By: Therese Potter (All About Insurance)
On September 25th, 2020 parts of Cary and Apex North Carolina had a large hail storm roll through. It was about 8pm. It left leaves on the ground and pelted them to cars and sides of houses. Approximately 16,551 buildings were in the affected area. Cars were dented and roofs were damaged. How does this effect your insurance and should you be worried to file a claim?
*First for an auto policy to cover hail you have to have comprehensive coverage. Then you need to determine what your comprehensive deductible is (your out of pocket.) After this is determined you then need to get an estimate of the cost of repairs. if it is close to your deductible it may not be worth filing. Filing a claim for hail damage on your car will NOT go against you.
*Second for your roof on your home you will still need to first determine your deductible and then estimated costs to repair or replace. The hard part is finding a reputable roofer, because when a hail storm hits the roofers are there the next day trying to convince people that their roof needs to be replaced. If they replace roofs for a living of course they will tell you it needs to be replaced, so be careful! Make sure you look the company up and know the rating. Don't give them a down payment or large sums of money and work closely with your insurance carrier. As for your home policy, depending on the length of time with your insurance provider a hail storm claim may or may not affect you, many factors are involved with these types of claims. Those factors vary per insurance carrier. If you have a local agent, call and discuss these things with them, never call an 800 number, because once you do that, you have typically filed a claim. You can wait up to 3 years to file a claim. This is why it is very important to write down the date from storms and details of damage to your property!
For questions, comments, or an insurance quote call 919-321-2886. Or email the author at therese@aai4u.com.