Deductibles are a headache for a lot of people, and the one question on everybody’s mind is how to avoid paying deductibles on their assets. This article will be answering the question of whether you can get a new roof without paying the deductible, and how you can do that.
However, to get a new roof without paying a deductible, you have to opt for a zero-deductible insurance policy which ensures that you don’t pay any deductible fee when you want an insurance claim over an asset.
What are Deductibles?
Deductible’ is an insurance term that simply refers to payments householders or homeowners pay in a lump sum on the insurance policy taken on whatever asset is insured before the providers of the insurance – in this case, the insurance company – pay the remainder.
For example, if you benefit from or purchase a health care service, and you have insurance, the amount you first pay before the insurance company covers the rest is called a deductible.
Another practical example is; if Joyce has a deductible of two thousand dollars ($2,000) on her Mercedes Benz, the car crashes and she would require a six thousand dollar ($6,000) repair, she would have to pay her $2000 deductible out of her pocket before the insurance company covers the rest of the amount, which is four thousand dollars ($4,000).
Now that we understand the concept of deductibles, it’s easier to understand when it is applied to a new roof.
Many times, when the roof of a house wears off and starts to break down, or when it gets damaged due to a fire outbreak, or wind, or a tree-cutting hail – as these are the common types of roof damages that an insurance policy covers and the owner of the house wants a repair, or wants a new one entirely, the insurance company will pay to the tune of whatever amount is left after the homeowner must have paid his deductible from his pocket.
If Mr. Rogers wants to get a new roof for his insured home, and this new roof costs ten thousand dollars ($10,000). If Mr. Rogers has a deductible of one thousand, five hundred dollars ($1,500), he will have to pay that money out of his pocket, while the insurance providers pay the rest of it, which in this case, amounts to eight thousand, five hundred naira ($8,500).
Also, note that deductibles can also take the form of percentages on the repairs, changes to the roof, or any other insured asset. The insurance company could establish that your deductible would be 10% or 15% on whatever the cost of repairs or changes will be.
Can I Get a New Roof Without Paying Deductibles?
You cannot avoid paying deductibles to get a new roof because deductibles are an intrinsic part of home insurance policies except you optimize for a zero-deductible insurance policy which ensures that you don’t pay any deductible fee when you want an insurance claim over an asset.
As a homeowner, naturally, after reading the introduction, you don’t want to spend or pay a lump sum out of your pocket, especially for an asset that you have fully insured, so your very first question would be to ask if it is possible to get a new roof without paying deductibles.
When this question is first asked randomly, the simple and short answer is; no, you can’t avoid paying deductibles, and this is because deductibles are an intrinsic part of home insurance policies.
This might break your heart a little, as honestly, nobody wants to chunk out a whole lot of cash to pay at once for an insured asset. That’s what insurance is supposed to do, right? Protect us against spending money on repairs like this.
However, beyond the fact that deductibles are deeply rooted in insurance policies, you can get your roofing done without paying deductibles.
There are several ways to circumvent and avoid paying deductibles. Some are legal ways, while some others are questionable, and this article will take you through them.
How to Get a New Roof Without Paying Deductible
Getting a Zero-deductible Insurance Policy
A zero-deductible or no-deductible insurance plan ensures that you do not have to pay any deductible fee when you want an insurance claim over an asset.
Here, the insurance provider, or the insurance company pays the full cost of your insurance claim. The reason many don’t opt for this type of insurance plan is that it comes with a higher insurance premium than any other insurance plan.
However, it is beneficial in that, it helps the insured – in this case, the homeowner – avoid unforeseen costs on deductible when he or she wants to get a new roof.
This is the best and only legal option to avoid paying the deductible. It is better to opt for paying a higher insurance premium than paying unexpected amounts in form of deductible when you want an insurance claim.
Contractor Waivers
People love to cut corners, and with cutting corners comes unforeseen risks that might put them in a worse situation than they were at the beginning.
Contractor waivers are a way of cutting corners to avoid paying your deductible.
Mostly, this is done by the roofing company charging more than they should for the roofing contract, to cover the costs of your deductible so you don’t have to pay the out-of-pocket money that you should.
For this to work, the contractors would have to draw up a false estimate of materials that would be used for the roofing, inflate the actual amount, and then send the fraudulent document to the insurance company who then pays the insurance claim with the belief that you would also pay your deductible.
Many times, the insurance company would request that you, the insured, pay your deductible first and send the proof of payment over before they release the insurance claim, and where this happens, you and the roofing contractors might be forced to draw up another false document that forms the proof of payment, all in the bid to defraud the insurance company and help you avoid paying the due deductible.
This is called insurance fraud, it is illegal, and in cases where things go wrong (they often do), the homeowner ends up finding himself in jail, instead of his home, under his new roof.
Another risk this type of route poses is that the homeowner will completely be at the mercy of the contractors.
This is because the whole venture has become illegal, and so the contractors would continue to cut corners by reducing the quality of materials to use, to either make more profit or recoup whatever profit was lost in the bid to defraud the insurance providers, and there would be little the disgruntled homeowner can do to solve this situation.
Other ways people avoid deductible on new roofs and other assets are either to insure them or to set up a payment plan with the contractors (roofers) to pay the deductible on installment, that way, they don’t have to take out an unexpected lump sum from their pockets to pay for the deductible.
The irony of the former method, however, is that even the new insurance on any unexpected deductible often comes with their own deductible, and so, homeowners always have to pay their deductibles one way or another.
If you are confused, you can read how to get a new roof for free here.
Final Thoughts
In the end, you would notice how that irrespective of the method you use to try to avoid paying the deductibles, they still have to be paid, either by taking a zero-deductible insurance policy where the higher premiums invariably stand as the deductible that would have been paid, or defrauding the insurance company and cheating them into paying the deductible for you, or taking up another insurance claim, paying premiums that end up helping you pay the deductible, or creating a payment plan with your contractor to pay the deductible, you really cannot avoid paying it.
The onus then rests on you, the insured, to seek the best method that will put you in the best position while making decisions about paying your deductible.
