It would be considered insurance fraud if you took off aluminum siding and put on low grade siding. Weatherguard Const. out of Stillwater got in big trouble for this back in 2002. Talked with the head inspector of Stillwater and she told me what occured as well as a couple insurance adjusters who had to testify against Weatherguard.

Funny thing is they seem to be doing better than ever and you don't have to drive much to see there pretty little yard signs.

They are working the area of my rental home that got hit with hail last week really hard. One home owner said they were out to visit only a few hours after the hail hit.

Still waiting for my first check to come back from the mortage co, they are sending me 1/2 of what the insurance co. sent me. Iget the other 1/2 when job is 90% done. I called my agent and told him about the experience I had with the adjuster, He then called the adjuster to hear his side of the story, giving him the benefit of the doubt , maybe he had a bad day or something. The adjuster denied it all, glad my contractor was with me when the adjuster looked at the house. My agent knows my contractor and he backed me up on what went on. I dont have any problems with am/fam, so far they just picked a crappy adjuster to send my way. and the beat goes on.

We have State Farm and they have been great to work with. From a hail/storm damage claim, to a water/flooded basement claim, quick, responsive, and great to work with. They are also great with auto insurance as well.

Good luck because it can be a big pain

Dougger,
I don't agree that down grading is in fact ins. fraud and this is why:
If you have alum. siding on your house and it is damaged by hail the insurance company is obligated to "pay" for the alum. siding to be replaced. If you as the homowner decide that you want vynal siding then thats your choice, but when the next storm comes through they will only pay for vynal.(It's no differnt than totaling your BMW, taking the insurance proceeds and buying a ford escort. But know that the next time you total your car it won't be a $40,000 check to replace your car)

The contractor mentioned above was doing this without the homowners concent and therefore was commiting fraud, they have also been known to apply "ALL" insurance proceeds to the roofing meaning if your total project with siding, roofing, and gutters came to $45,000, all of that money would cover the roof and the homowner was left to pay for the siding and gutters out of their own pocket.

We recieved our portion of the check and signed off on it and gave it to the contractor, work will start in a couple days, also got the additional money for some work the contractor thought would be needed. So far it seems the longest time was just to get the initial ball rolling. And by the way the adjuster that did my place doesnt have to wait for a call from am/fam anymore, apparently one bad aple can really pi$$ off alot of people up the food chain. I comend am /fam for their swift action. and the beat goes on..

Good to hear that its getting done.

I have always had very good luck with claims with Am. Family.

I checked out what others were charging for insurance for vehicles, house, boat and the rest.

I'm now with State Farm as Am Family was charging me way to much money and thats after being with them for close to 25 years.

Thought i would give an update on how things turned out. It turned out it wasnt the insurance co. I had to worry about, but My contractor. I picked a local contractor for all the right reasons, He told me it would be 2 weeks and he would be finished, He understood that We wanted to get our house on the market yet this year. It turns out his definition of 2 weeks and mine are completely different, 31/2 months later! I heard all the exscuses in the world, If you want the name of a contractor not to use, Let me know and I will e-mail it to you. Im done venting.

I've experienced similar situations with contractors and have seen plenty in other places. How often is it that a contractor bids a job with a school district, city, or whatever and the referendum passes only to find out later that we the tax payers are hit up for more revenue because the contractor had issues?

I had a contractor bid on a remodel for my home once. He came out, took his measurements, and sent me the bid. He even went so far as to order the parts when I gave him the green light. This was in the early spring of the year and the project was supposed to be finished within three weeks. By August I got tired of waiting for him, did the work myself, and left him deal with the restocking of the materials he ordered. I haven't heard from him since he took measurements so I don't even know what became of those materials.

I've seen stuff like this happen all the time with contractors. It's really rude and unfair for them to sign up a customer and not be able to deliver as ordered. In the mean time their customer is left in the dark. I don't give too much tolerance for that myself. For this reason, I won't put any money down until they show up to do the work. If they can't deal with those terms, they don't get hired.

My only experience with Am. Family was 2 weeks ago. Someone hit large tree on the edge of my property during the night and broke the front axel on their SUV. It ended up in my front yard after plowing a 25' trench about 10" deep and 18" wide as they tried to drive off. I found it in the morning and called the police. After towing it away and talking to the owner(s) the officer returned about 1 hour later with the Am Family policy number so I could file a property damage claim. Three days later I filed the claim with an estimate from a nursery to repair the damage. I got the check two days later with my name only on it. IMO it was very good service from Am. Family.

Yea the insurance co. was easy to deal with after they found out how the adjuster had treated me. Its the contractor i would like to have been able to change after 3 weeks went by and very little had been done to the house and garage.

Does your contractor have a clause in the contract that says if you cancel the contract that they get a portion of the claim? If not cancel and get another contractor. When a storm hit my hometown I got quite a few people out of their contracts with storm chasers. I cant imagine that your contractor is that busy.

What all needs to be done, roof, siding, gutters, soffit and fascia? None of the contractors in my part of the state have much to do since all of the layoffs. They are just dying to get out and do some work.

Its all done but the whinning, If i would have known it wouldnt have been a huge pain in arse to replace him , I would have done it in a heart beat. Im in sales and i have heard all the exscuses he gave me, but it all boils down to him being responsible for the people he hires actions.