Disputes with contractors can arise in various ways, including start date disputes, mediation, filing a complaint with the MHIC, finishing the work and sueing, talking to your trader, starting a formal complaints procedure, using an Alternative Dispute Resolution scheme, trying to recover costs, contacting Trading Standards, collecting evidence and claim costs, and going to court.
To resolve a contractor dispute, follow these steps:
Read your contract carefully; read it again; and then read it again. The contract should address significant aspects of the job, such as boundary lines and the quality of the work. If you’re in a dispute with your remodeling contractor and don’t know how to discuss it, you could face delays, added costs, and stress.
Hire a quality Building Inspection Expert Witness for cases involving property disputes, construction defects, and safety violations. Look for a construction litigation attorney in the Super Lawyers directory on matters related to contractor disputes.
Talk about the issue; discuss your concerns as soon as you become aware of them. Go to each group’s website to find details about local member inspectors’ experience and professional certifications, and the services they offer.
Find a quality, reputable, and trustworthy contractor. Good contractors bid fairly at the outset, and jobsite inspections are common and can be simplified by using construction software.
Take stock of what has been done and what remains, make a list of what needs to be received to consider the job complete, contact an attorney, ask for references, and follow up by checking with them. Ask the contractor for proof of insurance, and check the Better Business Bureau website for complaints.
In summary, if you’re dealing with a contractor dispute, follow these steps:
- Read your contract carefully;
- Talk to your trader;
- Start a formal complaints procedure;
- Contact a construction litigation attorney;
- Ask for references and follow up with them.
📹 4 Ways to Negotiate Repairs After an Inspection – How to handle repairs and avoid disputes
Looking to buy or sell a property? Learn about all the ways you can negotiate repairs during a real estate transaction. From asking …
What is construction inspection?
A construction site inspection is a crucial process that involves reviewing project plans, specifications, contractor walk-throughs, and schedules. It also identifies safety hazards and potential code violations. The process is divided into three stages: pre-inspection, where the site manager assesses the site and develops a plan of action; during construction, regular inspections are conducted to ensure work is carried out according to the plan; and post-construction, a final inspection is conducted to ensure the site meets all required standards.
What is the difference between site audit and site inspection?
Safety inspections and audits are two types of safety assessments that focus on different areas. Inspections identify workplace hazards, while audits evaluate the processes a company uses to prevent them. Audits measure the effectiveness of a safety management system or risk assessments, while inspections focus on the performance of machine guards. An inspection may address issues like inadequate equipment protection, while an audit evaluates the effectiveness of a safety management system.
What is the inspection checklist?
An inspection checklist is a comprehensive list of activities required during inspections to ensure compliance with regulatory, industry, or maintenance standards. It assures that a specific part of an asset has been properly inspected or assesses the compliance of a process, procedure, equipment, or facility with industry, governmental, or internal company standards. An inspection checklist is a crucial tool for inspectors and professionals across various industries and businesses, ensuring a detailed and documented evaluation of the object of inspection.
What is the independent inspector?
An Independent Inspector is a licensed person who performs sampling, quality analysis, and quantity determination of a product. They are a qualified third-party petroleum inspection contractor. The seller is responsible for recording and retaining this data for five years from the date of delivery of the product to the buyer. BKRF must participate and cooperate in volume determinations, and if requested by Vitol, they must work with Vitol’s agents, including any Independent Inspector.
How do I write a letter of request for inspection?
The sender is requesting an inspection of the ordered item at a specified address prior to a specified date. The request is presented as an invitation letter and allows the sender to contact the recipient at the specified contact number.
What are the 7 steps of inspection process?
The Vehicle Inspection Guide outlines the steps to inspect a vehicle, starting with an overview and reviewing the last inspection report. It then focuses on checking the engine compartment, starting the engine, inspecting the cabin, turning off the engine, checking lights, conducting a walk-around, checking signal lights, and finally starting the engine. Safety is the primary reason for inspecting a vehicle, as defects found during an inspection can prevent costly breakdowns or crashes. Federal and state laws mandate inspections, and if deemed unsafe, the vehicle will be put out of service until fixed.
What is independent inspection?
Independent inspection is a method of identifying errors through the assessment of a task conducted by an authorized individual by a qualified individual. This assessment considers various factors, including:
What are the three types of inspections conducted?
Nadeem Ahmed discusses the three most common types of quality inspections buyers can use to check the quality of their suppliers’ products: Pre-Production Inspection, During Production Inspection, and Final Random Inspection. Inspections involve checking products based on pre-established checklists, and can include components used for production, semi-finished goods, or finished goods before shipment to a customer. While checking quality only at the end of production is risky, buyers can avoid waiting until everything is done.
When to do a site inspection?
Construction site inspections are crucial for ensuring quality and safety procedures are followed from the start, as construction projects involve coordinating multiple team members, materials, and equipment, exposing contractors to potential risks and hazards. Routine inspections are necessary throughout the project lifecycle to ensure compliance with project requirements. A construction site inspection checklist is essential in the planning phase, as it ascertains compliance with project requirements.
Once the project has broken ground, progress inspections become part of the job site’s daily routine to guarantee these requirements are met. Depending on the project size, progress inspections may be conducted by one or more individuals across various trades. If a specific aspect of the project requires additional input, specialist inspectors may be brought in to perform inspections on environmental policy, waste management plan, and accessibility.
What is request for inspection?
