Texas House Bill 1183 and the Neighborhood Riot

I don't know what I'm talking about and I'm not sure what is going to happen but Monday is a new day in the roofing industry. Now, when it hails, instead of just having roofing salesmen running around trying to solicit your business you'll have public adjusters and attorneys also ring your bell.

Here's what happened; Licensing of roofers by the state failed because it would have raised prices but House Bill 1183 passed and it is going to slow things down real bad if you want a good roof. As reported by moi before in this little journal, most roofers accept the first low bid by the insurance and cut, cut, cut. They don't know what a building code is, much less what they state. Remember, code is law. All this guy does is run as fast as he can door to door selling cheap. And roofs protect everything you own, unless you own a yacht or airplane. But often these things have roofs, hangers, too, to put your shirt you lost on.

So the roof gets done wrong, ventilation is not done to code, the roof fails in eleven years and when you sell your home the roof fails inspection and you have to spend 20x's your deductible or more to replace it. But when you move your kid's respiratory illnesses suddenly go away. you haven't been reading have you.

Back to the chaos going on in the street. A  riot is on but there are only a few hundred public adjusters in Texas. All of them are in front of your home but they'll have a years work by lunch time. And your roofer can't talk to the insurance and you want a good job, not the Earl Scheib roof, because you have a good one that passes building codes. you also have code upgrade on your policy, which cost you 10% more, but the insurance won't pay for those upgrades because you don't have them now. What's a girl to do?

I think this might be the plan but I  make no pretense to being an attorney: 
1) You call the insurance.
2) The adjuster shows up and either let's your roofer discuss the claim or not.
3) If not then you need to find a public adjuster and reschedule.
4) The public adjuster meets the insurance or just provides an estimate and can claim up to 10% of the money if it has taken something like 48 hours to get the adjustment after the initial insurance adjustment.
5) The insurance company rejects the public adjuster's numbers and it goes to an attorney.
6) The attorney files suit with interest plus attorney's fees...from the start date (I'm not an attorney but I talked to two today).
7) The roofer might do the roof for the original money and wait for the suit to settle it or the roof waits for the court case to finalize.

Again, who knows what Monday will bring but I believe either the insurance companies are hoping most homeowners will cave and go cheap and quick like a whore in the alley with a John and a few will fight it out.

most of us have been upset and swore never to settle but the wife nags, the roof leaks, tensions rise and you take the money and run. The the roof leaks and you need another attorney or you go to sell your home and you  need one then too.

 This is going to get real hairy. You won't find a public adjuster and the insurance will thumb it' nose at you.

Have you heard of triple indemnity, where someone has to pay triple damages for trying to rip you off and violation the Texas Deceptive Trades Act? The attorneys are knocking on our door already and we're going to have you hire them. Because you ask? Because quality cost and cheap cost more, but later. And few insurance companies are not going to try and exploit this and that means you.
I'm too upset to read this and correct the grammar or remove the profanity...and I'm going to push send, like I do when I send regrettable emails.

In the end, I believe, just like the price fixing programs the insurance carriers used to keep prices down, which we took from them and used to get prices up, the same thing will happen but ten fold. The difference is the  public adjusters and attorneys have their fingers in the pie....because they've been invited.





Jon Alan Wright

Jon Wright Roofing, Siding, and Windows

1915 Peters Rd., Suite 310

Irving, TX 75061

972.251.1818 Office

214.718.3748 Cell

972.554.8090 Fax

jonwright@jonwrightroofing.com

www.jonwrightroofing.com

   

Sequencing Your Energy Efficient Home Improvements.

So many restaurants and so little time. The same can be said for all the energy efficient products available for your home and choosing them in order of benefit and accounting for budget is very important.

Several months back I told the story of a home we redecked with radiant barrier deck, added insulation, ventilation and repaired his torn a/c ducts.  During the product selection process I noticed the customer had nice windows installed. When I commented on them he went into a cursing rage about the lying contractor and worthless windows he had paid for. I knew his energy loss was a serious problem. His a/c ran all day and in the winter his heat ran all the time. When the deficiencies were corrected, on the first night it went down to 35 degrees. He called to tell me his heater cycled only one time that night rather than run continuously. I informed him that his windows were now working. His correct order of repair would have been to fix his duct work rather that climatize his attic, then ventilate because Texas gets so hot, insulate to contain his energy, radiant barrier decking to keep the radiant heat out that penetrated his insulation and then the windows.

