Does Homeowners Insurance Cover Roof Replacement

Sinkholes in St. Petersburg? Not as rare as you'd think

Everyone knows there are sinkholes in Hernando County, where nearly a third of homeowners in one subdivision have reported sinkhole damage.

And everyone past a certain age remembers the Great Winter Park Sinkhole, which in 1981 swallowed a house, five Porsches and half of an Olympic-sized swimming pool.

But sinkholes in the city of St. Petersburg? Within a few miles of tony Beach Drive restaurants and shops?

Yes, more than a dozen St. Petersburg homeowners have filed insurance claims for sinkhole damage since 2007, according to a short-lived state database.

A few years back, Carlene Byfield's son was mowing the lawn at their home south of downtown when he suddenly sank into a knee-deep hole.

Then "the foundation cracked all over from the garage to the wall,'' said Byfield, who had to sue her insurer, University Property & Casualty, to get it to pay for repairs. "A lot of people came in and did work and it's livable for right now.''

As the Tampa Bay Times recently reported, the number of sinkhole claims in Florida has surged in the past five years with many homeowners getting big payouts that are causing mounting losses for insurance companies. State-run Citizens Property Insurance Corp., which has more Florida policyholders than any other company, says it collected $37 million in sinkhole premiums in the first nine months of 2011 but paid out almost $314 million.

Like the rest of Pinellas County, St. Petersburg lies in a "sinkhole alley'' that includes Pasco, Hillsborough and especially Hernando, which leads the state in sinkhole claims.

The entire region is prone to sinkholes because of its geology: underground limestone caverns full of voids that can collapse due to fluctuating water levels. Hernando, with its sandy soil, has more sinkholes than St. Petersburg, much of which sits on a fairly thick layer of clay that can better support structures.

Yet St. Petersburg is not immune to sinkholes and sinkhole-like activity, particularly in the Crescent Lake area north of downtown. There, roads ripple into natural speed bumps and vacant lots that are all that remain of houses that had to be demolished because of severe cracking.

Help with insurance claims for my damaged roof

Has your roof been damaged in a recent storm in Charlotte NC? Perhaps you suffered hurricane damage. Maybe hail and high winds have completely destroyed your roof, or your roof was decimated as a result of a house fire. If you are one of the lucky ones, your homeowners insurance will cover the cost of repairing or replacing your roof. Even so, you will still have to negotiate with your insurance company.  So, you are probably wondering how do I get help with insurance claims for my damaged roof?

Without help with insurance claims for my damaged roof, it is difficult to afford repairs

After reporting your damaged roof to your insurance company and making a claim to cover the cost of repair, your insurance company will send a representative to your house to assess the damage and estimate the cost of repairs. While your insurance company has a duty to finance any repairs needed in accordance with your insurance policy, the insurance company also has a duty not to spend more money than is needed to satisfy the terms of your policy.

Your insurance adjuster will be looking at your damaged roof from two angles. First, your insurance representative will want to save his employer, the insurance company, money, and repair the damage of your house as cost-effectively as possible without wasting any money. Second, your insurance representative knows that he must fulfill the terms of your policy and give you the full amount of money that you need to properly repair your Charlotte NC roof.

The other problem is that the insurance representative is not the one who will be removing your old roof, or making the necessary repairs to your old roof, or for that matter, doing all the work to install the new roof and purchase necessary supplies. He may have an inaccurate view of exactly how much it really is going to cost to fix your roof. By trying to save his employer money, the insurance adjuster may not give you all the money you need for the professionals at Advanced Roofing and Exteriors to properly fix your roof. On top of that, because you are not an expert in roof repair, you do not know how much it will cost to fix your roof. Therefore, you have no way of knowing for certain if the insurance adjuster has agreed to give you the full amount of money you really need and deserve as insurance claim for damaged roof .

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