Guides
Choosing a contractor after a home insurance claim
Who chooses your repair contractor after a claim, how to vet one, what the contract should say, and the deductible-waiver and assignment traps to avoid.
You choose your contractor. Your insurer can suggest one, and many have preferred networks, but the standard homeowners policy does not require you to use anyone, and the adjuster's estimate is a starting point for the repair price, not a contract you must hand to a particular company. The right contractor is licensed where your state requires it, insured, willing to work from the insurer's scope of loss while documenting anything it missed, and paid on a schedule that never leaves you funding the job with money you do not have.
The dangerous moment is the first week after a storm, when a stranger at the door offers to "handle everything with your insurance company." Most of what goes wrong later, from unfinished roofs to inflated claims to bills for the full deductible and then some, starts with a signature given in that week.
Who actually chooses
The ISO homeowners form (HO 00 03) obliges you to protect the property from further damage and to cooperate with the investigation. It says nothing that gives the insurer the right to pick your repairer. What the insurer controls is the amount it will pay and how it pays, which is why the contractor you hire and the estimate the adjuster wrote are two separate documents.
Many insurers run direct-repair or preferred-contractor programs. The usual pitch is speed and a workmanship guarantee backed by the insurer. The usual caution is that you remain free to decline, and that a network contractor is still your contractor once you sign. Where an insurer does require its own repairer, the NAIC's Unfair Claims Settlement Practices Act (Model #900) lists as an unfair practice failing to adopt reasonable standards to assure that those repairs are done in a workmanlike manner. State adoption varies. Read your policy, and if you use a network, ask for the insurer's warranty in writing.
A public adjuster or attorney helps with the amount of the claim, not the repair, and in many states a public adjuster may not also act as your contractor. If the dispute is about money rather than carpentry, see public adjusters: when to hire one and what they cost before hiring anyone.
Before you call anyone: the sequence that protects you
- Report the claim and mitigate first. Tarps, board-up and water extraction are emergency work you are expected to do and can claim under the reasonable-repairs provision. Keep the invoices and photos. Emergency work is not the same as rebuilding.
- Get the adjuster's estimate in writing, line items included. If the insurer sent only a total, ask for the itemized estimate; many states require it on request.
- Photograph the damage before anything is removed and keep torn-out materials until the adjuster says otherwise.
- Get two or three bids written against the same scope. A bid far below the others has omitted something. A bid above the insurer's estimate is not necessarily padded: after a widespread storm, material and labor costs commonly run past the adjuster's pricing software.
- Sign only a repair contract, after reading it, and never a form that gives the contractor authority over your insurance claim (see the assignment section below).
Vetting: what to check and where
| Check | Why it matters | Where to verify |
|---|---|---|
| License for the trade, in your state | Many states restrict unlicensed contractors from enforcing contracts or collecting; some license roofers separately | Your state's contractor licensing board lookup |
| General liability insurance | Damage the crew causes to your neighbor's property should not become your problem | Certificate of insurance sent by the insurer or agent, not handed over by the contractor |
| Workers' compensation coverage | If the crew is uninsured, an injury can reach your own policy; see injured contractors and workers at your home | Same certificate, or state workers' compensation records |
| Local presence and references | Out-of-area crews that follow storms are often gone when the warranty matters | Addresses of recent jobs you can drive past; calls to those homeowners |
| Permits | The contractor should pull them, in the contractor's name | Your city or county building department |
| Manufacturer credentials | Some shingle and metal-roof warranties require certified installers | The manufacturer's installer directory |
| Complaints | Patterns matter more than a single bad review | State licensing board and attorney general |
Do not treat a business card or a company web page as proof of a license. Look the number up yourself. For public adjusters, adjusters and agents, the check is separate: see how to check an agent's or adjuster's license.
The contract: terms that matter
A homeowner-friendly repair contract is specific. At minimum:
- A scope tied to the estimate. It names the rooms, materials, quantities, brand and grade, and says what is excluded. "Replace roof" is not a scope. "Tear off to deck, replace damaged decking at a stated per-sheet price, synthetic underlayment, 30-year architectural shingles, ridge vent, drip edge" is.
