Dear Sir: We Are Cancelling Your Homeowner’s Insurance

10Apr07

That’s the letter I got from my insurance company on Friday. Well, not those exact words, but that’s the gist of it. As of April 21, my house is uninsured, unless I do something about it. They say my roof is damaged. More specifically, they say it is “clawed.” I happened to have come home early, and was able to reach my insurance agent on the phone. She explained that clawed doesn’t mean scratched by some woodland creature, as you might assume, but was roofing industry jargon for some undetermined kind of roof damage. Apparently it isn’t uncommon for policies to be rejected or cancelled. (They also refunded the unused portion of my insurance premiums, so if I don’t get it worked out with them, at least I’ll have some cash to apply to a new policy somewhere else.)

As it turns out, insurance companies send their own inspector to examine the property when a policy is requested. This doesn’t answer the burning question of why, since the insurance inspection was completed well before closing, it took until early April, more than a month after closing and six to eight weeks after the inspection. It also doesn’t answer why my home inspector said the roof has five years left on it, but their inspector says it needs to be replaced. Maybe this will all turn out for the better, but I know for sure that I wouldn’t have gotten this house if I thought it needed a new roof. As it was, the seller owed money at closing, so he definitely couldn’t have paid for it.

There is a slim chance that the insurance company is basing their decision on some photos taken at the inspection (it’s still not clear the extent of this inspection, or who is making the decision to cancel the policy). On those photos, there is no damage visible (to me anyway), but there is quite a bit of debris. So, today I bought a leaf blower (slash vacuum-mulcher), and blew as much of the debris off as possible. I took a bunch of pictures and sent them along to my insurance agent right away.

Then I decided to do some research on what, exactly, a “clawed” roof looks like. Turns out, the Internet is not the best source of information on clawed roofs. The only useful result on all of Google (someone please point me to better sources if they exist) was this manual from the Army Corps of Engineers. From chapter five:

Some asphalt shingles, particularly those manufactured during the approximate period 1950-62, after being on the roof for a number of years exhibit a phenomena which has been termed “clawing” (fig. 26). The clawing phenomena is attributed primarily to a lack of sufficient asphalt coating on the underside of the shingle. Shingle specifications were revised in 1962 to reduce the incidence of the clawing condition. At this time shingle weights were increased; the Type 210 shingle weights were increased; the Type 210 Clawed shingles should not be replaced merely for the sake of appearance. Although the shingles may be severely clawed, in all probability the roof will not leak and replacement is not required until such time as the shingles become deteriorated. However, clawing does shorten the useful life considerably.

It even provided this handy picture of a roof with clawed shingles:

For reference, here’s a picture of my roof shingles:

Now, I’m not expert in clawed shingles, but the two look quite different to me. My roof seems to be completely missing the distinct puckered look of Figure 26, above.

Also, though my house dates to the mid-50s, this is almost certainly not the original roof (according the the home inspector), so it seems unlikely that the shingles were manufactured in the 1950-62 time frame mentioned in the aforementioned quote.

So, now the ball is back in the insurance company’s court, and I have my fingers crossed that it works out. I really can’t afford a new roof right now, and I’ll never recoup that cost. But, if I have to, I’ll find a way to pay for it, because it’s better than ending up out on the street.

Filed under: complications, home-buying, insurance, roof, stress   |  1 Comment