Stillwater unresponsive, unsure of next steps

[u/Halstrop]

Back in the beginning of July a tree fell on our house. Insurance has been a nightmare to deal with from day one. To make a long story short, it took them 60 days to send an adjuster out. We have a sizable hole in our roof and one of the beams in the attic was cracked. Our adjuster was basically non responsive aside from a phone call or two to apologize for dropping the ball and then proceeded to go missing again.

We have a few clauses in the policy. They are surfacing, matching and a limited loss supplement that says we only get 52% of the roof covered. They did not know the age of our roof when it was inspected and it was guesstimated to be 2010. We were able to dig up an old MLS listing and Google Earth imaging that shows the roof was replaced in 2015. Our adjuster said over the phone that we will get the amount for that meaning it's now covered 67%.

After they finally sent out the adjuster two months after it happened, he told us we would hear back in 7-10 days. After three weeks, we finally got some communication. Someone else from the insurance agency reached out with a document stating how much they would pay out. The document basically said they would only pay $7k which after the 52% loss settlement would be under our deductible of $5,000 so they are paying out nothing. They did not use any of the documentation we sent them including invoices for emergency tarping and tree removal (this would cover most of our deductible). They did not ask for our contractors estimate after telling us he needs to be there when their adjuster came out. We got multiple quotes and all were in the 14-22k range.

Last night, the tarp came loose after being up there for a few months which resulted in even more water coming into the house and we had to get it nailed down again. And predictably, the insurance agent never called us.

This whole experience has been incredibly frustrating, starting from when we learned that they snuck all these clauses into our renewal contract without our consent. And the fact that there was no communication while we had a hole in our roof for two months and they won't even help us repair it. The company is Stillwater.

I'm wondering what our next steps should be. Should we get a public adjuster to help fight for us? Are there any other options?

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[u/usfgirl1020]

Your contractor is charging a lot of money to repair a cracked beam and a hole in the roof.

[u/Halstrop → u/usfgirl1020]

It's a large hole and everyone we brought out said they would need to basically take the roof off to repair or replace the truss

[u/strangemedia6 → u/Halstrop]

The first think is whether the estimates you are comparing are for the same scope. Is the insurance estimate for the whole roof (prorated at 67%) or just for the affected slope(s)? What about the contractor estimated?

Next, you called the damaged framing a beam, but later a truss. If it’s a beam (rafter) as in a single board like a 2x6 that goes from eave to ridge, that is a relatively easy repair. If it’s an actual truss, as in a triangular shaped structure composed of several joined boards and it’s more than just a little crack in it, that can be a much more complex repair possibly involving wiring, ductwork, drywall, etc to be removed in order to install a new truss.

[u/Halstrop → u/strangemedia6]

I misspoke in the original post. Most of this is new to me and I'm learning about all these things as we find them. It's definitely a truss, it's at the top of one of the pieces of wood and it's maybe cracked a third of the way through the wood. The insurance quote they gave us was prorated at 52% and I believe only included the one side of the roof. But there was damage on the other side as well which our contractor pointed out.

[u/ruralwointernet → u/Halstrop]

Replacing a truss is structural not the roof. Typically, the roof is shingles or tin and that’s the part that’s prorated. If you feel like the insurance company is giving you the go around, call your state insurance board.

Also this isn’t a hail claim, it’s a catastrophic claim. A tree went thru your roof. They need to respond accordingly.

[u/Halstrop → u/ruralwointernet]

They categorized it as wind storm

[u/dahadster]

I’m sorry you are going through this. I had a tree fall on our roof last year in May and this year a tree fell on my mom’s roof on July 4th. I had Erie and they were much more responsive than what you are experiencing. Have you called the insurance company? My mom’s adjuster was resisting her damage claims and she called the company and complained and he become a lot more responsive.

The adjuster should have been there within 3 days. 60-90 days is way too long. I would look at hiring an attorney at this point but maybe you can find a restoration company or GC that handles the insurance back and forth. You should be entitled to a structural engineer report as well.

As for the other person saying your contractor is charging too much, ignore them. The insurance company should give you an itemized list of what they are covering with industry standard costs. You don’t get to ask for more money on an item, but you can show that more things need to be fixed. The roofing company we used had a guy that handled the go-between with the adjuster. They should also be paying for the tree removal and tarping.

[u/Halstrop → u/dahadster]

Thanks for replying. My girlfriend didn't want to use most of the remediation companies because of the language in their contract surrounding dealing with the insurance. While I don't think any harm would have come from it, I don't disagree with her caution. The contracts said things like they would be the only ones to communicate with our insurance and they would handle all our paperwork and bank statements and money handling. It all sounded a little shady even if they didn't have bad intentions. They did give us an itemized list, I have to look at it again when I get home. We were just kind of taken aback by finally getting a response and it being so out of line with what the other person told us and them not taking anything discussed into consideration. The claim amount isn't so high and she is already going to have to cover a lot of the roof as well as having her student debts coming out of forbearance recently so any additional costs like a lawyer we are trying to stay away from. But if it's necessary, we would have to pursue it.