Rental House Roof Claims: Check the Policy Form First

If you rent out a house in St. Louis County, or a unit in a building you own, a storm claim on the roof does not always run the way it does on a home you live in. The policy may be written on a landlord form, lost rent may or may not be covered, and the tenant's belongings sit on a different policy altogether. Before you file anything, find the policy form and read which part of it applies to the building.

Insurance claim

Start with the declarations page, the first pages of the policy that list the named insured, the property address, the coverage limits and the form number. A homeowner policy usually covers the dwelling, other structures, personal property and additional living expenses under one form. A landlord policy is often written on a dwelling fire form, and the parts you need can be arranged differently or left out. Ask the insurer which form the policy is written on, and ask in writing. That answer decides what the roof claim covers and what it does not.

Landlord policies commonly include a part for lost rent, sometimes called fair rental value. Whether yours includes it is a question for the declarations page and any endorsements, not for the roofer. If the roof is open and a unit cannot be lived in, the lost rent may matter as much as the shingles. Write down the date the unit became unusable, the monthly rent you were collecting, and the date the tenant moved out or was asked to move out. Keep the lease in the same folder.

Missouri law bars a roofing contractor from representing or negotiating a homeowner's insurance claim under RSMo 407.725, and that rule applies whether the building is owner-occupied or a rental. The roofer can document the damage, put a written scope with photos and measurements in your hands, and attend as the contractor while you deal with your own insurer. The claim, the adjuster and the conversation about what gets paid stay with you.

A freeze and thaw cycle in February can open a small gap at a pipe boot or along a valley, and the water may run down a rafter for weeks before it shows as a ceiling stain. In a rental, the tenant is often the first person to see the stain and report it. The date of the report may be later than the date the damage started, so write down both dates and explain the gap in your own words in the claim file.

Who owns which loss

On a rental, the owner's claim is for the building. A tenant's furniture, clothing and electronics belong on the tenant's renters policy, and the owner's dwelling policy does not pay for them. If a roof leak damaged the tenant's property, the tenant files under their own policy or with their own insurer. Do not add the tenant's items to your roof claim. The insurer will ask whose property each item is, and the answer should come from the tenant's own list and photos.

Ask the tenant for the name of their insurer early, in writing, and keep their photos in a separate folder from yours. If the tenant asks you to pay for a damaged item, respond in writing that the question belongs to the tenant's insurer and that you will provide the building file to that insurer on request. Keep the reply in the file, because it shows what you said and when you said it.

Check the owner's policy for a vacancy or unoccupied-dwelling condition. Vacancy clauses are common on landlord forms, and a roof that leaks while a unit sits empty between tenants can fall under a different rule than one that leaks during a lease. Ask the insurer to state in writing whether the vacancy period affects this loss, and file the answer with the rest of the claim papers.

What it costs

The roof is usually the largest single number, but a rental adds lines that an owner-occupied file does not have. Expect to account for temporary protection such as a tarp or a dry-in, the ceiling and wall repair inside the unit, the removal of wet insulation, and the rent lost while the unit was closed. Each of those lines should appear on your own list with a dollar figure beside it, and each figure should come from a receipt, a written bid or the lease.

Keys documents damage and gives you a written scope with photos and measurements, and that scope is the roof part of the file. It does not price lost rent, and it does not price the tenant's property. Do not ask the roofer to estimate rent loss. The roof bid and the rent calculation are separate documents, and the insurer will read them separately, so keep them separate in your file.

Keep the invoices in the order the work happened. If one crew came out on a Tuesday to tarp the roof and a second crew came on a Friday to replace the decking, the two invoices should show two dates. Insurers ask for dates first, and a stack of undated bills takes longer to sort than a short list in order.

The tenant's side of the job

Tell the tenant in writing when the crew will need to enter the unit, what will be moved, and how long the work is expected to take. Check the lease for how much notice the owner must give before entry, and follow that notice period even if the work looks urgent. A tenant who receives a clear schedule is more likely to move small items out of the way, and the photos of the room before the work are easier to defend if the tenant knows they were taken.

Ask the roofer where the crew will stage materials and how the work will affect the tenant's parking and entrance. Those answers belong in the written scope or in a short addendum signed by both sides. A rental roof job that keeps the tenant informed usually produces fewer disputes later, because the record shows the tenant knew what was happening at each step.

What to ask

Ask the insurer five things in writing before you commit to a roof scope. First, which policy form covers this building. Second, whether the lost-rent part applies, and for how many months. Third, whether the vacancy condition changes anything for this unit. Fourth, whether the roof is paid at replacement cost or at actual cash value, and whether any part of the payment is held back until the work is finished. Fifth, what the insurer needs from you, and by what date.

Ask the roofer three things. Does the written scope list every slope, valley and roof penetration, with photos of each? Does the bid say how the crew will protect the unit's interior and who holds the keys during the work? Will the crew attend a meeting with your adjuster as the contractor if you ask? The roofer can attend and describe the work, but the roofer cannot speak for your claim or negotiate the payment, and a roofer who suggests otherwise is describing something Missouri law forbids.

Finally, ask who will sign the completion paperwork and when. A rental owner often has a property manager, a lender and a tenant all asking for a date. Write the completion date in the file the day the crew finishes, with the final photos attached, so that every later question starts from one fixed point.