Do You Have to Use Your Insurance Company's Contractor?

After a claim is approved, plenty of homeowners are handed a list, or a phone number, and told this is the roofer who does the work. It usually sounds more mandatory than it is. Here is what your carrier can and cannot require, and how to make the choice on the merits instead of on pressure.

The short answer

In almost every situation, you choose the contractor. Insurance regulation across states is built on a national model that treats steering a policyholder to a particular repair company as an unfair claim settlement practice. Your carrier owes the reasonable and necessary cost of the covered repair regardless of which licensed contractor performs it. Hiring your own does not void coverage, does not reduce the settlement, and is not grounds for delay.

The exception worth checking: some policies contain a right to repair or managed repair provision that lets the insurer arrange the work directly rather than pay a settlement. It is more common in certain markets than others. Two minutes with your declarations page and endorsement list tells you whether it applies to you.

What the network contractor actually offers

Preferred vendor programs are not a scam, and pretending otherwise would be dishonest. The real benefits: the carrier often backs the workmanship for a defined period, the claim paperwork tends to move smoothly because the parties work together constantly, and you skip the vetting work. For a small, simple repair, that convenience is worth something.

What it costs you

The tradeoff is whose relationship the contractor is protecting. A roofer whose pipeline depends on staying in a carrier's program has an incentive to keep scopes conservative and avoid friction over line items. When the estimate misses a slope, underprices ventilation, or omits code-required components, somebody has to push. Our whole supplement guide exists because that push happens on most real claims, and it is easier to make when the contractor's only relationship is with you.

One specific item to know by name: overhead and profit, often written as ten and ten. When a job legitimately requires three or more trades to coordinate, industry-standard estimating includes overhead and profit in the scope, and adjusters sometimes leave it out of a first pass. It is a normal thing to request, with documentation.

How to decide

• Judge every candidate the same way, network or not: local address, license and insurance in writing, real reviews from nearby homeowners, and a written scope you can compare. Our vetting guide works on program contractors too.
• Compare scopes, not prices. Two bids only mean something when they include the same tear-off, decking policy, underlayment, flashing, and ventilation. That comparison is what our estimate guide is for.
• Ask who argues for you if tear-off reveals more damage, and how many supplements that contractor filed last year.
• Do not be rushed. "This offer needs an answer today" is a sales tactic whether it comes from a door knocker or a call center.

Where we stand

We are not in a carrier's program, and we tell homeowners that plainly. It means nobody hands us work, and it also means nothing about your claim is filtered through our need to stay on a list. We document what is on your roof, we bring a licensed insurance adjuster's eye to the scope, and the only party we answer to is the one who signed our contract.

Quick answers

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