Hello.

I have a relative in Georgia who recently suffered some roof damage. She went out and obtained 3 bids from licensed contractors to repair the damage and had her insurance adjuster come out to survey the damage. All three contractors indicated that full replacement was necessary. However the proposed compensation from her insurance company was significantly lower than all three bids. The primary reason for this appears to be the age of the roof (it is 10+ years old). I told her that this was fairly common practice but she indicated that she had a 'deluxe' policy that is supposed to provide full replacement cost regardless of the age of the roof.

I have never heard of such a policy but I have not read her policy, don't live in Georgia and am not really experienced in this area.

My questions are these:

1) Do policies such as this exist? / Is it possible her understanding is correct?

2) What possible recourses does she have if she is correct?

Thanks.

This might seem very strange answering my own question but I finally thought to ask my own agent this question.

He said that these policies do exist although he is not certain about how things in GA work. He said that they are called 'Replacement Cost' policies verses the 'Cash Value' policy I was more familiar with.

He suggested that she bypass the adjuster and talk directly with her agent or the claims office. Sometimes the initial check is not the full amount but just a value to get her started.

I'm still not sure about next steps for her if these don't work out but thses sound like reasonable first steps.