Report the damage to your insurer, photograph it, and don’t sign anything a door-to-door crew hands you. Minnesota and Wisconsin both bar a roofer from offering to pay your deductible. Both also let you cancel a roofing contract tied to an insurance claim if the claim is denied, within limits each state sets.
After the storm, in order:
- Tell your insurer and record the damage.
- Turn away door-to-door crews.
- Check the roofer’s license or certification.
- Get a written estimate and contract before work starts.
What Should You Do First After Hail or Storm Damage?
Tell your insurance agent or company, and keep a record. Wisconsin DATCP, the state consumer protection agency, gives these steps, alongside a fact sheet from Wisconsin’s insurance commissioner (OCI):
- Report it right away: Notify your insurance agent or company to start the claim.
- Make a list: Note every damaged item, including damage to the house itself.
- Take photos: Of damaged shingles, dented siding and anything else hit.
- Keep swatches: Pieces of damaged material, like shingles and siding.
- Keep damaged items: Don’t throw them out until the claim adjuster agrees.
- Keep receipts: For every repair or replacement.
Questions about an insurance agent, adjuster or company in Wisconsin go to OCI at (800) 236-8517. To ask about complaints against a contractor, call DATCP at (800) 422-7128. To check a Minnesota contractor’s license, call MN DLI at 651-284-5069.
Why Avoid Door-to-Door Storm Crews?
Because you may never get your money back. Wisconsin DATCP calls them “storm chasers”: crews that travel to places hit by severe weather and knock on doors. It says they often do poor work, or ask for payment up front and then do no work. They are often not from Wisconsin, so if something goes wrong, DATCP says it may be impossible to get your money back.
Signs to walk away, from MN DLI. A contractor that:
- Asks you to sign an estimate or authorization before you’ve decided to hire them
- Shows up unsolicited
- Arrives in an unmarked vehicle
- Offers to pay your deductible, or discounts or other rewards for hiring them
- Wants full or substantial payment before work starts
- Gives only a post office box
- Won’t give a Minnesota license number
- Uses high-pressure sales tactics
What to do instead, from Wisconsin DATCP:
- Ask friends, neighbors and your insurance agent for names.
- Try to get a local contractor.
- Ask who will actually do the work, since contractors must tell you about subcontractors.
- Get lien waivers for every payment, from the contractor and everyone supplying labor or materials.
- Keep copies of contracts, receipts and messages.
DATCP also warns that transient crews use a “free inspection” as a way in, and that the inspection could damage your property. Before you hire anyone, check the roofer’s license or certification.
Is an Authorization Form a Contract?
Almost always. MN DLI says a salesperson may ask you to sign an “authorization form” so they can inspect your roof or call your insurer. In almost every case it’s a binding contract that lets that contractor do any repairs your insurer agrees to cover, at a price the contractor and insurer agree.
MN DLI says the small print probably adds that if you cancel after three business days, you owe the contractor a share of the total claim settlement, usually 15 to 50 percent. Read anything before you sign it, and check the contractor first.
What Does Minnesota Law Say About Roofers and Insurance Claims?
Minnesota Statutes 325E.66 covers residential roofers, building contractors and remodelers doing work paid from a property insurance claim. They must not:
- Offer to pay your deductible: Or advertise or promise to pay any part of it, directly or indirectly, to win the job.
- Offer you a reward: Including for letting them inspect, for making a claim, or for referring others.
- Skip the estimate: They can’t give you an agreement authorizing repairs without a good faith, itemized estimate of the cost of work and materials.
- Act as your adjuster: They can’t interpret your policy, advise you on your coverage or duties under it, or adjust the claim for you, unless they hold a public adjuster license.
The roofer must give you written notice of these rules with its first estimate. Your insurer must give you one too. If a contractor breaks the law, your insurer doesn’t have to consider its estimate, and you or the insurer can sue it for damages. MN DLI enforces it, and its suggested notice says fines can reach $10,000 per violation.
MN DLI also says a roofing contract for repairs you expect your insurance to cover must let you cancel if the insurer denies the claim, with certain restrictions. And when the contractor contacted you first, the contract must give you three business days to cancel.
What Does Wisconsin Law Say About Roofers and Insurance Claims?
Wisconsin Statutes 100.65 covers contractors repairing or replacing the roof, or doing other outside work, on a one- or two-family home.
- No deductible offers: A contractor may not promise to pay or rebate any part of your deductible to get you to sign, including in an advertisement. That covers discounts, gifts, credits, referral fees and anything else of value.
- The insurance question: Before you sign a written contract, the contractor must give you a form asking whether the work is tied to an insurance claim, and a notice of cancellation form.
- Cancel if the claim is denied: You may cancel before midnight of the third business day after your insurer tells you in writing that the claim is denied in whole or in part. Deliver the notice in person, or send it by first class mail to the address in the contract, postmarked by that deadline.
- Money back in 10 days: The contractor must return your payments, deposits and any note or other evidence of debt within 10 days of getting your notice. It is owed the reasonable value of any emergency work you acknowledged in writing was needed to prevent damage. Any other fee in the contract can’t be enforced against you once you cancel this way.
- No negotiating for you: A contractor may not represent you or negotiate your claim. With your express consent, it may discuss the damage with your insurer and send the insurer its estimate.
A contractor that breaks these rules forfeits $500 to $1,000 for each violation. Wisconsin DATCP adds that if a contractor came to you and you signed a contract of more than $25 at your home, or away from the contractor’s place of business, you have three business days to cancel, under Wisconsin Statutes 423.202.
What Should the Repair Contract Say?
Everything that will be done, and the price, in writing, before work starts. DATCP’s emergency repair advice says the contract should be signed by both of you and include the contractor’s name and address, the work, the materials, the total price, the dates and any warranty. MN DLI adds a payment schedule and written change orders. Wisconsin DATCP’s advice also says:
- Permits: Ask your local building inspector whether the job needs a permit, and have the work inspected before you make the final payment.
- A written contract: Saying what work will be done, what materials will be used, start and finish dates, and the warranty.
- Lien waivers: At every payment, from the contractor and everyone who supplied labor or materials for it. DATCP says this stops a lien on your home if the contractor doesn’t pay its suppliers or workers.
- Copies: Of every contract, receipt, message and warranty.
Wisconsin’s home improvement rules (ATCP 110) say a contractor must give you its warranties in writing, tell you about every permit the job needs before you sign, and not start work until the permits are issued. The guide to choosing a roofing company covers what a Minnesota contract should include too.