Roof Claim Supplements And Why The First Check Is Rarely Final

Your carrier approved a number based on what an adjuster could see from the top of the shingles on one afternoon. A supplement is the paperwork that says the job turned out to include more than that, here is the proof, and here is what it costs. It runs through the same claim and the same deductible. Nobody is reopening your file or starting over.

Homeowners hear the word and assume something has gone wrong. On a hail roof it is closer to routine. A roof is one of the few things a carrier prices without being able to look underneath it first.

Three reasons, and none of them mean the adjuster did a bad job. Decking condition is invisible until the shingles come off. Code requirements vary by jurisdiction and a regional estimating platform does not always carry the local amendment. And the adjuster is standing on the roof once, for half an hour, working a queue of storm files.

Material pricing moves too. After a large Midwest hail event, shingle and metal pricing in the affected market can move between the date the estimate was written and the week the job is built. Carriers publish updated pricing for exactly that reason.

Decking replacement leads the list. Once the roof is open, boards that are delaminated, water-stained or spaced too wide for current fastener requirements have to be replaced, and that is measured in sheets and documented with photographs of the open deck. Drip edge is next; older Midwest roofs frequently have none, and current code in most jurisdictions requires it. Ice and water shield at eaves and valleys is a code item in the colder half of our territory and is often absent on the original.

Then the smaller ones that add up: pipe boots that crack when disturbed, rusted valley metal, ridge vent where the original had can vents that no longer meet net free area, and access charges on a steep or three-story elevation the estimate treated as walkable.

A supplement gets approved on evidence and gets denied on assertions. Photographs of the open deck with the damaged sheets visible and countable. A photograph of the eave with no drip edge. The local code section cited by number when a code item is claimed. A line-item estimate written in the same estimating platform and price list the carrier uses, so the desk reviewer is comparing like to like instead of translating.

We photograph tear-off on every hail job for this reason, even on the jobs that never need a supplement. You cannot go back and take that picture after the deck is covered.

The contractor sends the supplement to the desk adjuster handling the file, not to the field adjuster who came out. On a straightforward single-family hail claim, one to three weeks is typical. A supplement with a code citation or a reinspection request runs longer. Big storm seasons stretch everything, because the same desk adjusters are carrying hundreds of files across several states.

Sometimes a re-inspection is ordered. That is a good sign rather than a bad one; it means the carrier is willing to look.

It is not a way to pad a job, and a contractor who talks about supplements as found money is telling you what kind of company they are. Every line has to be necessary and provable. Submitting soft items burns credibility with a desk adjuster who then reads your next twelve supplements differently, which hurts every homeowner we work for after you.

It is also not a reason to sign a blank contract. You should know before work starts what is approved, what we expect to supplement for, and what your out-of-pocket number is if the carrier says no to something.

Very little, and that is the point. Keep the paperwork we send you, approve the revised scope when it comes back, and if the carrier calls you directly, answer honestly and refer the technical questions to your contractor. Do not sign a final release of claim until the supplemented work is approved and complete. Once you have signed, the file closes.

One more thing worth doing: keep the photographs. If you sell the house, a documented hail replacement with an approved scope and a workmanship warranty is a real asset at the inspection table.