A request for inspection occurs when one party requests to investigate the other’s property or object, such as a company’s data center after a data breach or during an audit to ensure regulatory compliance. These requests are essential for discovery and eDiscovery, as they save time during court, ensure a fair trial, and prevent unreasonable or surprise requests from parties. They also help prevent parties from issuing unreasonable or surprise requests.
What are the 4 inspection techniques?
Quality control is a set of procedures that organizations undertake to ensure their products conform to the required standard of quality. There are four types of quality inspections: Pre-Production Inspection (PPI), During Production Inspection (DPI), Pre-Shipment Inspection (PSI), and Container Loading/Unloading Inspections. Each type has its own purpose in quality control and supply chain management.
PPI is conducted before the production process begins, assessing the quantity and quality of raw materials and components and whether they conform to relevant product specifications. It is beneficial when working with a new supplier, especially if the project is a large contract with critical delivery dates. This inspection can help reduce or eliminate communication between the organization and the supplier on issues regarding production timelines, shipping dates, and quality expectations.
During Production Inspection (DPI) is a quality control inspection conducted while production is underway, particularly useful for products in continuous production with strict requirements or when quality issues have been found prior to manufacturing during an earlier PPI. It takes place when only 10-15 units are completed so that deviations can be identified, feedback given, and defects can be re-checked to confirm they have been corrected. It also provides early detection of any issues requiring correction, thereby reducing delays and rework.
PSI is an important step in the quality control process, checking the quality of goods before they are shipped. It ensures that production complies with the specifications of the buyer. It is conducted on finished products when at least 80 of the order has been packed for shipping.
Container Loading/Loading Supervision (LS) ensures that products are loaded and unloaded correctly. Inspectors supervise the whole process and ensure professional handling to guarantee their safe arrival at their final destination.
Piece-by-Piece Inspections are another procedure that involves checking each and every item to evaluate a range of variables including general appearance, workmanship, function, and safety. This inspection process can be carried out either before or after packaging inspection.
HQTS is a third-party inspection company with over 25 years of experience in quality assurance, offering assistance in conducting any of the above-mentioned types of inspections virtually anywhere in the world. Contact them today to find out how they can help you conduct quality control effectively.
📹 Roofer proves statefarm inspector wrong.
Roofer proves statefarm inspector wrong! This is not my video, just interesting to watch. I own a home inspection business called …
When I sold a house I had built the bank required their home inspector come out and do a detailed inspection. He said the septic tank was full, and no electric to the blades to shred up the waste. I designed and built that soar powered unit. It ran off solar power. He stated that the shake shingles were old, and he too much moss on them. The roof was built out of 1/4 inch steel that was coated to look like shake shingles. Once we proved he didn’t even get on the roof, he claimed the structure was too weak to hold up the weight of the metal roof. The superstructure of the roof was made out of I beams and 3X3X0.375 angle iron. He recommended the bank not finance the home since it was built of very large stone, and steel. The bank manager came out and she OK’d the loan. The fly by night inspectors like this guy cause so much more trouble then the solve.
I remember when I had to have my roof looked at, my roofer said, “do NOT let the adjuster on your roof without me being there. It is your home, you tell them they do not have permission to go up without me.” And boy was I glad I took his advice. I saw and heard him pointing out things that the adjuster was overlooking. He wanted to only approve a repair job but my roofer wasn’t having it. Got a full roof replacement by the end of it. Insurance even sent out a second adjuster. I called my roofer and told him another adjuster was sent out and within 5 minutes my roofer was at my house with his tools and the adjuster wasn’t happy that I made him wait.
Just so everyone knows, this is precisely the conversation that happens between physicians and insurance companies every day when physicians try to treat patients. I have had multiple interactions where insurance adjusters have said “x&x is not the right treatment.” My response is usually “Ok, here’s their file, you prescribe them the correct meds”. They inevitably say, “No, we’re just insurance, we can’t do that…. etc”. By denying someone’s claim, you are doing just that: practicing medicine. Absolute worst part of my job.
I inspected many 2/3/4 ply roofs back when I worked at an engineering/consulting firm… Never would I ever instruct a roofer how to do their job. My job was simply inspect the quality of the installation and if a saw something where it wasn’t up to the installation practice, I would politely ask them to patch it and move on. What this guy is doing is infuriating, he has no clue what the hell he wants and is not listening to an expert…. he should be a politician
As a manufacturer of pneumatic punch presses I can’t begin to tell you how many times I got calls from OSHA inspectors who were young kids with absolutely no experience and with no knowledge as to how the machines even worked and yet they could ruin your life. I used to ask them a technical question about a control system, etc. Of course, just like this guy, they had no clue. I would simply embarrass the crap out of them and tell them come back when the knew what they were talking about. Never heard from them again.
My buddy is a roofer with 15 years experience. He has had enough experiences like this that now anytime he hears the word adjustor he turns on cameras. He films every second of every encounter and it has both saved and caused a lot of headache. His brother is a glazier and has the same issues with insurance adjustors on windows and such.
I’ve been dealing with insurance adjusters like this for 30 years. Many are extremely uneducated and uninformed about anything related to construction. After years of this nonsense of dealing with such ignorance like that shown in this article, we ask their manager to make a site visit. If it’s a legitimate claim, it’s usually approved by someone who is knowledgeable about construction. However, if they sent this article to this guys manager I’m willing to bet the claim was covered site unseen by the insurance Co in order to avoid embarrassment… Ridiculous.
