the courts. You may get a partial settlement, or you may be stuck with a company that does sub-standard work. There's no free lunch.

Our previous board did an assignment of benefits after Hurricane Irma (before the much worse Ian). It took years. Then the roofer held onto our money for over a year before we finally got the new roof. He made a huge profit. The settlement was twice as much as the actual cost of the roof, and his costs for the attorney ate up some of that, but not a large portion.

It's been two years from Hurricane Ian. Many roofers who showed up here in the aftermath are going out of business, because most of the work has been done. They must have gone to other states, like Cathy's.

Sound advice.