I recently had a contractor come out to inspect my roof after a storm. He claimed it needed a full replacement and provided me a quote. I called the insurance company, they inspected, and provided me with a quote. The contractor asked how much the insurance quoted. I told him (I realize now that was probably a mistake). Now he's trying to increase his price to match the insurance. Is this normal? No work has been completed yet. Contractor quote has not been signed by me.
Posted by titofuentes
2 Comments
It may be possible that material costs have gone up between the date of loss and the contractor’s estimate, which is a legitimate reason anymore.
Both your contractor and your adjuster should’ve provided you with a line item estimate. Sit down and see if each item matches in quality, quantity, and price per unit. That’ll suss out the difference.
It’s also a good idea to get another contractor’s estimate and see how the other two differ.
Also, it’s called padding. They will throw whatever they can on their estimate and fight with the adjuster for as long as they need to.
It’s possible your insurance was included extra money for code upgrades that the contractor omitted. It’s hard to say without comparing side by side. It would raise my suspicion, how much are we talking about, a few hundred, or thousand?