I have a steel roof and several years ago it got hail damage! I climbed up to my porch and the roof looked like someone hit it thousands of times with a ball peen hammer! Insurance guy came out and from the ground he said I don’t see any damage! I told him to take his happy ass back to his car and get his ladder! He said he didn’t need to so looked at him and said that’s fine give me your supervisors name and number! He got the ladder! Totally replaced the roof!
All State is worse than this guy.. we had an inspector who didn’t want to get on the roof because he didn’t have the right footwear and wanted to do an inspection from the ground and we were denied a new roof with clear damage to the roof once we got a attorney and two independent roofers to come out and then showed Allstate proof from my neighbors camera that the roofer refused to get on the roof and we had audio they sent out another inspector and we were approved for a new roof after consistent wind damage. Once we had our new roof on we switched Hallmark insurance because, Allstate are not good at all
Something like this happened while me and my crew were installing a fence for a company, and some big bad landscaper boss thought he could change all the plans and measurements on us and got the owners of the property on board with it, and when we did it their way they were surprised and not happy that it didn’t turn out how it should have lol
Just went through this with AAA insurance trying to deny me a leak flood coverage in a bathroom. Tried to say the leak was from bad construction when the house was built in 1998. Said it wasn’t up to “current” code. No shit the code was different in 1998. After getting the supervisor involved, and reading my claim word for word to these idiots, they agreed to cover it. All inspect was done virtually with photos, and was piss poor. Little did the “inspector” know that I have someone that is a field inspector and adjuster with AAA, (yes the same company) who not only said the claim should be covered but her written estimate was double what my adjusted had estimated. Adjuster wasn’t having any of it and sent out a AAA contractor to estimate it. His estimate was $400 less then my friends. Needless to say they paid but it took four months and lots of arguing. Thing was if I wasn’t knowledgeable, and had a friend that worked for AAA, and knew how to do claim inspections, I would have been screwed or needed a lawyer. After talking to my friend at AAA she was kind of shock at what was going on, and based on my reps estimate and paperwork came to the conclusion she was either new, stupid, or very inexperienced. AAA in my old state of CA was great never an issue. I had one claim in 20 year, wind damage to two cars, didn’t question a thing and paid. My new state this one experience has left a bad taste in my mouth. How can the same company in two different states be so different? Kind of make you wonder.
I once had a city inspector inspect my 4 unit building and he determined that the 70 year old wood frame windows needed to be properly repaired so that you could not hear the sound of a window rattle with opening and closing it. These were numerous 2×4 foot windows that opened inward. The inspector told me the glass on the frames were not locked in solid and thus created a rattle and thus was’nt providing a proper seal against the exterior elements. I asked the inspector to show me one window glass payne that he could point to that was loose, and he could not, and yet he still wrote it up as a deficiency that needed repair. I informed the inspector that every window in my building is held on by window tacks, sealed with window glaze, and then primed and painted for a seal against moisture. I told the inspector that I would replace every window glass on the frames that he pointed out to me were loose. The inspector simply ignored me. When I got mailed a deficiency report by the city with a time limit of 30 days to repair. I complained to the city of the inspector’s unwillingness to point out or even listen to my urging him to point out exactly what he thought was wrong with the window. The end result was the city sending out a different inspector to see about my complaint. The 2nd inspector was beside himself in disbelief that the first inspector viewed the sound of window frames with glass paynes in them opening into the house as deficiencies. As the first inspector has written up every room in the building with windown in them as a deficiency, the 2nd inspector inspected only one of the rooms and determined that the windows were perfectly fine.
I am a 33 year old man who has only done three jobs in my whole life. Roofing (14-20) military (20-27) and maintenance (27-33) and I can say without a doubt the roofer is 100% right. Just looking at the roof is enough to show massive issues. Granules are coming off, many wind creases, and there a few “nail pops” which is when a nail starts backing out of the roof due to too much heat build up in the attic. You can see them if you look at the roof straight from the ground. I always used a flat bar to remove shingles because its longer and don’t have the curve. Also the ridge cap where the dormer transitions to the main roof shows hail damage like crazy. Look close and you’ll see small spots of missing granules from the hail hitting it.
He does not care about actually repairing that roof. He just wants you to understand that he is there to tell you the many different ways that he is going to find to insure that the bought and paid for insurance will not be covering the repairs that you purchased the insurance to cover. Its a racket. Nice to know to not get State Farm. Thank you Mr. insurance Man for being so thoughtful and informative as to the quality of your insurance coverage.
I was an independent insurance adjuster for 10 years. I was also a HAAG roofing inspector during that time. That inspector is embarrassed and intimidated. Not physically intimidated but intimidated by the roofer’s superior knowledge. When I first began I knew nothing, difference is I kept my mouth shut I learned. I didn’t choose a losing battle like this one to die on that hill. The inspector NEEDS to go take a HAAG course and retrain
Not a roofer myself, im in the youtube comment business for the last 15 years and i got to say i have no idea why this article was suggested to me, but seeing someone who knows what they are talking about (roofer) put someone in their place (state farm dirtbag) without being aggressive or rude is worth perusal
As a former State Farm customer, I had two serious softball sized hail storms within 2 years of each other. First one they paid for a new roof. Two years later a second softball size hail storm came through. I asked my agent if I should turn it into insurance because the brand new roof was a disaster, and she said yes. I asked multiple times if turning it in would get me canceled and she assured me it wouldn’t. They paid out on the roof, within 2 months they sent me a cancelation notice. Long story short I switched ALL of my insurance to a different company and they lost a multi-generational customer for life.
