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.

Hi,
I had a wind damage. per my request the insurance paid me around $5000 in order for me to fix/hire someone to fix roof due to wind damage. Recently I recevied a letter asking me to prove I fixed the roof by sending them photos, receipts etc.
I fixed everything and have no problem doing that for them. HOWEVER, will they use the infromation to ask me for the difference if say it cost me only $4500?? Are they just confirming I fixed it or do they do it to see how much it really cost me? THANKS.
Thank you both very much for the input!

They are just confirming that you have repaired the damage for several reasons:

1) if there is a subsequent windstorm and you submit another claim they do not want to pay again for the same damage

2) if you did not repair the damage and there was subsequent water damage to the interior — they want to be able to deny the claim due to the lack of repair of old damage

3) having a damaged roof severely increases the potential for any number of claims, fire, mold (only up to a very limited amount), water damage, etc.

The insurance company will not ask you for any difference in the amount paid and the cost of the repair. However, you do need to respond and get this information to them quickly or they will set you up for cancellation for poor property condition because they will assume that you did not do the repair.

I hope this helps. Good Luck

This summer I bought a Featherlite aluminum 3 horse gooseneck trailer. It hadn’t crossed my mind that I would have to worry about it structurally with snow until a neighbor, who owns a Sundowner aluminum trailer told me her story.She claimed that several years ago they went into their horse trailer in the winter to get a piece of tack, and found the doors weren’t shutting properly. When they checked they found the weight of the snow on the roof was making the walls spread slightly, which was causing the problem with the doors.
I’ve always owned steel trailers before, and snow build up wasn’t a problem. Here’s my question? Have any of you experienced problems with snow damaging your aluminum trailer? If so, what is the solution? I have no place to put it under roof. And climbing up and knocking off the snow will be tough as it’s very high. Is this an old wives’ tale, or would a reasonable amount of snow cause problems? I live in Alberta, Canada, where we can gets lots of cold weather, but often our total accumlation of snow is under a foot or two, and with our winter winds that snow very seldom gets to build up on roofs.
Thanks for your advice.

If there is enough snow. Snow is deceptively heavy and the weight can cause damage to trailers. The trailers roofs aren’t designed to withstand much load they need to save weight with the roofing so that they can strengthen the floor to support more weight.

Also the trailer loses structural rigidity when its doors are open, so if you see lots of snow on your roof, clear it off before opening the doors. I’ve seen the roof collapse when someone opened the doors to a custom utility trailer with an aluminum roof and steel everything else. this happened with just 16 inches of snow on the roof. If it is less than 8 inches it should not be a problem.

And snow weighs over 5 lbs per cubic foot (can be as high as 6 or 7 lbs/cubic foot) so if you have a 16 foot by 8 foot roof with one foot of snow on it then it weighs over 640 lbs.

The House Insurer has agreed damage to my roof is due to high winds, but should I claim from my Car Insurer for the damage the roof-tile has caused to my car’s roof, a very expensive repair? I have my doubts that either of them will be battling for the privilege of paying out to me…ho ho! Thank you for any help. Paul

Your property policy excludes 1st party coverage to your car (just as if your in an accident with the car, your property policy won’t address the damage to the car… vehicle is specifically excluded on the policy). Also, liability coverage under the property policy does not cover your car as you cannot be liable to yourself.

So as others mentioned, homeowners for damage to house roof and auto insurance for damage to car.

My father owns a home that I pay the mortgage on. I had to replace the roof in February ‘08 due to wind damage caused by a sudden storm. Can I claim this as a Casualty even though the house belongs to my father?
My name is not on the mortgage but I claim the interest by submitting a statement from my father stating that I pay the mortgage.

Dear Tina: Who takes the mortgage interest deduction? If you do and your name is on the mortgage you can take the casualty loss.

This advice was prepared based on our understanding of the tax law in effect at the time it was written as it applies to the facts that you provided. Click on my profile to read more. Errol Quinn Master Tax Advisor Enrolled Agent.

ashore, what could you expect of these choices?
your home is too far from the hurricane and would not be damaged or
high winds might damage the roof and surrounding trees might fall or
thunderstorms created from the hurricane may cause flooding in the area or
high winds,tornadoes,flooding,possible lightning and hail from thunderstorms might damage your home? which one of these would happen?

The last one. Happened here last year.

Hi,
I need some repair done on my roof following a wind damage.
I called insurance and they took care of the urgent repair like covering the roof temporarily so it does not get wet in the meantime. They also offered to send me $5,000 in order to hire someone and fix it. I want to hire a roofer but many are asking if I already involved insurance and interestingly do not want to do it(!) My questions are:
1. How should I respond/what should I tell roofers who ask me if I involved my insurance company?, and
2. What are they so afraid of that they will not even take money to fix it!?
So far none of them even went to see it!
THANKS.

Don’t tell them and just wright them a check when they are done. Make sure they are licensed and bonded. Also check with the state & BB and see if they have any claims or complaints and they are licensed.

We were away, still are actually. Our property got hit really hard. My BBQ & outdoor setting ended up inside my house, through a glass sliding window =(
A couple of fences and trees blown over, but compared to a few neighbours we got off lightly! My neighbour lost his roof!

I haven’t seen the damage yet. Dreading going back. Thankfully none of the animals were injured!! So grateful to my farm hand for looking after everything!

How about you guys??
Well we are ok, still got a home. I was watching the news, and they said some of Melbourne didn’t have power. And I noticed one of my much loved contacts hasn’t been on nearly all week.
I hope she is ok, she lives in Melbourne.

Crazy here in SA too - thankfully my home had no problems at all! i was a bit worried that a tree would fall on my car at work!!
Hope your damage isnt too bad

I bought a 03 dodge neon sxt about a month ago, it hadnt rained until recently, and wouldnt you know, the critter leaks. Now, it seems to have issues with the draining system because when it leaks, the water is coming out around my middle pillars and if enough water gets in (from rain, carwash, a heavy layer of condensation), a small overflow drips from the roof onto my seat. The top of the pillar b4 the plastic will be damp/dripping and most the time my seat belts are wet and water is dripping from where they comes out. This car has also been in a wreck on the passenger side and damage was reported to the front pillar but since it leaks on both sides, I dont think that has to do with it. There is also alot of wind noise from the middle pillar when I drive over 50mph on the driver side. I’m a lil tight on $$$ right now, so is there anyway to fix it myself? (never had a car with a sunroof so i’m not sure what to do). If I did take it to some1 to get it fixed, what would they do?

These drain holes aren’t big and obvious, you are looking for small drain holes usually on the corners of the sunroof opening. The major problem is these drains tubes are not made out of metal but rubber or plastic. Therefore using 120 psi compressed air to blow them out is not a good idea. If you dislodge one or more of these tubes you are going to have a serious access problem, like ripping down your head liner to reconnect them. You need a tool called a "gold fish". Electricians use them to run wires through small conduit and you should be able to pick one up at Home Depot or Lowes.