My insurance estimate is less than any roofing quote I have had. What now?
This is normal and it is usually fixable. A carrier writes its first estimate from a single adjuster visit, and items that were not visible or not thought about on that visit are simply absent from the scope. Getting them added is called filing a supplement, and it is a documentation exercise rather than an argument. Most short claims are short because nobody went back and asked.
The adjuster gets one visit and writes from what he can see
An adjuster is on your roof once, usually for well under an hour, often on a day when he has several other roofs to get to. He measures, photographs, notes the damage he can see, and writes a scope in estimating software the carrier uses.
What that process captures well is the obvious: the shingles, the square footage, the pitch. What it captures badly is everything that is either buried, code-driven, or only discoverable once the roof comes apart. None of that is bad faith. It is a single visit doing what a single visit can do.
The items most often missing are boring and legitimate
Drip edge. Ridge and hip cap as a separate line rather than folded into field shingle. Valley metal. Pipe boots. Ice and water barrier where code requires it. Decking replacement, which is genuinely unknowable until the tear off. Code upgrades a city has adopted since the roof was last done, which your policy may cover under ordinance and law.
None of these are contentious. They are the kind of line item that gets added routinely once somebody points at it with a photograph and a price in the carrier's own format.
A supplement is paperwork, and it has to look like the carrier's paperwork
A supplement is a written request to revise the scope. It works when it arrives priced in the same estimating system the carrier uses, with photographs showing why each line belongs, and referenced to the original claim.
It fails when it arrives as an email saying the estimate was too low. That is why it is a specific skill rather than something to fit around selling jobs, and it is why we keep a supplement manager on staff rather than leaving it to whoever sold the roof.
A partial payment is not the end of the claim
Carriers commonly pay an initial amount and hold back depreciation until the work is done. Receiving money is not the same as the claim being closed, and a claim can be supplemented after a first payment.
It is a common sequence. The first roofer files the claim, the carrier pays part of it, and the roofer stops answering. A second look at the same claim can add the items the first scope missed, and the carrier pays the difference.
Related questions
How long do I have to supplement a claim?
Policies carry time limits and they vary, so check yours. Sooner is materially better than later in every case.
Does supplementing mean suing my insurer?
No. It is a revision request inside the normal claim process, and most of it is uncontroversial line items being added.
Can you supplement a claim another roofer opened?
Yes. We can review a claim that somebody else started.
Will my rate go up if the claim gets bigger?
That is a question for your agent. Adjusting the scope of an open claim is different from filing a new one, but your policy is what governs it.