It doesnt matter whether its health insurance, home insurance, car insurance, etc. The companies are there to make money and find any loophole (or make a new one up) in order to screw the customer over. Here they have a guy who has zero experience in roofing making a decision on whether theyll cover the cost. This time they had a roofer who fought back and knows what hes doing. What happens if its a roofer who doesnt question the guy or the insurance guy doesnt make a comment but still scews the customer over. These insurance companies make me sick. Theyll do anything not to cover it. I work in plumbing and see it on a daily basis.
To any professional tradesmen who might read this; thank you for helping us keep our homes intact and in working order. Thank you for making the world a more beautiful and more functional place to live. Unlike these slimy desk jockeys who slither out from their offices on field trips to swindle the people they’re supposed to be serving and defraud the actual professionals doing honest work. One thing is clear, insurance companies exist to serve themselves and no one else.
I had a roofing company (now retired) and I can assure you this: NO INSURANCE COMPANY IS ANYBODY’S FRIEND!!! Most of the time, THIS is the type of INSPECTOR you get, DOES NOT KNOW CRAP except HOW TO RIP OFF THE HOMEOWNER!!! In order to fight this kind of treatment I created a 20 page report with photographs that could be used over and over again. As a result, I never lost another repair job. BTW, the best policy is a REPLACEMENT POLICY! Costs a little more but worth it!
The contractor handled this interaction with this insurance adjuster perfectly. Unfortunately contractors have to deal with this kind of nonsense from city inspectors quite often. Half the time those who come out to perform the inspections have never actually done the jobs they come out to inspect. Been there myself.
I’ve worked with many inspectors in my trade as an electrician. That said, I’d absolutely back these roofers for their passion and their knowledge. How in the holy goodness of heaven and earth, can an inspector come to a job wherein he has no experience or knowledge of the trade? This is dangerous and unacceptable folks. Good job to these roofers for not completely losing it.
I’m glad I haven’t had to deal with hardly any insurance claims in my life. For the huge amounts of money I pay them every month I’m always amazed by what is and isn’t covered. I’m also amazed by how dishonest or unaccountable people can be. One month ago my neighbor had a palate of roofing materials delivered in front of his house, and the guys delivering it drove their fork truck over the brick walkway in front of MY place, breaking my step. Did my neighbor knock on mg door and apologize? No. Did the deliver guys? No. I only knew because another neighbor of mine saw it happen. Now the neighbor who did it is not responding to me, my HOA isn’t doing anything, and I’ve been told to just file a police report or insurance claim. But it wouldn’t be a very expensive repair, and I just don’t want to go through all of that crap. It’s just unbelievable to me how blatantly unaccountable or dishonest people can be. They are basic principles you should have learned when you were 4 years old, like picking up your toys after you’re done or being nice to others.
He’s not an inspector but he is there to deny. I just went though an “inspection” to terminate my insurance if certain conditions were t corrected. 1. My roof. I concur 2. Branch too close to house. I concur. 3. Honeysuckle on the corner of the house causing structural damage. Do not concur 4. Various small trees and brush around uninsured detached sheds. Do not concur. 5. Neighbors trees (huge and old) could fall and hit my insured garage. Recommended “trimming” the branches that over hung the building. My garage is 28 feet long. If a tree over 100 feet falls on my garage how far away from the building would the tree have to be before it hit my building. The tree is approximately ten feet away. If that tree fell it would extend at least 50 feet past my garage. In other words they know the isn’t a snowball’s chance in heck that I’m going to get my neighbor to cut that big healthy tree down. The list goes on like some HOA run amuck. If I wanted a homeowners association I would have bought a house at the golf course. What this boiled down to is blackmail. Our policy was up for renewal July 1st. It was the 8th before they renewed us. They knew they had us by the stones and promptly raised our premium. We have been with State Farm for over 30 years with no claims. By letting our policy lapse by 8 days it was an excuse to change our premium. Nothing but crooks trained to say no and deny then steal your money.
This reminds me of the time a home builders architect drew the blueprints with an upstairs bathroom door being under the valley of the roof. We told him there wasn’t room for the height of the door. He refused to believe it and said build it the way its planned. So we did. If your ever in Blue Springs Missouri and you see a weird looking roof . I did it.
Allstate screwed us in a similar way. They sent an inspector out when we weren’t home, told us our roof needed repair but wouldn’t say what was wrong with it. We had a roofer come out and replace some shingles and nail down others that were loose. Allstate looked at it again, told us it wasn’t fixed then canceled our policy.
Had this same thing happen here in Florida. My adjuster kept at it and we ended up with a re-roof settlement and didn’t owe any deductible. Insurance companies are snakes. Florida insurance companies are going under because they spend so much in litigation to try to fight people instead of repairing what they insure.
This happened to us after a wind storm.. while we were trying to get that claim finished, we had another gigantic storm that did even more damage a couple of months later. We finally had to call in an outside auditor to argue on our behalf with the insurance company. It was a disaster, but we won; roof was completely replaced.
