So sorry you had to go through this. I can offer some advice on the dwelling side of things.

First, off, I have worked extensively with USAA. So I can hopefully set your mind at ease. You are likely going to work with a CAT adjuster from them. Nonetheless, the best advice i can give is be cool. These guys have a job to do and he is going to be slammed. Also, this adjustment is going to to take some time to get done in the field and at the desk. There are tons of details that must go into it.

When it comes back ****it will probably get several things wrong, the claim will be underpaid, and it will have errors****. DON'T PANIC. Just because you got an estimate back does not mean it's settled.

For roofing, or construction trades, they are often underpaid. So, I simply need to make corrections to line items, or produce actual estimates, photo documentation, etc, send it back to them for supplement, and negotiate it out until the amount makes sense and it's properly estimated. It takes time, but it's the right way to do it.

Your adjuster is NOT an expert in roofing, car repair, construction, etc and the fact is he won't know every detail and he'll get it wrong.

For every single Item you have fixed, hire a professional (or you if you know what you're doing) and have THEM make sure THEIR trade is correctly estimated.

The long and short of this is for items that have replacement cost coverage, they will eventually pay replacement cost, but it may take a little legwork for the contractor to get there, and that's normal.

Let your contractors handle things, and any contractor that wants cash up front, or your deductible before a LEGIT CONTRACT is signed can be safely sent on down the road. You don't want to work with those guys.

When a customer asks me for credentials, I can show them I'm ranked #7 nationally for roofing, #14 for remodeling, and I can produce all of the insurance COI, etc. Money is not taken in full until projects are complete or a previous arrangement is made and nothing at all happens until a legitimate 4 page contract is signed outlinging exactly what is being done.

I would imagine it works similar for all of your items.

Any photos you have of your property BEFORE damage will be immensely helpful to an adjuster.

Any items that were swept away and no longer with you can be included, just tell your adjuster, if you have current costs from Lowes, show them to him. Get his card and a direct line to him if you can and try to treat him as a team mate rather than an opposing counsel and things will generally be better. That said, some adjusters are a-holes and don't have a good bedside manner when dealing with customers that have sustained severe property damage.

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Lastly, I lost a good deal of shingles on the roof, but no structural damage. I want the entire roof reshingled even though what was lost is probably only 15% of the entire roof. There is no way they can color match the current shingles since they have sun faded. Any good advice on how to ensure I can get a new roof out of this?

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This is my bread and butter. Do not discuss PARTIAL REPLACEMENT with the adjuster. There is only one option, full replacement. Out of the box, I give 25 year limited lifetime warranties on roof replacements. But, I cannot give that on partial replacements and it is a disservice to my customers to accept that. The adjuster will look at everything, and if it comes back as a partial, there are remedies like appraisal that can take that to full replacement. We do this all the time.

Ideally, you would like your roofer or a rep from the company there, and ideally, that should be the case with any trade being addressed but that might be impractical to have 7 people there and it may stress out your adjuster, so in some instances like this, I might even reccomend just letting him do this alone with you there and at peace and see how it shakes out first.

As I said....there will be errors...it will be OK...just stick to the process and be cool.

Last thing...USAA uses CLAIM SPECIFIC EMAILS. It will be listed on the first page of the likely lengthy document you get from them.

It is [13 random characters or so]@claims.usaa.com.

All correspondence from you and your tradesmen should utilize that email. It will direct to your adjuster automatically, but more importantly, it will live with the claim and if your adjuster quits or leaves and your claim is re-assigned, it will then go to him as well. The bad thing is that it may take a few days to get responses, but this is the system USAA uses.

As I have done with everyone on this site, you can call me at any time for free advice or guidance. No sales pitches or BS. Just tackle this one step at a time. Contact in profile.

Don't forget to list that original Picasso in your damages.

Having been hit pretty hard by an F3 tornado Memorial Day 2024; Jason the Roofers post pretty much mirrors our experience and the advice I'd give

We have State Farm and the car and camper (Airstream) claim went very smoothly nothing totaled, all repaired like new.

Our pole barn was collapsed and there was about an $8,000 shortfall in what the initial traveling adjuster figured to rebuild and what I had paid to build it two years before. We went back and forth for several months with State Farm requesting things like a total number of screws used and per item cost for each screw ( our agent here in Arkansas was on our side and kept telling us not to settle for less). Finally got our request for a second adjuster to come out, local guy who had been a builder. I walk out to meet him and he's says" I already found you. at least $3000". Initially adjuster had figured the entire structure with only 8 foot 2x4s, no 6x6 posts, 2x10s etc. Final adjustment was almost exactly what I had been saying.

I believe part of the strategy is to wear you down where you finally say, "it's only $5,000 more and I want to be done"

Side note- get a kit to plug tires and a compressor. we all had flats from screws, nails etc. in the road from the storm and truckloads of debris being hauled off.

Milwaukees Best Light said:

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Don't forget to list that original Picasso in your damages.

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Unfortunately I did not have a Picasso. However, I may have a couple of Van Gogh's that I cant seem to account for. LOL.

clarythedrill said:

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Milwaukees Best Light said:

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Don't forget to list that original Picasso in your damages.

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Unfortunately I did not have a Picasso. However, I may have a couple of Van Gogh's that I cant seem to account for. LOL.

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Sorry for the loss of your Millscale 500 gallon offset smoker.

Shelton98 said:

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clarythedrill said:

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Milwaukees Best Light said:

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Don't forget to list that original Picasso in your damages.

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Unfortunately I did not have a Picasso. However, I may have a couple of Van Gogh's that I cant seem to account for. LOL.

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Sorry for the loss of your Millscale 500 gallon offset smoker.

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And you learned a valuable lesson to no longer store your shotguns, rifles and pistols in the smoker that disappeared.

One last piece of advice that a friend, who used to be an insurance adjuster, gave me: make life as easy as possible for the adjuster. What that meant for me when I filed a claim was to prepare a notebook with tabs for each major portion of the claim. Behind each tab I had pictures, support for damages, and anything else I could think of. And, of course, I prepared a table of contents.

After I submitted that, USAA settled with me for approx. 20x their initial offer. Of course, my claim was not nearly as big as yours, and the initial offer was made by an adjuster sitting behind a desk in San Antonio. But the advice is sound. Do much of the work for your adjuster to help him/her get to the number you want and be able to justify it to their supervisor.