A solution to the hail racket...

This is a letter to the editor I wrote in response to a raise in insurance rates for Texas property owners.

From July 8, 2015 http://letterstotheeditorblog.dallasnews.com/2015/07/page/8/

The solution is to give back control of a homeowner's premiums to the homeowner and the decision of whether or not to replace a roof put into the hands of the homeowner and trusted roofer.

Replacing perfectly good roofs

Letters to the Editor: Email comments@dallasnews.com

Published: July 8, 2015 4:08 pm

Re: "Home insurance up 7-8%” Critics say increase is unjustified; firms cite roof, suit costs,Saturday news story.

I am a contracting roofer with more than 40 years experience and I want to shout from the rooftops: The system is broken. Insurance companies cannot make up their minds whether they are in the business of maintaining roofs or paying for catastrophic losses. They really don't care because all they have to do is raise rates.

For what most homeowners pay in premiums, I could install a new roof for them every three or four years. Most hail in North Texas is not catastrophic. In fact, most roofs that are totaled after a hailstorm, if nothing was done, would still last their entire life expectancy. I have witnessed way too many perfectly good roofs torn off and hauled to the landfill.

Of course, the result is the hail racket of storm-chasing opportunistic paper contractors, insurance adjusters, public adjusters, subcontractors with cheap labor, lawyers and the big daddy insurance companies all in collusion to rip off the homeowner. The insurance companies response to limit claims is to raise deductibles. (Sheesh, whose money is it?)

The decision to install a new roof should be between the homeowner and a trusted roofer. Not third-party profiteers.

Ed Senter, Dallas

Kind of hard to read the letter as it doesn't come up.