This is why I’ve always said that inspectors ought to be required to have at least 10 years experience in the work their inspecting to discourage punks like this inspector from going in and fudging an inspection for some easy pay. Not only did they not know the proper procedure for the work they were inspecting, but they refused to learn any of it as well. And being a guy who’s been a remodel worker, painter, carpenter, roofer, plumber, and general all around mr. Fix it since I was around 14, I know the blood, sweat, and tears that go into that kinda work. It’s not easy having to go back and redo that kinda work. It’s not cheap either. Quite honestly the inspection process more often than not seems like a gimmick to make money off the people doing real work. Instead they wanna run around pointing their fingers and flap their gums about it.
This is a great example of why I charge more for insurance work then what I charge for homeowner work. Insurance companies are always looking to pay as little as possible, which means the homeowner or contractor gets screwed. Best part is when the adjuster says he doesn’t do a brittle test, then follows up by saying he is there to check the plyability of the shingles. Last I checked, thats a brittle test.
2 years after I had new roof installed we had golf ball hail from a tornado that just missed us. The insurance rep came out and said just a few shingles needed replacement. I had the company who originally installed it come out and take a look. This company had a great reputation and the foreman knew his work which was why I selected them in the first place. He found all kinds of other damage and marked it all on the roof. Insurance company came back out and verified that he was right and then they paid for the new roof. I’m not normally a confrontational guy but you have to be when it comes to insurance claims otherwise they will take advantage of you.
I’ve been an independent insurance agent owning my own agency for over 47 years. This article is too often typical. The way this is being handled by the inspector is bad for the insured, roofer and inevitably State Farm. Let the roofer do his job. Pay for the incidental damage that was necessary to make the roof as it was immediately before the damage occurred. If you can’t do that, pay for a new roof. That’s what we have done it. Shame on State Farm.
Thank God I have seen this article, thanks guys for sharing. I just got homeowners insurance with Statefarm and I mentioned that I might need a new roof in about a year. The representative told me to make sure that all the shingles were repaired the right way before inspection of statefarm in order to even have them look at the roof. After perusal this article, I have repaired a few of the shingles and you can not help but fold the shingle up to replace and repair. You are absolutely right I was having a very difficult time trying to not bend the shingle. Wow, long story short, I will be cancelling my statefarm policy for auto and home — I got the same freaking spill a couple of weeks ago. Done, thank you guys for putting this out and sharing and allowing us the consumer to avoid major headaches with this insurance company and other companies. Great job.
Most roofers are honest and will repair what is needed. The adjuster that has no experience in roofing is telling the roofer he crimped the shingle, but he has no experience in repairing the roof. The roofer should give his estimate based on his experience to the owner/Insurance company and let them sort it out.
I’ve worked with State Farm as an IA (independent adjuster) and I see this happen on a DAILY basis, MULTIPLE times a day and then when someone, like myself, says there is damage happening or there was damage that we missed during the initial inspection and they have to pay for a TRR (total roof replacement), then I get looked at up and down by all kinds of team managers, vendor managers, sections managers so they can find a way to get rid of me 😂. They get rid of all kinds of adjusters doing this and they NFA (No Future Assign) them. More people need to get their CTR (contractor) and estimate FIRST before calling state farm and then if state farm tries to deny or do this repair crap, contact your AO (agents office), get a PA (public adjuster) with an Attorney in office, get an appraiser and go to appraisal, and if that fails hire a sole Attorney. Hope this helps, tired of what state farm is doing to these poor people, nickel and diming them but making them pay thousands a month for insurance, smh.
“Your doing it wrong” “So how do I do it right?” “I’m not a roofer.” So how the heck do you know he is doing it wrong, or who the heck created the policy that states it is wrong? Pretty sure they weren’t a roofer either. With that stupid tool, it seems pretty much impossible to pull a nail without bending the shingle… a flatbar could do it no problem, but they want you to use that thing and expect you to not bend the shingle?
20 Years as an OHS professional. The one thing I NEVER did was a tell a tradesperson that either they were doing it wrong, or how they should do it. A respectful person asks questions and encourages trades people to ensure they are doing their best work and working to the standard of the job site. This guy is just a condescending ass-hat. He has no idea how to do the job, but he wants them to think he is an expert. As a result he is being exposed.
This reminds me alot of how cluless execs in any buisiness are when making policies about things they’ve never done or had to do. Then when faced with a smart, underpaid employees logic that undermines and shows how horrible their policy is, they pretend it is still correct to the bitter end to avoid having to be adult and admit the one in the fancy five-thousand dollar suit just made a stupid decision.
I’m so glad yall posted this. After 2 hurricanes we had to find tooth and nail with different insurance companies. Our roof took damage and needed to be replace and our agent (from up north) said that he needed more “evidence” of damage after our roofer picked up a shingle that had been blown off and handed it to the agent.
I had a job doing something I hated and didnt fully believe in, it made me seriously depressed and I finally had to leave, I cant imagine any insurance agent enjoying this and having to tell people that obvious damage and things wont be covered because youre bosses boss is telling you to not allow people some help
Is it just me or does this insurance “inspector” remind anyone else of many of the political “leaders” we have these days? They themselves don’t know how to do it, and can’t tell others how to do things right, but they have no problem telling them that they’re doing it wrong. And yet still they claim to know what they’re doing.
