Insurance - Hail Claim Question

We have a customer in San Antonio who has 200,000 of our chopped glass emulsion roofs on. I notified him last spring that he has hail damage and needed to file a claim. He has put me off ever since, wanting wait until his policy renewed, etc. Every excuse under the sun.

Of course hail voids our warranty. He has had numerous leaks due to the hail and we have repaired them all for free, anticipating him filing a claim. Now I suspect that he may have already filed a claim, collected and pocketed the money. If so I need to void his warranty but need proof he has done this.

Is there any way to find out if he filed a claim?

I went into a C-store the other day to get a Dr Pepper. The Arab clerk was polite when I walked in, asked how I was doing, etc. When I got up to the counter he became very curt and short with me. When I got out to my pickup I realized why. I was wearing my Trident Tactical Solutions ball cap that says "INFIDEL" in big letters. :-)

I have had quite a few very good Arab customers, but this is the story about the last one I had.

I was there to bid a leak repair for a Dr. and his wife. After I had written the bid, they invited in for coffee. Me, being the culturally sensitive guy I am, said yes (It's an insult to turn down coffee offered by Arabs). The wife then got the insurance company on the phone and wanted me to convince them to cover the repair. During the time I was on hold, they're bragging to me how this is the warranty they bought after when bought their home and they have already collected on a water heater, furnace and a plumbing issue. I was honest to the company and they wouldn't cover the leak repair, but the couple wanted me to do it.

I did it and was paid promptly. But about 6 months later another leak developed. It was only about 12 feet from the first leak, but clearly in a whole other valley drainage area and not related to the first repair. But they insisted it should be warranted by my first repair.

I gave them a bid for the second repair that I figured my normal rate, doubled it and asked for 50% up front. Never heard back from them.

I don't know if I've ever had an arab customer. Not one name comes to mind. The Patel's I've worked with are indian and into hotels, and that's been a strugggle.... Which is not to insinuate that every patel or indian has been bad, because that's not the case.

Some of my very best and favorite customers are Jewish..... but there have been a few nightmares along the way, and your story, or perhaps I should say your suspicions, ring very true to experience. But all things considered, as a percentage, I'd call my Jewish customers the highest percentage of "good" customers. Demanding, yes, but when the bill is due, it gets paid pronto, and there's nothing wrong with being demanding. It raises your game. What I tend to see is that there's not much in the middle. It's either a highly principled outstanding customer, or it's one you hope you never work for again.

LOL! Funny you should say that Mike, my wife and I were just talking today that 90% of the people who have ripped us off were Arabs or Jews. And one Russian.

Ummmm, the latest cheater isn't Jewish or Russian...

I have just altered our guarantees to state that we have the right to have the owner file a damage claim, and if he refuses we can void the guarantee. Can't believe it took me 36 years to figure that out.

If he is a greedy and deceitful guy, pull the same card on him. Meet with him in person and tell him you need to get your insurance company involved and they require the name of his insurer so your insurance can negotiate paying out on the warranty claim. Just a verbal conversation with nothing on paper so he can't come back on you admitting any liability. See where that leads. Maybe your own insurer has access to claim payouts for hail damage for a certain name or address.

The property owner is denying there is hail damage. I told him last spring that hail damage on emulsion is a lot harder to see and get paid for as time goes by. Much easier when it's fresh an the chipped asphalt is bright black and shiny. Every month he had another excuse for not filing a claim.

So he is trying to force us to honor a warranty that should have been voided by the hail. He is a greedy deceitful guy - I am about 50% sure he filed a claim, collected his $500,000 and now wants his cake and eat it to by forcing us to stand behind his hail damaged roof.

"Hail voids our warranty"....

Why do you need proof that he pocketed a claim?