It depends on what the carrier did. If your hail claim was approved at a fair number, you probably do not need us. If it was denied, paid short, or marked "below your deductible" on a roof you know took a beating, that is when a public adjuster earns the fee.
Minnesota gets hit by hail almost every summer, so carriers see a lot of these claims and have a routine for them. Below is what that routine looks like, what we do about it, and how to decide.
What a denied or shorted hail claim looks like here
The carrier's adjuster walks the roof, takes photos, and writes an estimate. Then one of a handful of things happens.
- "Wear and tear." The adjuster says the roof is old and the marks are age, not hail. We wrote about that denial in our post on wear and tear letters.
- Below the deductible. They found $2,800 of damage and your deductible is $2,500. You get a check for $300 or nothing.
- Metals only. They pay for the vents, pipe jacks, and window screens but not a single shingle. We call it magnetic hail, and it has its own post. The metals prove hail fell on your house. The fight is about the shingles.
- One slope. They approve the slope facing the storm and nothing else, so you are offered a partial roof.
None of these means your roof is fine. It means the carrier's first position is a no, and a first position is where negotiation starts.
Why hail is hard to prove on your own
Every policy puts the duty to prove the loss on you. The carrier has no obligation to find damage. You have to show when it happened, that it came from that storm, how big it was, and why it is new rather than old.
Hail makes this worse because it does not announce itself. The hit cracks the mat under the granules. Over a few years the sun dries the asphalt and granules shed. The roof leaks later, and by then the adjuster can say anything caused it. Hail that is five years old is easy to date because the hits are grayed and the fiberglass shows. Hail that is one or two years old is the hard zone, and that is where most of the arguments happen.
When to handle it yourself
We would rather tell you this than have you pay for something you did not need.
- The carrier approved a full replacement and the number looks fair.
- The repair is close to your deductible, so a fee leaves little room. A $2,800 estimate on a $2,500 deductible is the classic case.
- You have an actual cash value policy on a very old roof, where depreciation eats most of the payment.
- There is no storm date to tie the damage to.
You may also be able to win a small piece on your own, like an interior ceiling stain, and only need help on the roof. We have said exactly that to homeowners on consultation calls.
What we do on a hail claim
We start with the policy, not the roof. We request the full policy from the carrier and read it before we argue anything, because a limitation we did not know about can cut a payment after the roof is approved.
Then we build the file:
- Weather data for the date. NOAA storm reports and hail maps show the size of hail at your address on the storm date. A carrier-hired engineer may use a boilerplate checklist; public weather data is hard to argue with.
- Test squares. We count hits inside a 10 foot by 10 foot square (one "square" of roofing) on each slope.
- Collateral indicators. Dented soft metals, gutters, AC fins, and screens show the hail size and direction.
- Repairability. If shingles are discontinued or brittle, a spot repair may not be possible, and that supports replacing the slope or the roof.
- Code items. Replacement cost coverage generally has to cover work the local code requires. We covered that in our post on code upgrades.
- Our own estimate at fair market value, then the back and forth.
One example: a homeowner in the Twin Cities area got a first offer of $10,891 on a hail loss that touched several trades. The final approved number was $238,239. That claim was an outlier, and no one can honestly promise a result on an insurance claim. Across 69 claims where the carrier had already made a real first offer, 100% closed higher, with a median increase of $18,840.
What it costs, and when the clock matters
Our fee is a percentage of the approved value of each trade we take on for you (roof, siding, and so on), and we only charge it on a trade if we get the insurance company to approve more than it already had. No increase on a trade, no fee on that trade. The exact percentage is in the written agreement.
Minnesota residential engagements also include a $200 initial claim review and documentation fee. It covers the on-site inspection, getting your full policy, reviewing every coverage, and a go or no-go answer. If we take the claim and win, that $200 is credited toward our final fee. The insurance money pays for the repairs. Our fee is a separate cost you agree to in writing.
Timing is the other piece. A claim filed in the fall rarely settles before snow, because the policy request alone takes about three weeks. That does not mean wait, only that you should expect a spring roof. Read more on Minnesota's process, or take the four-question quiz to see if your damage qualifies.
The honest answer
Handle it alone if the carrier is paying a fair number for a full roof. Call a public adjuster if they denied it, paid for metals but not shingles, or offered a number far below what three contractors quote. We will tell you on the first call which one you are.