State Farm: “You’re doing it wrong ” Roofer: “Then how do you do it?” State Farm “I’m not here to tell you how to do your job.” Always get a public adjuster when putting in a homeowners claim. During hurricane Sandy I have a tree fall on my roof, putting a hole in it, then it rolled down the side of the house destroying the siding and damaging the front door. This happened in the very beginning of the storm so I was able to get an emergency repair to minimize the amount of water getting into the house throughout the storm which saved the interior from getting destroyed but most of the attic insulation was still soaked. Not only did they want to give me $3500 to do all the repairs they also refused to reimburse me for the emergency repair, which my insurance agent suggested, gave me the company’s number and said would be covered. After I got a public adjuster involved my insurance check went from $3,500 to $16,700 plus they paid for the emergency repair. That was after the adjusters cut of 10% so he got me an additional $13,200 + the ~$500 for the emergency repair so he got me roughly 5x what the insurance company tried giving me which allowed me to have everything fixed correctly. None of that “OK, we will cover 1/6th of your shingles but only 1/8th of the sheathing, only 3 strips of siding, you can patch that door frame. It doesn’t need to be replaced. Oh, and that insulation will just dry out. Don’t worry, it won’t mold ” garbage they like to pull.
I had a building inspector condemn my wiring on a ceiling replacement, saying the whole house would need rewiring. The system I used to join cables was fully certified in the UK. He was adamant, so I got the company who supplied the connector boxes to contact the Building dept. to prove my case. The supplier phoned me back and said the Building Dept.wasn’t up to speed with new regulations. ..well done for standing your ground with the “clipboard experts”
Just finally got my roof replaced after going rounds with State Farm. Immediately denied after weather report showed strong winds for 5 days straight, they tried everything to deny claim. Thank God for my security cameras adjuster came out when nobody was home and was gone in 8 mins never even got on the roof or took a ladder out to look. He denied over and over until footage was sent to main office. Second adjuster came out after setting time to meet with roofer came an hour early and left before he arrived. Rescheduled again only this time roofer was 2 hrs early before appointment and went step by step proving her wrong. The claim representative denied the claim 3 times before even seeing a picture finally in the end they issued payment for 60% which was better than nothing but I’m definitely looking for another insurance company now that I replaced my entire roof. Crooks!
I have a 20 yr old house here in north Texas, with an insurance-appraised replacement value of +3MM. Travelers is my home owners insurance carrier (as well as for my 5 autos plus a $2MM umbrella liability policy)… after 3 yrs of multiple serious hail events, the traveling horde of roofing contractors descended upon north Texas. I avoided them like the plague they are and after a few years and having notice a few shingle remnants whilst doing yard work, I sought out a local, licensed and reputable roofing contractor, to inspect the roof of my 6k sq ft home. Of course, I had substantial hail damage, which they thoroughly documented, along with an estimate for replacement, submitted to my carrier. The carrier sent an inspector who preceded to lowball the claim level by more than 50% – $35k vs $75k… had to engage an engineering firm to represent my claim upon which they sent their own engineering consultant… went through 2 cycles of this engineering SME debate, lasting more than 4 months, upon which after suggesting to my claim adjuster that I was prepared to both engage an Atty as well as go to the press, they immediately agreed to almost $100k in total repairs to fix hail damage to roof, gutters, fencing and out door kitchen and pool house. Insurance is a sleazy business.
I’ll never forget the time we had a severe hailstorm in our area. I didn’t realize our roof was damaged until several of our neighbors filed claims and had their roofs replaced. Finally I had a roofer come out and inspect our roof. He said we had pretty bad damage and needed a new roof, so I took the estimate to State Farm and they denied the claim. Apparently they had too many other claims in the area already and were trying to cut their losses. I had to go to arbitration to see if we could get what we had been paying for. Unfortunately, the arbitration judge was apparently on State Farm’s payroll, so you can guess how that turned out.
So, is the roofer the guy knelt down? I assume the guy standing is an insurance inspector. If I’m mistaken, please correct me. The way this inspector speaks to the roofer reminds me of when I worked for a floor coverer, in the ’80s. He was about the same age as this roofer and had the same mannerisms. We ran into lots of know-it-all customers, who knew piss all. But my boss was a calm guy and only walked out on two jobs, like this. When he’d get into it, with these idiot customers, it’d be all I could do to keep from busting out laughing. When I was able, I’d usually go outside. I’d wait until we were sitting out in the van, before I’d roar with laughter (his mood permitting, that is–a few times it wasn’t, ha!). That was when I was 19 and he was 34. Now I’m 59 and he is 74. It boggles the mind where the time went, as I remember those days as if they were yesterday.
They did this to our roof when we had storm damage a couple of years ago. Roofer said we didn’t need a new cap across the top when it was damaged by high winds. They would pay for the damage on the slant that was caused by the wind but the cap was not damaged by the wind. We had a picture a from a few days before that showed no damage.
This was amazing to watch, we had wind damage to our roof and a very similar interaction via our insurance (same company) assessor and our roofer, thanks to us threatening legal action and with the help of our broker, we got the insurance to send another assessor who worked with the roofer to actually assess the damage. I heard the first assessor was an outside contractor and there has been a number of issues with this type of thing going on. If you don’t hold your ground with these guys they will walk all over you.
I had the same exact thing. I wound up going up on my roof myself and replacing about 15 shingles myself. Luckily they were the black so they blended in but I had the same wind damage and they gave me an estimate repair of $700. They said my roof was fine. Dangerous job for an old man. But I did it. Next time I will call you guys.
