Storm chasers and contractor scams

Bottom line first. After a hail storm, out-of-town crews often go door to door. Some are honest. Some are not. The safest habits are simple: never pay in full up front, never sign anything you have not read, never take a promise to cover your deductible, and get everything in a signed contract. This is general education, not legal or insurance advice, and your policy's own wording controls.

Why scams spike after a storm

A storm chaser is a contractor who travels to a storm area to find work fast and may leave before problems show up. Hundreds of roofs are damaged at once, homeowners are stressed, and insurers are busy. That is the setting scammers want. A roof problem may only show up months later, when a leak appears and the crew's phone number no longer works.

Red-flag checklist

• Someone knocks on your door and says your roof is damaged before you have called anyone.
• "Sign today or lose this price." Real roofers can wait for you to read a contract.
• They ask for the full price, or a very large deposit, before any materials arrive.
• They offer to cover, waive or rebate your deductible. Colorado law prohibits this (C.R.S. 6-22-105(1)).
• They say they will "handle everything with your insurance" and ask you to sign papers you have not read.
• They claim to be, or act as, a public insurance adjuster without being one (C.R.S. 6-22-105(3)).
• No physical address, no email, only a cell phone, or an out-of-state truck and no local office.
• They cannot show their surety (a bond) or liability insurance, or the contract leaves these out (C.R.S. 6-22-103(1)(e)).
• They want to climb on your roof before you have agreed to anything, or they will not give you photos of what they found.
• No written contract, or a contract with blanks.

Paperwork that signs over your claim

Some papers do more than hire a roofer. An assignment of benefits hands your right to the insurance payment to someone else. A direction to pay tells your insurer to send money to the roofer. Colorado insurance law says an insurer is not committing an unfair practice when it pays an assignee it believes in good faith holds a written assignment from you. If the person paid did not hold a written assignment and did not provide goods or services at your request, the insurer remains responsible to you under the policy (C.R.S. 10-3-1104(5)).

The practical lesson: a signature on that kind of paper can change who receives your claim money. The sources for this course do not give more detail on every kind of form, so as a general caution: do not sign a paper that sends claim money to someone else until you have read it, understood it, and, if you are unsure, asked your insurer or a lawyer what it does. Your policy's wording may also matter.

Public adjusters are different from roofers

A public adjuster is a person you hire to help you with a claim. In Colorado, no one may act as or hold themselves out as a public adjuster without a license (C.R.S. 10-2-417(1)(a)). A licensed public adjuster must carry a surety bond of at least twenty thousand dollars (C.R.S. 10-2-417(2)(a)). After a catastrophic disaster, a public adjuster may not charge more than ten percent of any insurance settlement or proceeds (C.R.S. 10-2-417(4)). Separately, in every case, a public adjuster may not require or accept any fee, retainer or deposit before the claim is settled (C.R.S. 10-2-417(4)). A public adjuster may not solicit you during the loss-producing event itself (C.R.S. 10-2-417(6)(b)), may not take part in the repair work on a claim they adjust (C.R.S. 10-2-417(6)(g)), and may not send you to a repair firm that pays them for the referral (C.R.S. 10-2-417(6)(f)). You may also rescind an agreement with a public adjuster by mailing written notice to the insurer and the adjuster within seventy-two hours after signing (C.R.S. 10-2-417(6)(i)(IV)(A)).

Whether a particular storm counts as a "catastrophic disaster" is a question the sources here do not settle, so do not assume.

How the roofing law protects you

• It requires a written contract signed by both sides with the roofer's physical address, email and phone (C.R.S. 6-22-103(1)(d)).
• It requires the bold statement that your payments are held in trust until materials are delivered or a majority of the work is done (C.R.S. 6-22-103(2)).
• It gives you a seventy-two-hour cancel right with a full deposit refund (C.R.S. 6-22-103(1)(f)), and a seventy-two-hour right after a written insurer denial (C.R.S. 6-22-104(1)(a)), with money back within ten days (C.R.S. 6-22-104(2)).
• It bars deductible waivers (C.R.S. 6-22-105(1)).

The roofing law is not a license check. The sources for this course do not describe a state roofing license, so check what your city or county requires: many local governments register or license contractors and require a permit for roof work. Call the local building department, ask whether the contractor is registered and whether a permit is needed, and check that the name, address and insurance on the contract match what you were shown.

If you think you have been scammed

1. Stop paying. Do not sign anything else.
2. If you are within the cancel window, send written rescission notice now to the address in the contract and keep proof (C.R.S. 6-22-104(1)(b)).
3. Tell your insurer in writing what happened, including any promise about your deductible.
4. Report to your state insurance regulator and your state attorney general's consumer office. Look up their current contact details on their official sites.
5. Report fraud or theft to your local police.
6. Keep every paper, photo, text and receipt.

Separately, if your insurer unreasonably delays or denies a covered claim, Colorado law lets you sue for attorney fees, court costs and two times the covered benefit (C.R.S. 10-3-1116(1)). That is a remedy against the insurer, not the roofer, and is covered in a later lesson.

Example with real numbers

Priya's roof has hail damage. A door-knocker quotes $18,000, asks for the full $18,000 up front "to lock in materials," and adds, "I will cover your $2,000 deductible."

Check the pieces against the rules:

1. Full payment up front: $18,000 paid before materials arrive. The contract is supposed to say payments are held in trust until delivery or a majority of the work is done (C.R.S. 6-22-103(2)). A request for the whole price first is a red flag.
2. Deductible: the offer is a promise to waive $2,000, which is prohibited (C.R.S. 6-22-105(1)). If Priya agreed, the insurer would not have to consider the estimate (C.R.S. 6-22-105(2)(a)). That puts the $18,000 - $2,000 = $16,000 insurance payment at risk to "save" $2,000.

Priya says no, asks for a written contract, checks with the city, and later signs with a local roofer for $18,000 with a $2,000 deposit. She pays the $2,000 deductible herself, and the insurer pays $16,000. If she rescinds in time, she gets the deposit back within ten days.