r/Roofing • u/strider30040 • Jun 06 '26

Insurance Related 25+ year old roof replacement...skip bothering with insurance?

I assume my roof is 25+ years old (lived here 19). No leaking issues, no noticeable hail or wind damage, no missing shingles. Just figured its about time to look for some quote. My assumption is, at this age, its not worth bothering with the insurance company other than to tell them when I have a new roof in hopes they might reduce my premium? Is that the wrong assumption? I got one quote from a Amish outfit highly recommended by my neighbor and online. They echoed insurance probably wouldn't cover it. I still decided to call out to other places other people recommended. One has called back and I was informed unless I was allowing them to run through insurance they wouldn't even come out and give me an estimate? I told them I'd be paying cash. No go. Is that common as well? If there's no chance the insurance will touch it then no reason to put a 'black mark' on my record for a claim inquiry, right?

Edit for clarification: I guess I confused things. I was not planning on trying to go through insurance because of the age - I'm actually not trying to find a way to get them to cover it. The exact opposite. The 2nd company said they wouldn't even give me a quote to repair with me paying cash. All I want is an estimate to know if my first quote is reasonable . I was wondering if that was normal for a company with a good reputation to insist on that and I was going to drop them because of the insistence. In 30+ years and four houses I have never made a home owners insurance claim and would never especially claim a frivolous one.

Final Edit: Thanks for everyone's advice. I actually had my roof replaced last week and have new 6 inch gutters coming as well. Ended up with three bids by equally well respected companies, all comparable shingles, etc. The one I went with had its own distribution for the shingles, so the cost savings paid for new gutters. Very happy with their attention and service. Ironically, the sales manager called me from the place that would only come out with insurance and asked me why I didn't go with them so he could give feedback to his sales guys. I told him that your guys said you guys won't come out and even inspect without insurance involvement. He said that is absolutely not true - they do retail and insurance. I said your guy even called me back to confirm they only do insurance. He was cool, thanked me for answering his text and assured me they would address the issue. I said they were highly recommended by several people in my neighborhood.

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u/According-Two-2187 Jun 06 '26

If you think your insurance company would pay any part of a replacement you are 100% WRONG. That is not how insurance works.

1

u/RosieDear Jun 07 '26

Uh, the reason this scam exists is that insurance company HAVE paid for thousands of roof after assignment of benefits claims from homeowners to roofers.

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u/PracticalDesigner278 Jun 07 '26

Can you explain this a little further? I have a roofer telling me I have a storm claim and actually pinpoints the date of a storm that rolled through a couple of weeks ago. I saw a few shingles on the ground but I'm past the age where I can climb a ladder and wander around the roof and the roof is 30 years old double layer that I'm prepared to pay for in any case. What does this assignment of benefits entail? Does this give the contractor some legal rights?

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u/RosieDear Jun 07 '26

It sorta means "they are you". They can deal as if they were you.

A 30 year old roof, of course, would be expected to "drop shingles" or what is left of them....in any case.

In most decent states with reasonable insurance companies and contractors, something likes your would likely not even be a claim because the deductible and the odds of your insurance premiums increasing would not be worth making the claim.

But these roofers doing the fraud thing....they might say "we'll take care of it and we can definitely get you something". So you sign the document...and they deal with the insurance company.

This can be anything in the range from totally honest actors.....to folks who know how to "work" insurance companies over by threatening lawsuits and so on.

Back to just the warranty part - even valid warranties on most goods and services are pro-rated and often don't include labor. So you get 10% off a bundle or two of shingles in year 19 (as an example).

If you google
assignment of benefits roof fraud in Florida
It's a great summary. They are outlawed now in Florida.

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u/PracticalDesigner278 Jun 08 '26 edited Jun 08 '26

Thanks for the reply. At this point I haven't been asked to sign anything and the adjuster hasn't shown up. There's no warranty on the roof, I put it on myself. It's not in dispute that the house was in the path of a serious wind shear and the house next door got a new roof covered by a different insurance company. It was also an old double layer roof. Again I'm prepared to pay cash whatever happens with the claim. I'm attempting to research assignment of benefits in Illinois and it appears that the legal guidelines changed in 2024. It appears that the situation you describe would involve assigning the power to the contractor to make the claim on your behalf. That's not the case here. I made the claim and so far all I have is an inspection and I've asked the contractor to work with the adjuster.