This shows that insurance companies who go through any lengths to deny a claim. Even say a roofer is doing it wrong while at the same time admitting that they don’t know how to do it at all. You also notice he says he’s not a roof expert but a policy expert. Why would they send a policy expert unless they’re looking for any reason to deny claim even with what’s in the fine print. U know he builds himself as a rood expert until he runs into a real one.
My SF agent told me recently that they only replace the damaged shingles when there is damage from a hailstorm or other cause. They will no longer replace the entire roof when much of it is damaged. They don’t care that the roof appearance and color is no longer consistent. I saw this first hand in another city where SF only replaced the damaged section while other insurance companies replaced next-door neighbors’ entire roofs. Yes it’s a rip off! I’ve been a SF customer for over 40 years (multiple homes over the years). Years ago, SF replaced my entire roof following a hail storm. My agent commented that I was getting a free roof while he was having to pay for his since he had no damage. Strangely, the roofer let it slip that he was also replacing the agent’s roof and it was being paid for by SF!
I am a General Contractor that specializes in insurance repairs and have dealt with insurance Adjusters for over 25 years, luckily most Adjusters aren’t like this guy and most do respect us as professionals and allow us to do our jobs our way. But, I have definitely come across these types of inspectors/Adjusters and had to put them in their place.
My brother and I were roofing before we were in high-school, for my dad’s construction company. Then after graduating and going into the military, we’d still do roofing jobs when we were in the country on leave. There’s absolutely no other way to remove a shingle, from a roof without ripping it off other than how this guy was doing it in this article.
As a SF adjuster, it’s extremely difficult for us to get approval for a total roof replacement based on repairability alone. But just do to it being a 3 tab shingle looking abt 15-20yrs old, id just go for a shingle matching test bc it would most likely reveal the shingle is discontinued (which would make easy to get a TRR approved). PSA, 99% of ctrs are going to tell you(the customer) that a TRR is warranted regardless of its condition.
To be fair, last year we had a State Farm claims adjuster look at our roof after two roofers had informed us that we had hail damage. The SF guy went on the roof, looked around for several minutes, came down the ladder. looked at me and said, “Yup, you got damage. I’ll have the papers filled out and your first check by the end of the day.” By the end of the day, he came back, took the time to explain the process of how the claim would go, gave me extra copies of the paperwork with explanations and my first check. I was pleasantly surprised because my experiences before then were that dealing with insurance claims was like trying to get a refund from the IRS. I’m not shilling for SF. Just saying that it must’ve been my lucky day to get an honest claims adjustor.
That roofer is not only an excellent tradesman but an excellent human. He was calm polite and reserved when in the presence of a total idiot. The insurance company never sent a competent trained person to asses the fault. Insurance companies like banks are your friend who give you an umbrella when the sun shines and want it back when it rains !
State Farm came to inspect my roof after a hellacious storm and I was dreading it. My roofer was already there, on the roof ready to intervene on my behalf. She got out of the car and hollered up to him, “How’s it look?”. He yelled back, “like crap!”. They spoke some more and she told him to snap some pics and send them to her and she’d authorize a complete tear off and reroof. I couldn’t believe it, the whole exchange took less than 10 minutes. My roofer said he’s dealt with her a lot and apparently she trusts his judgement?
insurance companies send their guy to deny thats their modus operandi i had exactly the same situation except it was plasterboard that was water damaged in my home a plasterer for 25 years being told my ceiling was not water damaged when i he climbed out of my roof cavity and proceeded to tell me the damage was not caused by water i asked his trade he was a panel beater they refused my claim i cut out a 3 foot by 3 foot piece of that ceiling and sent it to them with a cancellation notice and fixed myself, after a couple of days they rang me i then cancelled 10 more policies they asked what they could do to resolve the issue, i said dont ever contact me again
I used to do roofing in SA Australia if the inspector rocked up and nobody had safety harnesses on the entire site would have been shut down. In saying that my boss would give them a way worse time because 90 percent of the building inspectors don’t even know how to build they just read and learn from other builders giving them crap all the time
Okay, I’m playing devil’s advocate. You CAN know a lot of wrong ways to do something without knowing the right way to do it. That is entirely possibile, and that is part of the policy inspector’s job; to know when things are being done wrong. It is not his job to teach or tell or show people how to do it right. Can you imagine all the free training he’d have to dole out to every roofer feigning ignorance, or actually being ignorant, if it WERE his job to instruct people in the right way? Not feasible at all. It’s the roofer’s job to know the right way, and it’s the policy inspector’s job to know the wrong way. Now, the inspector may have been USING that situation to deny the claim out of hand, but he’s not going to get in trouble for it because he’s using the professional tools at his disposal and not going beyond his mandate. It’ll come down to one opinion versus another, and the insurance company’s opinion will probably win our.
Something like that wouldn’t be possible here in austria. To be an Inspector for any trade you have to be a verified professional in that exact trade. Just like you can’t just open an electrician business since it’s what we call a regulated business. That means before you’re permitted to go into business in that trade you need proper training and pass specific exams to get that permission. If everyone can to everything, of course you end up with no standards. Like in this case you get professional workers and an incompetent Inspector. To be an Inspector he has to be able to do all of that by himself without any issues. If he can’t he’s just a joke
Just another insurance company trying not to pay for damages incurred. My house is 11 years old, and my insurance company sent out a roofing company and determined the roof was in excellent shape, but the shingles we’re finished by wind damage. Within two weeks, the entire roof was replaced and paid by the insurance company. The insurance company didn’t send a stupid insurance inspector out to view the damage. I feel bad for the home owner to have to go through this BS with State Farm insurance.
