Insurance Company Can’t Find Matching Replacement Siding – What Can I Do?

LESLIE: Wade in South Dakota is on the line and has a question about siding. How can we help you?

WADE: Hi. We had a big hailstorm come through and it took out a bunch of our siding – our steel siding. And I’m kind of fighting with the insurance company to find an exact match. My question, I guess, is – the house is close to 20 years old. What are the chances that the siding that they pick is going to match up with the color?

TOM: Between little and none.

WADE: That’s kind of what I figured.

TOM: And listen, Wade, when – this is not a new argument with insurance companies. It happens all the time with roof damage, you know?

Like say you get ice-dam damage and you have to just replace like 3 feet of roof on the front of the house or maybe you get leaks around a vent or something and you have to replace a piece of roof. Insurance companies traditionally replace the entire roof. And in your case, they should be replacing all of your siding, without argument, because they’ve got to restore it at least as good as it was before. And giving you mismatched siding isn’t what you contracted them to do.

So I would stick to your guns. And sure, give them the opportunity to find a replacement but they won’t be able to. And you don’t have to accept it and you can insist that it all be replaced with brand-new siding.

Do you have a private adjustor on this to help you with the claim?

WADE: Somebody that the insurance company contacted, yes.

TOM: That adjustor is working for the insurance company. What you want to do is get a public adjustor. And a public adjustor works for you, the public. And they work on commission, so it doesn’t really cost you much to have these guys on the job. And they’re there to find every single, solitary thing that they can claim for and get that into the claim.

So, everything from picking up the nails on your property that will be part of that construction project, to getting the whole house re-sided. They try to get that claim as full as possible because the more they find, the more money they make. Because they’re all on commission.

So I would definitely find a good-quality public adjustor; perhaps check with your attorney. Do your research, find somebody that has a lot of experience and let them fight for you so you don’t have to fight with the insurance company.

WADE: Great. I’ll definitely look into that. Thank you.