Roof Damage Help .com

I live in Florida. The area is filled with sand pines. They are notorious lightening magnets, and they fall over easily in a stiff wind. These trees are 60-100 ft high. One fell over and hit my roof the other day. I was lucky. It was the smallest of the bunch overhanging the property. It broke off a couple of shingles and deeply dented the fascia/flashing of the roof. No other damage was done, as the house is made of concrete. It came from a vacant lot. The owners are European. I am not the only person who thinks the trees should go. Almost everyone who comes to my house says comments like: "Cut those before hurricane season", "Those need to go", and "They have bad intentions written all over them". I have called to get prices to push over the trees, into the vacant lot. Some are willing to do so, and some want to be paid cash so there is no proof they knocked over trees in a lot without the owner’s permission. Anytime I’ve tried to contact the owner, they think I am trying to buy the lot, and don’t want to talk to me . There is a language barrier. They are Dutch. I can’t afford the $500+ the tree people want. That is $500 just to push them over, not take them away or cut them.

Do I have any rights? Can I make them do something about the trees? If not, can I sue them for damages, when the trees come through my roof. They will. Its just a matter of time. I have insurance, but I believe the damages would be subject to my deductible. I also don’t want to just wait for trouble to come. It is foreseeable, and I’d like to prevent a whole in the roof, or smashed windows
If I cut everything that hangs over my house/property line, I’d take the entire tree top off. They’d be left with a "tipping phone pole."

You call your insurance company and submit a claim. They will pay for your repairs then the insurance company will sue your neighbor for reimbursement

Greetings!

I’m a rookie homeowner. We had quite a bad wind storm up in Indiana today, and it blew several singles (about 6-8) off of two different areas of my roof. We plan on phoning the insurance company tomorrow to find out what we can do so far as getting it repaired.

In the mean time, is there anything we need to be doing? Should I run out and buy a few tarps to cover the damaged areas?

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Hi. Welcome to the wonderful world of homeownership. Forget the insurance company. Your deductible would cover this repair anyway. What you do not want is a claim on a job this small. Wait until the whole roof blows off before calling them to make a claim. Just go get some matching shingles from a major home improvement store and some advice from them on how to reinstall the repair shingles. It is not difficult and requires a minimum of tools. Unless it is raining now just do the repair. It will only take about an hour once you are on the roof with all the materials. Hope this helps.

:et’s say there is hail damage to your roof and you file a claim. The insurace company estimates your losses at $10,000 and cuts you a check for that amount. You get it fixed for only $5,000. Can you just keep the remaining $5k? It might seem like a silly question, but it seems too good to be true. Thanks!

Be very careful. If you had a legitimate estimate from an approved contractor and then decided to do the work yourself instead, you might get away with it… but it won’t necessarily be easy. Let’s say you or whomever you hire doesn’t do a great job on the repair - and it leaks or fails again. If you call the insurance company, they’ll have a record of your past claim, and if the work wasn’t done to specifications, they’ll want to speak to your contractor… and it won’t take long to figure out you pocketed the extra. Depending on how the company decides to look at it, you might be on your own for the next repair or you could even be considered guilty of fraud.

Whether you decide it’s worth the risk is up to you… just know what you might be getting yourself into.