I worked for a roofing company for about 6 months when I was about 19 years old. Once in awhile they used me to carry the materials to the roof. That was the roughest job I ever did. I remember the owner saw me with holes in my clothes and I said this is the toughest job I ever had. He said looks like you need some new clothes and he said I need a pay raise. He gave me a pay raise on the spot 😀
37 years as a roofer, and I’ve seen this and worse all my life. Inspectors for the insurance companies should only be handled by experts in the field, with a minimum of 10 years experience roofing! This should apply to all fields. We’ve had so many runaround’s with insurance companies finding anyway they can to deny a legitimate claim!
As an haag certfied adjuster myself I am deeply embarrassed by this article. This adjuster and those like him are the bane of my existence. These situations are why noone trusts us to do our job. If you are an inspector please spend some time perusal the most honest reputable contractors you know do their job. Roof, siding, windows, trim, and interior work. It is your job to understand what it takes to do the job right. This guy was a clown with no clues yet made spot statements on article that were just stupid. If he has been on the job for more than a month I would be surprised. If he lasts more than another month I would be more surprised unless someone actually training him how to shut up and do his job.
It’s funny, when we had a severe hail storm come through last year, within days there were roofers coming around looking to check your roof out. My neighbor and I happened to be talking out front. The roofing guy wanted to climb on our house / roof and look for damage but before he would, he asked us “what home owners insurance do you have ???” I told him I had USAA and my neighbor said “State Farm”. The guy said he’d check my roof out and if there’s damage, could get me a new roof. But he said he wouldn’t even waste his time looking at my neighbors because he refuses to work with State Farm. He said they’re impossible to work with and will refute all legitimate damages. It appears from this article he was right.
The problem is that there are roofing outfits that go around, at least where I live, that “inspect” your roof for free and then tell you that there is hail damage or whatever else. Which, face value, is great but when they are driving around and 9 out of 10 roofs, regardless of how old they are need replaced the insurance companies start being hard asses about it. I’m definitely not defending insurance companies but there is a lot of fraud going on also.
As a consultant I do a good amount of inspections and oversight and I can’t stand other inspectors who act like this. It’s almost always the ones who have never done manual labor themselves. Unlike many inspectors I’ve actually worked in construction before and have respect for these guys because their job is way harder than mine. What guys like this don’t get is that if you treat contractors with respect they’ll be way more willing to work with you when you do bring up a legitimate issue.
I’ve met a big wig from a roofing supply company that came to randomly inspect one of our roofs about 3 weeks after we installed when I worked for a roofing company. They wanted to make sure we weren’t do a hack job and using their product. The guy found one thing he didn’t like and told me to my face “This roof gets an A- in my book you guys did a great job on everything else.” The white collar guys and blue collar guys can definitely get along when they are both professional.
This inspector has a serious lack in training, his knowledge of roofing needs to be at the same level if not higher than a roofing contractor or it is impossible for him to make an intelligent informed and experienced decision on weather or not it needs to be repaired or replaced and that it is covered. How embarrassing for whatever company he works for.
Having been a contractor in Florida it got to the point where I wore a bodycam, recorded and stored every second of every job I did. Also recorded and stored every single phone and in-person conversation with a customer after the contract was signed and the job started. This helped with problem customers, other contractors on the job site, inspectors, etc.
This is what happens when a business (state farm) sends a man that’s truly there for the benefit of that business instead of truly servicing the customer. The state farm rep was set up to fail by the standards and policy put in place by the company, as well as not having clear and direct instructions or advisement to really offer. Any customer service based rep for a large corporate business filled with red tape and for lack of a better euphemism ‘silly shit’ knows that man’s plight. Just as well, he handled the situation extremely poorly and had no genuine business telling an experienced roofer how to do his job. Kudos to the roofer in the article who kept his cool, didn’t escalate the situation, and without sarcasm or spite again and again proved his point effectively. The person the entire situation really harmed more than anyone else is the customer however, who simply needed his insurance that he earnestly pays for to do its job correctly instead of arguing with the man who could solve the customer’s problem and create a happy and pleasant experience on behalf of both business.
I’ve had statefarm car insurance for the past 14 years. After noticing my bill was nearly 30% higher, I called and they couldn’t tell me why. They corrected it and 2 months later, the same thing happened again. I called and not only did they fix the issue but it turns out for the past 18 months, they’ve been charging me a premium for “uninsured driver” which I never signed off on. They said I would’ve had have to signed a “document” to avoid being charged the additional amount 18 months ago. I told them I was never made aware of this document and all they could say was well it wasn’t me. I don’t trust statefarm with anything.
I feel this, I am a certified welder, and I can’t tell you how many self-taught, noncertified, garage welders tell me how to weld. I’m glad when I had my roof done on my last house I was in a catastrophe zone, so they didn’t even question it. Guy showed up, gave me his credentials, checked him out, saw he wasn’t a fly-by-night scam company, did the job in a day, place looks great, and saved me the stress of having it done later.
Had a similar experience a few years ago with 2 State Farm inspectors. They refused to pay for repairs when a roof leak caused rot underneath, said they “didn’t know where the water came from”. I said, “Well I’m pretty sure it didn’t come up from the ground!” I moved all of my insurance business elsewhere: cars, office liability and workers comp, and of course, homeowners. I had been with them for DECADES. Didn’t matter.