- A price that is fixed, or has a stated way to change. Change orders signed in writing, with the price, before the work starts.
- A payment schedule that follows progress. A modest deposit, a payment when materials are delivered, a payment at a defined stage, a final payment after inspection and clean-up. Some states cap deposits. Be wary of any demand for most of the money before work begins.
- Start and completion dates, and what happens when weather or backorders delay the job.
- Permits and code work as the contractor's responsibility, with code-upgrade costs treated separately if your policy has ordinance or law coverage coverage.
- Warranty terms in writing, for workmanship and materials, and how to make a warranty claim.
- Lien waivers. In most states, a supplier or subcontractor who is not paid can place a lien on your house even if you paid the contractor in full. Ask for partial waivers with each payment and a final waiver at the end. Lien rules vary by state, so ask the licensing board or an attorney what applies to you.
- A cancellation right. Many states give homeowners a short window to cancel a contract signed at home, and some add rules for storm repairs. The contract should state it.
Three traps specific to insurance repairs
Waiving or absorbing your deductible
"We'll cover your deductible" is the most common pitch from storm-chasing contractors. A contractor can do it only by inflating the invoice or by billing the insurer for work that was not done, and in many states that is insurance fraud. Florida's roofing-solicitation statute (Fla. Stat. 489.147, as amended in 2022) requires solicitations to disclose that the consumer is responsible for the deductible and that waiving it or filing a false claim is insurance fraud, a third-degree felony. The homeowner can be implicated as well. If a contractor offers, you have learned what you needed to about the contractor. contractor fraud after storms: how it works and how to stop it has the wider pattern.
Assignment of benefits
An assignment of benefits lets a contractor take over your right to the claim payment and deal with the insurer directly. It can look convenient, but it moves control of the claim, and sometimes the right to sue, to a business whose interests differ from yours. Florida ended the practice for policies issued on or after January 1, 2023, after a surge of litigation, and other states have restricted or regulated it. assignment of benefits: what to know before you sign covers the rules. A direction to pay, which only tells the insurer to include the contractor's name on a check, is not the same as handing over the claim. Read any form for the words "assign" and "all rights."
Signing before the scope is settled
A contract that says the price is "whatever the insurance company approves" lets the number float and gives you nothing to compare. If the insurer pays less than the bid, you owe the difference. If tear-out reveals rotted decking or wet insulation, the job needs a supplement: have the contractor send photographs and an itemized request, and notify the adjuster before the damage is covered over. See supplemental claim and supplemental claims and reopening a closed claim.
Paying the contractor from a claim
The money will probably arrive in stages, and the check may carry your mortgage company's name next to yours. That affects when and how you can pay a contractor. claim checks, holdbacks and when the money arrives explains actual-cash-value payments and recoverable depreciation holdbacks, and why your mortgage company is on the claim check covers lender endorsement and disbursement. The practical consequence: make sure the contract's payment schedule can be met from the way the claim will actually pay, not from the full replacement figure the contractor assumed.
A hypothetical example
Say a hailstorm damages your roof, and the insurer's estimate is $18,000 with a $2,500 deductible. (All figures are invented.) You collect three bids: $17,200, $21,000 and $31,500. The $31,500 bid comes from a company that knocked on your door, offered to waive the deductible and asked you to sign an authorization the same day. You decline. The $21,000 bid includes decking replacement and drip edge the adjuster's estimate omitted, so you forward the contractor's itemized supplement and photographs to the adjuster, who agrees to $19,400. You sign a fixed-price contract for $21,000 with a 10 percent deposit, progress payments and a final payment after inspection. You owe the deductible plus the roughly $1,600 gap between the contract and the insurer's payment. The contractor's insurance certificate comes straight from its carrier, and you keep each lien waiver.
Key takeaways
- You, not your insurer, pick the contractor; a network contractor is an option, not a requirement.
- Verify license, liability and workers' compensation coverage yourself, through the state board and the insurer's certificate.
- Insist on a specific scope, a staged payment schedule, permits, a written warranty and lien waivers.
- Never accept a deductible waiver, and read anything containing the word "assignment" before signing.
- Match the payment schedule to how the claim will pay, which may include a lender-endorsed check and a depreciation holdback.