If your insurance company denied your claim, you have more options than most people realize. A denial is the carrier's first answer, not the final one. Here are the five paths we see homeowners take, in the order we would try them.
First, a plain note about us. We only see denied claims, so we are jaded about carriers. We also lose some of these, so we will tell you what each option costs and where it tends to fail.
Step one: read the denial letter
Before you do anything else, find the policy provision the carrier says supports the denial. Minnesota requires it. Minn. Stat. § 72A.201, subd. 4(11) says: "No insurer shall deny a claim on the grounds of a specific policy provision, condition, or exclusion unless reference to the provision, condition, or exclusion is included in the denial. The denial must be given to the insured in writing with a copy filed in the claim file;"
So the letter should name a section of your policy. If it says only "wear and tear" or "no storm damage" with nothing cited, write back and ask which provision applies. That question alone changes some claims.
We're public adjusters, not attorneys. This is how the statute reads and how we use it; for legal advice talk to a Minnesota attorney.
Step two: understand who has to prove the loss
Almost every policy puts the burden of proof on you. The carrier has no obligation to find damage. You have to show when it happened, what caused it, why it is new, how big it is, and which way the storm came from.
Nobody tells homeowners this. We call it the catch-22 of a policy: you are expected to prove things you were never trained to prove. We wrote a full post on whose job it is to prove the damage, and it is worth reading before you pick an option.
It also means every option below depends on evidence. Photos from the day of the storm, weather records, an inspection report from when you bought the house, a contractor's scope. Gather it now.
Option one: ask for a reinspection with new evidence
The cheapest move is to send the carrier new information and ask for another look, ideally with a different adjuster.
Pros: It costs nothing and sometimes works, especially if the first inspector missed a slope or you have a pre-purchase inspection report.
Cons: Without new evidence, a reinspection mostly produces the same answer. And a reinspection request from a homeowner is easy to ignore.
Option two: submit a written rebuttal
Write a letter that quotes the provision they cited and explains, with photos and dates, why it does not apply. Keep it factual. Attach everything.
Pros: It creates a paper trail you will want later. It also forces the carrier to respond to specifics.
Cons: It takes time, and it is hard to do well without knowing which policy language matters. Most rebuttals we see from homeowners argue about fairness. Carriers answer policy language, not fairness.
Option three: hire a public adjuster
A licensed public adjuster has the same rights on the claim you do. We get the full policy first (the carrier usually takes about two weeks to send it), document the damage, pull weather data, and present your position. We handle the back and forth, which is often twenty or thirty emails.
Pros: Someone who does this daily is arguing the claim, and the carrier has to deal with us.
Cons: There is a fee. 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. On Minnesota residential claims there is also a $200 initial claim review and documentation fee, credited toward our final fee if we take the claim and win. It is also slow, and some claims take a year. No one can honestly promise a result.
We covered the pros and cons in more detail in our post on the downsides of using a public adjuster.
Option four: file a Department of Commerce complaint
Minnesota homeowners can file a complaint with the Department of Commerce about how an insurer handled a claim.
Pros: It is free, and carriers take regulators seriously. It is a good way to push on slow responses or a denial that does not cite a provision.
Cons: The department checks whether the carrier followed claims rules. It does not decide who is right about your roof. A complaint can produce a better response, and it can also produce a polite restatement of the denial.
Option five: appraisal or an attorney
These are the levels beyond us.
Appraisal is a process in your policy where each side picks an appraiser and they settle the amount of loss. Pros: It can end a stalemate over price. Cons: It can cost real money, the award is generally binding, and it usually cannot decide whether something is covered. Our Minnesota appraisal guide explains the risks.
An attorney can sue and, if a carrier denied benefits without a reasonable basis, ask a court for additional costs and attorney fees. That remedy comes from Minn. Stat. § 604.18. It is a court remedy, not available through appraisal, and it is an attorney's tool, not ours. Pros: It is the strongest pressure available. Cons: It is expensive, slow, and has deadlines you need to know about.
If you are weighing these two, our comparison of a public adjuster, an attorney, and appraisal goes through when each fits.
What a denial usually means
In our experience, denials usually come down to a short list: wear and tear, damage below the deductible, cosmetic damage, pre-existing damage, or no storm event. Each of those is an argument about evidence. That is why the best first move is almost always to read the letter, gather proof, and ask questions in writing.
The honest answer
A denial is a starting position. Read the letter, find the cited provision, and remember the proof is yours to bring. Then try the options in order, cheapest first. Some claims should not be pursued, and if yours is one, a good firm will tell you so on the first call.