When you have a 165 degree oven on top your home you either lower the attic temperature or you start cooking in the attic. This particular home had three amplifying issues to a hotter home. First it was a lower slope keeping the roof close to the ceiling and allowing the radiant heat to stay radiant, rather than converting to convected heat over distance. Secondly it was a hip design so more roof was close to the ceiling than on a gable design where on the gable ends the roof is far from the ceiling. Lastly the deck was one inch plank and there was heavy framing lumber. This added more material to absorb the daily heat and then radiate heat longer into the night.

There are other products not covered here like roofs with a high Solar Reflective Index, a measure of how much light bounces off the roof and is not absorbed and how fast the roof material throws off the heat it has absorbed, will be discussed in the next blog and how they different systems effect each other.

Jon Alan Wright

Jon Wright Roofing, Siding, and Windows

1915 Peters Rd., Suite 310

Irving, TX 75061

972.251.1818 Office

214.718.3748 Cell

972.554.8090 Fax

jonwright@jonwrightroofing.com

www.jonwrightroofing.com

   

Insurance Companies versus The International Residential Code and City Building Officials

Most homeowners have "code upgrade" in their policy. You can find out by looking in the  "Building and Personal Property Coverage Form" or something like that. I am not an insurance adjuster but I've seen as many or more claims as anyone over the decades. This is the rub: building codes change and homes don't magically upgrade.

Now a disaster hits and your home is several years old. The codes have changed, you have to rebuild, but you have to rebuild better. Period. Code is law. If you have code upgrade then you should be okay, right? No, if you have State Farm. They want to know if the codes are enforced and they know most cities will answer that. It's like asking which laws I can break. no, it is exactly like that.

We've had several customers where we discovered the codes were not met, verified they had code upgrade and State Farm either said that if what I said was true they'd pay it or go ahead and we'll let you know. To finish the job we had to replace the decking on the homes. State Farm has copies of the code, has verified that it is code but won't pay because they say it might not be enforced.  If we hadn't replaced the decking the homeowner might have have had the entire roof and deck red tagged. Or years later when the home was being sold the inspector might have failed it causing a whole roof and deck system to be replace. The minimum would have been the roof started to leak and State Farm would not have paid for the damage because it was defective workmanship and not a sudden catastrophic loss. Great for State Farm because they could collect premiums on a roof they wouldn't pay for.

I've head that since a huge hailstorm hit Amarillo, which has some stricter building codes, especially for a roof, that State Farm Insurance is sending a liaison to reason with the building department. Good luck with those good ole boys. They may talk slow but they ain't stupid.

To place the word "enforced" of the word "code" is an attempt at deception. Here's some awesome reasoning from a wise modern philosopher in  "The Semantic Deception of Dialectical Theses"

"Before we begin examining specific damages, let us develop an appreciation for what is being sought out, as defined by the title of this article. What is, “the semantic deception of dialectical theses?” Everyone knows that a “deception” is a “lie,” so this is as good place a place as any to start our discussions. It isn't always the case that there is a “liar” telling us a “lie” when we are being deceived. A lie is a falsehood, but it is stated. An omission of information could be just as damaging and is still a deception, although not a lie. However, to deceive, to “create a deception” does involve work. Somebody or some thing has to “do something” to deliberately cause you to be deceived. So, stated or not, any deceptiveness we are about to discuss, by the rules of existence and definition, must be intentional. We will be well served by remembering this. You cannot be deceived by erroneous information that occurred “by accident,” this is simply you deceiving yourself with erroneous information. For it to be deception, there must someone doing the deceiving.......

 

..... The goal in our understanding of the semantic deception is twofold: First, we must know that abstract considerations are matters of opinion and that definitions, when reduced properly, should not end up contradictory. Now, let's remember that “a deception” requires a “deceiver.” So if we have a semantic deception, we have a message that is intentionally false, wrong and dangerous, in it's meaning." 

 

In other words, I think they are not paying their bills and living up to their contract. 

Jon Alan Wright

Jon Wright Roofing, Siding, and Windows

1915 Peters Rd., Suite 310

Irving, TX 75061

972.251.1818 Office

214.718.3748 Cell

972.554.8090 Fax

jonwright@jonwrightroofing.com

www.jonwrightroofing.com