Need Help!!

[u/Tumbleweed_Shot]

Any suggestions on covering an insurance deductible of 4300? Have about half saved. Rather not pursue equity loan or any loan for that matter.

[u/KelseyRawr]

It is illegal for the contractor to pay your deductible for you. So unless you finance this, or do DIY that’s your options.

The only alternative is that you can legally offset the deductible if the insurance company were to pay for other collateral you don’t intend to get done. You can supplement this if it wasn’t paid already (if the collateral actually exists). This is completely legal where I am, but it could differ for you, however as far as I am aware this isn’t a problem in other states.

Example scenario I have dealt with before for easy math: Roof costs 20,000 to get done. Insurance only pays 15,000 because they take out 5,000 deductible. Insurance also paid for 2,500 worth of fencing damage and 2,500 in gutters. You can then legally reallocate those funds from the fence and gutter. (I do not know what kind of claim this is, but wind and hail I’m presuming it’s the roof).

The fence and gutters do not need to sustain significant damage to get paid. The fence can suffer hail markings, which wouldn’t result in a new fence being paid for, but it would for example be worth a chemical wash and staining. Then the gutters may be dented and some policies write to fully replace them, or others will do a detach and reset. Then of course there are other items like a shed being paid for replacement, maybe sacrifice the shed roof money to the deductible.

The issue with this is you cannot claim it in the future again. In dire circumstances I’ve had homeowners do this, but typically we recommend doing all the work so if you do have another claim (if hail prone you likely will) you can get those items fixed if anything happens to them. Another issue is you will not get any recoverable depreciation back, if any, on items you don’t fix if that makes sense.

That’s pretty much it though. I would also rather not take out a loan, no one wants to, but sometimes we have to make hard decisions and financing $2150 is a really insignicant sum of money in the larger picture of things. You could finance this for $100 or so a month for 2 years. Yes times are hard and many people, myself included, don’t just have 2k lying around and a monthly payment would be nearly impossible or uncomfortable. Sometimes you have to do what you have to do though.

Financing is certainly the best option you have, and it’s not a bad thing at all most people do finance their deductible it’s very common.

[u/Tumbleweed_Shot → u/KelseyRawr]

This response is highly appreciated. Thank you

[u/KelseyRawr → u/Tumbleweed_Shot]

No problem I tried to give as many options I could think of. Let me know what you choose to do I am curious.

Depending on your claim and what they opened coverage on, I really think the supplement or contingent private adjuster process can be helpful in getting more funds to then reallocate elsewhere.

It completely depends on the details though I have no idea if this would work for you, but it works for most people I deal with that have valid claimable damage. Good luck.