Roof Replacement/Insurance Questions

[rasilla]

I am a new homeowner (well, relatively new) and we had a really bad hail storm go through our neighborhood and basically, everyone's roofs are considered totaled and need to be replaced. We had an insurance guy come out and filed a claim... Here's our question:

What does "recoverable depreciation" mean? Why did the insurance guy give me one page that says he will give "x" amount towards the repairs and another page saying he will give a lower amount due to recoverable depreciation? Basically, they are saying we contribute more than double what our deductible is due to depreciation... our house/roof is 9 years old currently. Can I argue or negotiate this with them? Or should I save my breadth and start counting my pennies?

Thanks in advance!

[bloodylipstick]

i'm not 100% sure, but i think the depreciation figure is because the roof more than likely showed moderate wear before the storm. my last house was about 10-11 years old and MANY houses in the neighborhood of the same age had significant wear and tear to their roofs. i think that since builders these days try to cut corners wherever they can just to maximize profits, they probably didn't use a very high grade shingle for your house. i have seen this a lot in houses built within the last 15 or so years.

[ravenmaniac]

Funny you should ask this question. My husband and are still going through all this fun insurance stuff from a tree that fell on our house last May. Let's say the insurance company says it will cost $1000.00 to replace your roof and your house is 10 years old. You then find a contractor to do the job for the $1000.00. The insurance company will only give you $900.00 up front. When the job is done you will get the other $100.00 to finish paying your contractor, this is your recoverable depreciation.

I wish you lots of luck. Our insurance people told us the total cost of our repair would be $38,000.00. We laughed and told them if they could find contractors to work for $29.00 an hour go ahead and hire them to fix our house, the going hourly rate is $85.00 an hour. The lowest estimate we got for the repairs was $52,000.00. The insurance company adjusted their estimate and we found a contractor to do the work $48,000.00. It has been a total nightmare. I would not wish my worst enemy to go through what we're going through. So much for being in "good hands".

[Laurie in Bradenton]

We went throught this when Hurricane Charlie came throught.
The biggest problem we ran into other than having to wait our turn for a roofer and more storms on the horizon was trying to find a roofer to do the work and get paid after the job was done. Our insurance company wouldn't pay one thin dime til the job was done and inspected. Roofer couldn't seem to understand that we couldn't pay him up front and get reinbursed from the insurance company afterwards. What a nightmare!!!

Laurie in Bradenton

[Momto2Boyz]

It's the same as with car insurance. If you buy a new car for $25K, then drive it for 3 years and total it...they give you the current value and not the original purchase amount to replace the car. Does that make sense?

Basically, you are paying for a new roof. However, you had use of the old roof for 9 years, so they take the depreciation off of that, knowing that you would have had to replace your roof anyways in the next few years. Roofs tend to last between 10-15 years (depending on what kind of shingles you use...shingles are rated by how long they last). DH was a roofer for years, and had to explain this concept to people time and time again. They just didn't undestand why they weren't getting the full value of the roof replacement. And it is becuase the current roof being replaced was not "brand new", therefor, they won't cover the full cost of a brand new roof!

I hope that sheds some light on it...I'm having a hard time getting the thoughts from my brain to the keyboard this morning!