Make insurance claim or not

[cottontail]

I think there are a couple of insurance professionals on this board and I am hoping that they see my post. If you have experience with insurance, especially the commercial side, please share. My husband works in insurance but only on the residential side.

I live in a very small condo association and we had some hail damage. We were hoping that the insurance company would pay to replace the roof, as it shows some damage. Instead, they have decided that the roof is ok and the siding is not. The cash value of the siding is something like $12,000-$13,000 and replacement value is around $30,000.

The siding is very thick aluminum and the company who would do the replacement told us that they don't make siding this well anymore. They actually made it sound like we should keep the siding that we have. We expect the current siding to last another 20-30 years. The damage is cosmetic only and is so minor that it had to be pointed out to me for me to see it.

Unfortunately, our condo president went rogue and filed a claim without a vote on the issue, against our association's rules.

We are concerned about potential future increased insurance rates possibly being so high as to make us regret this claim, especially considering that we would be replacing with a lessor product. We are going to call the insurance agent tomorrow and asking if we have the option to not cash the cash value check (it's supposed to be on the way already) and "undo" this claim. This is a commercial policy due to it being a condo association.

I see our options as:

1) Try to "undo" the claim. (This is my hope.)
2) Collect cash value and save the money towards a new roof in the future
3) Replace the siding and collect the full value.


Any opinions? 

[CCL]

Are you talking about your own single personal unit? Or do you mean it's a claim for all of the units?

eta: I take it you didn't have replacement coverage?

[cottontail]

I am talking about replacement for the siding for the whole building, which covers all units.

The association has replacement coverage, estimated at $30,000 for this claim.

[cottontail]

The association needs to have a meeting about this because we should all have a vote before deciding how to proceed. I am just trying to decide what to hope for and re commend at the meeting.

[CCL]

You said it was a cash value check.

I don't know much about condo associations/insurance, but I've never heard of anyone reversing an insurance claim. I'd think your agent should be able to answer that question for you.

If the insurance company is willing to pay to replace the siding, I'd want that done with the money. It might be cosmetic, but it could lower the value of the units.

Have you tried appealing the decision on the roof? Maybe you could get an assessment from a roofing company and submit that to your insurance company.

Twice we had hail damage to our roofs and the claims denied by our homeowner insurance company. In both cases I called and asked for different adjusters to take another look and they then paid both claims.

Maybe that president of yours needs to be replaced? I'd be afraid of what else he might do without consulting anyone.

[cottontail]

Oct 10, 2021 22:09:13 GMT -5 CCL said:

You said it was a cash value check.

I don't know much about condo associations/insurance, but I've never heard of anyone reversing an insurance claim. I'd think your agent should be able to answer that question for you.

If the insurance company is willing to pay to replace the siding, I'd want that done with the money. It might be cosmetic, but it could lower the value of the units.

Have you tried appealing the decision on the roof? Maybe you could get an assessment from a roofing company and submit that to your insurance company.

Twice we had hail damage to our roofs and the claims denied by our homeowner insurance company. In both cases I called and asked for different adjusters to take another look and they then paid both claims.

Maybe that president of yours needs to be replaced? I'd be afraid of what else he might do without consulting anyone.

Re cash value: I clearly stated in my first post that option 3 was "Replace the siding and collect the full value" and I also gave both the cash value and replacement value $ amounts.

It is standard practice (at least around here) to issue a check for the cash value and then if we end up replacing the siding we get the balance of the replacement value. (ETA - This would mean $30,000 replacement value minus the $12,000 or $13,000 cash value - NOT both.)

I don't know whether we can reverse a claim but I know that my husband's employer treats "zero dollar" claims differently than claims with a payout. That's why we're wondering if telling them that we won't cash the check might avoid higher rates in the future. But again, he only works in residential insurance. 

No one other than an insurance or siding company will see the damage unless it is pointed out to them. It is very minor. Replacement siding would be much thinner and much more likely to show future hail damage. We are in a high thunderstorm/tornado state and this siding has held up great to numerous hail storms.