Rental property Roof damaged

[jmolayal]

Hey gang,

My wife and I have a few rental properties out of state (in Missouri, we live in Florida now). We're back in Missouri visiting friends, and during a drive by of one of our properties, we noticed that the roof looked a bit.. Funny. Like it's being lifted off the house. We walked around the back of the house, and discovered a large bare spot where shingles are completely missing.

We suspect that a storm of some sort hit and winds were strong enough to lift the roof / blow the shingles off. I've attached a few pictures. My question to you fine folks is, how do I proceed with the insurance on this. I don't know the date of the storm, or any other details than what you see here. My renters never contacted me regarding the roof.

Appreciate any insight guys. Thanks

http://s16.postimage.org/ycv8nevw5/Front_of_House.jpg
http://s16.postimage.org/lzmzu8vlh/IMG_2952_Zoomed.jpg
http://s16.postimage.org/ekxo1v9px/IMG_2952.jpg

 

[cliftonite]

Hey gang,

My wife and I have a few rental properties out of state (in Missouri, we live in Florida now). We're back in Missouri visiting friends, and during a drive by of one of our properties, we noticed that the roof looked a bit.. Funny. Like it's being lifted off the house. We walked around the back of the house, and discovered a large bare spot where shingles are completely missing.

We suspect that a storm of some sort hit and winds were strong enough to lift the roof / blow the shingles off. I've attached a few pictures. My question to you fine folks is, how do I proceed with the insurance on this. I don't know the date of the storm, or any other details than what you see here. My renters never contacted me regarding the roof.

Appreciate any insight guys. Thanks

http://s16.postimage.org/ycv8nevw5/Front_of_House.jpg
http://s16.postimage.org/lzmzu8vlh/IMG_2952_Zoomed.jpg
http://s16.postimage.org/ekxo1v9px/IMG_2952.jpg

Damage doesn't seem so bad. Would you really want to get insurance involved for that? I don't think renters pay attention to those things lol.

 

[jmolayal]

Damage doesn't seem so bad. Would you really want to get insurance involved for that? I don't think renters pay attention to those things lol.

I'm really not sure what the best thing to do is. It looks to me like I could just have it patched and move on with life, but I worry about what might be wrong that I can't see.

Is my best bet to not turn it into insurance?

Also, how the hell do you use image tags?

/n00b

 

[rsutoratosu]

I would see if any local guys will give you a free quote and check the rest of the roof, if there are hidden damage, time to call insurance, if they can patch it for cheap, dont involve insurance

 

[Uppsala9496]

If you are going to involve your insurance, no worries about the date. They obviously know this is a rental and that you live out of state and it would be impossible for you to know when exactly it happened. The insurance company can just look at storm dates for their internal records.

 

[PimpJuice]

I'm in St.Louis and we did have some really bad storms go through a couple months ago. I have quite a few friends who have gotten new roofs.

 

[jmolayal]

If you are going to involve your insurance, no worries about the date. They obviously know this is a rental and that you live out of state and it would be impossible for you to know when exactly it happened. The insurance company can just look at storm dates for their internal records.

This is sort of what I was hoping to find out.

As far as involving them, I'm not sure what the best thing to do is. If the damage has been there for a month or two, who knows what kind of damage may have occurred since there was nothing covering the decking. Furthermore, since I'm not local, dealing with contractors myself is going to be a pain the ass.

Isn't this what I have insurance for?

 

[olds]

The renters can't tell you when the damage happened?

I'd also ream out the renters for not informing you. You could have had it fixed right away and avoided any further damage that may be caused by water penetration or wind from storms after the damage happened.

 

[jmolayal]

The renters can't tell you when the damage happened?

I'd also ream out the renters for not informing you. You could have had it fixed right away and avoided any further damage that may be caused by water penetration or wind from storms after the damage happened.

Couldn't agree more on this. I'll tell them next time this happens it's a week in your basement as punishment.

 

[rivan]

Couldn't agree more on this. I'll tell them next time this happens it's a week in your basement as punishment.

I agree too, but many renters take the position that it's not their responsibility. One of the many reasons I'm not a landlord any longer, and if I ever do it again, I'll have a service manage it all for me.

 

[SpatiallyAware]

I agree too, but many renters take the position that it's not their responsibility. One of the many reasons I'm not a landlord any longer, and if I ever do it again, I'll have a service manage it all for me.

This needs to be in their lease. It is absolutely their responsibility to simply notify you of damages, I would be pissed if I saw that on my properties without being notified.


That damage is minor. Pay someone to fix it. It's not worth dealing with insurance, wait until you REALLY need it.


FYI... if you are renting property.... you really need to make sure your insurance ducks are in a row.

 

[jmolayal]

We rent three separate single family homes, and have business insurance policies for each of them. Our lease agreement does explicitly state that they need to notify us of this type of thing, but renters are.. well.. renters...

Going to get a couple of estimates going out there. I'll know better how to handle this once we have solid numbers and an idea of how extensive the damage is.