That “pre-existing wear” excuse is the one that gets me every time. I’ve seen adjusters point at a shingle that’s literally cracked in half from hail and say, “Well, that looks like it’s been there a while.” Drives me nuts. I always tell folks: after a storm, grab your phone, walk the perimeter, and snap pics—even if it just looks like a few granules in the gutter. The more you document, the harder it is for them to wiggle out of it. Insurance lingo really is its own weird language... sometimes I wonder if they do it on purpose.
- That “pre-existing wear” line makes me roll my eyes every time.
- I’ve had adjusters try to call obvious storm damage “old” just because there’s a little discoloration.
- What’s helped me: keep a running folder of photos, even before storms hit. If you’ve got a baseline, it’s way harder for them to argue.
- Insurance language is definitely confusing—sometimes feels like they want us to give up halfway through the claim.
- Still, I get they have to weed out fraud, but man, it gets old when legit damage gets brushed off.
That “pre-existing wear” excuse drives me nuts too. I swear, if I had a dollar for every time an adjuster tried to call hail dents “just old age,” I’d have paid for my last roof out of pocket. Keeping those before-and-after pics is clutch—wish more folks did it. Insurance lingo is a maze, but you pushed through, and that’s huge. It shouldn’t be this hard to get legit damage covered, but here we are...
Man, the “pre-existing wear” line is like their get-out-of-jail-free card. I’ve seen adjusters try to call hail hits “just granule loss from age” even when the dents are fresh and obvious. Here’s my go-to: I always snap pics after any big storm, even if it looks minor. It’s saved my bacon more than once. Curious—did your adjuster actually get up on the roof, or just do the ol’ binoculars-from-the-driveway routine?
I get where you’re coming from, but I’ve actually had an adjuster point out legitimate pre-existing issues that I missed, too. Sometimes it’s not just a cop-out. That said, mine did climb up there—no way I’d trust a driveway inspection after hail.