Storm-Chaser Scams: How to Vet a Roofer After a Georgia Hailstorm

Within a day or two of a confirmed hailstorm in North Georgia, trucks with unfamiliar plates start working the neighborhood. Most roofers who knock are not crooks, and we knock on doors ourselves. But the storm-chaser business model runs on a few recognizable plays, and every one of them is built to be signed on the porch before you have had time to check. Here is how to check.

What a storm chaser actually is

A storm chaser follows the hail map. The company works one state in spring, Georgia in early summer, and wherever the next swath lands after that. It rents a temporary office, prints local-looking yard signs, hires door-knockers on commission, and subcontracts the actual roofing to whichever crew is available. The goal is volume: sign as many roofs as possible in the weeks after the storm, install them fast, and move on before the first callback.

None of that is illegal, and some chaser crews install a decent roof. The problem is what happens in year three, when the flashing leaks and the phone number is disconnected. A roof is a long relationship with whoever installed it, and the chaser model is designed to be short. Our hail season guide explains why the same neighborhoods see this cycle every few years.

The deductible "waiver"

The opener you will hear most is some version of "we can take care of your deductible." It sounds like a discount. It is insurance fraud, and in Georgia it is illegal for a contractor to waive, rebate, or absorb your deductible on an insurance-paid job.

Here is the mechanism. Your carrier pays the replacement cost minus the deductible on the understanding that you pay the deductible. A contractor who "waives" it either inflates the invoice so the carrier unknowingly covers it, or quietly builds a cheaper roof so the math works. Either way the carrier is deceived, and you are a party to the deception, because the final invoice has your name on it. The practical cost shows up in the roof: thinner underlayment, reused flashing, skipped decking. We never do it, and the honest answer to "can you waive my deductible" from any contractor is no.

Deposit and run

The simplest scam is the oldest. A large deposit "to order materials," a start date that keeps sliding, and then nothing. Sometimes the crew does show up, strips the roof, and disappears when the next progress payment is refused.

Protect yourself with sequence. A legitimate company does not need a large cash deposit on a storm job; the insurance payments and your deductible fund it in stages tied to real events, like material delivery and completion. Pay by check or card so there is a record. Never sign an insurance check over to a contractor before the work it pays for is done. And remember that a contract signed in your home can generally be cancelled within three business days under federal door-to-door sales rules; if you signed under pressure, use that window.

The assignment of benefits pressure

An assignment of benefits, or AOB, is a document that transfers your rights under the claim to the contractor. Once it is signed, the contractor deals with your carrier directly, receives your checks directly, and decides how your claim is argued. It is pitched as a convenience: "we handle the insurance so you do not have to."

What it actually does is remove you from your own claim before a scope or a price exists. If the contractor pads the claim, it is your policy history. If the contractor walks, your carrier has been paying someone else. A related device is the contingency agreement with a cancellation fee, which commits you to the company if the claim is approved and charges you a percentage if you change your mind. Read anything with "assign," "contingency," or "liquidated damages" in it twice, and do not sign it on the porch. What you should sign, when you are ready, is a written scope with a price.

Damage that was not there yesterday

The ugliest play is manufactured damage. A "free inspection" that lifts shingles, cracks seal strips, or taps the roof with a hammer to make hail-style marks, so the adjuster has something to find. Carriers and their adjusters know these patterns well: hail does not strike in neat rows, and real bruising softens the mat in a way a hammer does not. The usual outcome is a denied claim, a note on your history, and a roof that is now genuinely damaged. Only let someone on your roof who will show you photos of what they found, and be suspicious of a finding that cannot be shown.

The verification checklist

Take the card inside and spend fifteen minutes. A legitimate contractor passes all of this cheerfully; we hand most of it over before being asked.

• Licensing, the Georgia way. Georgia does not issue a roofing-specific state license, so "we are fully licensed" means less here than it would in a state that does. Ask instead for the company's local business license and look the company up on the Georgia Secretary of State's business search. A company registered last month under a name that matches no reviews is telling you something.
• A certificate of insurance, from the agent. General liability and workers' compensation, sent to you by the insurance agent named on the certificate, not a photocopy from a truck. Without workers' comp, an injured roofer on your property can become your problem.
• A local address you could drive to. Not a mailbox store, not a hotel. Ask how long they have worked under this company name and in which counties.
• Reviews with photos and places. Read the Google reviews for named jobs in cities you recognize, photos of finished roofs, and responses from the company. Dozens of reviews posted in a single month after a storm are their own warning.
• Manufacturer certification. Credentials like GAF certification are issued to the company, not the salesman, and can be checked on the manufacturer's site.
• A written scope before a signature. Materials by brand and line, underlayment, ice-and-water locations, a per-sheet decking price, flashing replaced rather than reused, ventilation, cleanup, a start window, and the warranty in writing with who honors what.
• References from the last storm, not this one. Anyone can hand you a happy customer from last week. Ask for someone whose roof they put on two or three years ago.

Pressure in its own words

"I only have a few spots left this week." "We got your neighbor approved." "Sign now and I will put you on the schedule." "The tarp is free if you sign today." "Your adjuster is a friend of mine." Each of these has one purpose: to close before verification. Real hail damage does not expire over the weekend, and a legitimate contractor will still be in business when you call back. The right response to every line above is the same: thank you, leave a card, I will call you. Our door-knocker guide covers the sixty seconds on the porch itself.

What a legitimate company does differently

It inspects first, with photos it shows you, and it tells you plainly when the roof did not take storm damage. It gives you time. It does not ask you to assign your claim, and it never touches your deductible. It documents the damage thoroughly, and if it keeps a licensed insurance adjuster on staff the way we do, that person's job is to scope and document the loss, not to negotiate the claim for you, because a contractor cannot act as your public adjuster in Georgia. It has a warranty it can honor because it will still be here; ours on labor runs 50 years. Its reviews are readable, with names and photos; ours sit at 5.0 across 66 Google reviews. And it gives you a way to see the job as it happens, which for our customers is the RoofMap homeowner portal.

If a crew has already knocked and you are not sure what you are looking at, call Robust Roofing at (470) 887-6637. We have worked the same North Georgia counties for more than ten years, our storm damage restoration process starts with a free inspection with photos, and the straight answer is free whether or not you ever hire us.