The Truth About the “Free Roof Offer”

We’ve all seen them and unfortunately thousands of homeowners are falling victim to the “free roof” scams. What are you not being told? That’s a good question.

The way this scam works is by baiting homeowners into requesting a “free roof inspection.” From there, what shows up is a commission sales person trained to convince you that your roof is a total loss and that you need them to handle everything for you.

Contractors have gotten very clever in the many ways they convince homeowners to agree to this process. The truth is, if you have legitimate storm damages, your claim is going to be approved and paid to you whether you have a contractor there to meet with your insurance company or not. It is your insurance claim. You are the policyholder. It has been you paying the premiums each month/year. Why immediately give away all of your insurance budget to someone who convinced you they needed to handle the claim for you?

Contrary to popular belief, insurance claims for roof replacements are not hard. It’s typically a five minute phone call to your insurance company. From there, the licensed and trained insurance adjusters show up to identify the storm damages and pay you what they owe. The disadvantage of allowing a contractor to handle this process for you is they immediately have you sign an agreement where you are agreeing to give away all of your insurance money to the contractor if the claim is approved.

No written estimate. No firm price. No talk about products or exactly what they plan on doing at the property. Just sign here and let us take care of it and stay out of our way.

This immediately puts you “the homeowner/policyholder” at an immediate disadvantage. You have no idea what quality products you’ll be getting or what’s going to take place at your home. Why would someone agree to this?

The reason most homeowners fall victim so easily to this scam is because they are led to believe insurance claims are hard or that their insurance company is going to take advantage of them. Contractors are aware of this and use that fear to their advantage.

The good news?! If you have found yourself involved in one of these agreements, you may cancel it at any time! Contingency agreements are not legal contracts. These agreements will typically be very generic or one page documents contingent upon the claim approval. Usually saying something along the lines of you will owe them all of the insurance money if the claim is approved and if you decide to back out of the agreement you will owe them a percentage of your claims money. None of which is legal or true. There are actually laws written against contractors representing homeowners during their insurance claims.

Not to worry. As long as no work took place at the home, you do not owe anyone any money. It is your insurance policy. You are the policyholder. It’s your insurance money. Although contractors will have you believe otherwise and will attempt to scare and bully you into believing they have the upper hand, those threats will go nowhere.

To date, there is not one single case of a homeowner being taken to court or losing this argument. No State in its right mind is going to back a contractor who was attempting to rip you off of all your insurance money.

If they truly wanted to earn your business the honest way they should have provided an honest written estimate with a firm price you were to be charged up upon completion with detailed information regarding what products they’re using and exactly what is to take place at your home.

The correct way to hire a roofing contractor is to always demand “written estimates.” Because of the amount of shady contractors calling themselves roofers, you must have a technique to weed out the middleman and find the actual real roofers from your area. One of the only ways to do that is to demand written estimates.

Written estimates will speak volumes as to what type of contractor you are truly dealing with. Storm chasers or commission sales people or middleman contractors calling themselves roofers will have no idea how to prepare a written estimate of their own. Remember, they have been trained to take over your claim from the beginning without having to provide any of this.

By demanding written estimates you force the contractor to show you who they really are. Most homeowners are typically immediately met with anger or threats of retaliation when asked to provide an estimate. This is a sure sign you are being scammed. Never feel bullied or pressured into giving away all of your claims money because you have found yourself wrapped up in one of these ridiculous agreements.

Demand written estimates, do your research online, read customer reviews and complaints and choose your contractors wisely.

Need a second opinion? Want to see what a real roof estimate looks like? Fill out our contact form at HonestRoof.com and receive your free written estimate within 24 hours.