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A Company salesman walked neighborhood stating he could get new roof and no deductible from Hurricane Wilma. After inspecting roof confirmed there was damage related to Hurricane. Salesman advised his company would handle everything and when through I would receive a roof mitigation report to lower insurance on house. He also confirmed that there would be no deductible and company, Skyhigh would bear any and all cost associated in dealings with Insurance Company. I was further advised the company had own in house counsel to assist in process. I signed a contract and the process started. Everything was going well, the Skyhigh was dealing was dealing with the insurance. There were numerous meeting and discussions. One day I get a call from a new individual from Skyhigh who advised he was taking over the file and would like to come by to meet me and see the roof. He also asked I sign a new contract (the verbiage had changed). I asked if the no deductible still applied and I was asked to send an email message to the company regarding same. I did and no reply was sent back advising anything different. Some weeks later I get a call asking if I had any other damage to the house resulting from the hurricane. I was told it could be added to the claim. I address the other areas including the cracks that showed up on the ceilings on the second floor. The claim went to arbitration. The umpire awarded damages to me for the roof and interior ceiling. The damages paid on the interior were for repair, paint and cleaning. I received two checks on the scope of loss.
I was expecting a new roof and the interior repaired as per the scope of loss and payments. Little did I know until later the interior damage was a ruse to get money in order to cover the deductible. There was never any intent on behalf of Skyhigh to do any interior work.
While the roof was being stripped some damage to my screen enclosure occurred which was not a problem and repaired quickly. When the water proofing underlayment was being applied the windshield on my truck was shattered. I had asked if the truck needed to be moved when the crew arrived and was told no. When I found the damage I asked the foreman what happened and he replied it was like that and his crew did not do it. To make a long story short I have video surveillance cameras, which captured the incident. Skyhigh did fire that company and a new one came out to complete the job. As a side note the underlayment is required to be rolled to make sure it adheres. The company did not roll it until the next day until after I advised Skyhigh of the problem.
During the tile install the worker's damaged the gutters and irrigation pump and more screening. Also a stack of new tiles fell from the main roof onto the garage damaging newly laid tiles. The workers attempted to patch the area without foam as required by law. Again I complained and the area was corrected. Mean while I am still waiting to be reimbursed for the property damage.
When the roof was completed I asked when are we starting the interior. I was told there was no money left for the interior repairs. I advised that the insurance company was paying them for the interior. They responded that that money was being used to cover the deductible, something I would have never agreed on.
I sent a certified letter to Skyhigh stating my position. I received a nasty phone message and was told to contact their in house counsel. Skyhigh would have you believe their in house counsel is an attorney when in fact he is not a member of the bar and has limited privileges. I did in fact contact him and he advised he was the in house counsel. Additionally we were on a conference call with all the family/company officials listing in. In that call I was threatened with a lien being placed on my property if I did not give them the money. I could have fought them but health and just over $2, 00.00 was not worth it. We agreed they would pay the damages, not do the interior and give me a release of lien and the mitigation report in exchange for the entire amount from the insurance company. We met and exchanged checks and paperwork. I was to receive the mitigation report later as he did not bring it. It has now been three weeks and numerous phone calls and email messages have been sent and no returned. I did receive a phone message today advising because I had filed a complaint with the BBB they would not give me the mitigation report.
Will be contacting my attorney tomorrow and following up with complaints to the state and county and anyone else who will listen to hopefully put a stop to this type of unethical business practice of preying on the consumer. Personally I would not recommend doing business with Skyhigh., there are more reputable roofing companies out there.
I am a roofing contractor and i did for many years work for a public adjuster firm.
I still can not believe the guts of the home owners who sign contracts with
companyies willing to get them new roofs with no expense out of the pocket.
The fact is they were trying to get money from insurance but never succeded.
Then a roofing company come out and get them money for new roof. Mister home
owner get greedy and he want more.Mister home owner see that other roofing
companyies are willing to do the work for 25 or 30% cheaper.But he forget that
these other roofing company never dealt with them when he did not have any money.
He Mister home owner do not want to understand the costs associated with getting
the insurance money.He conviniently forget that he could not get a penny to begin with.
I have a lot of storyies about these kind of homeowners, like the one that bought
a boat with the insurance money becouse it was not enough for the roof and then
had my partners open a new claim for him.Greeeeed.
I am not a Skyhigh employee and I can prove it by giving my real email.
popasoleil@aol.com owner of SOLEIL ROOFING INC. Thank you
@sickofstupid
100% guaranteed you are an employee of Skyhigh. What neutral insurance agent is going to so passionately and purely biased write a response such as yours in a forum such as this. @sickofstupid, WHY ARE YOU EVEN READING THIS REPORT? Such a response as yours must have taken you a significant period of time. WHY WOULD YOU WASTE SO MUCH OF YOUR TIME? Because you are a skyhigh employee, simply scamming, trying to cover your trail. @sickofstupid, reading your response turns my stomach because it is filled with so many inaccuracies and misrepresentations. Maybe @sickofstupid, you have a weird hobby and enjoy perusing through these types of messages boards and randomly responding even though you have no legitimate interest in such matters. If so, go to https://www.mypalmbeachclerk.com/cctrecordsearch.aspx. You will find that Skyhigh is involved in multiple lawsuits with many different consumers.
Skyhigh
Didn't you already post this identical complaint under the name "BCohen". Wasn't once enough?
To the Complaintant:
As a consumer, I can appreciate your ire as it regards the sloppiness of the individuals conducting repairs to your home. However, it sounds like Skyhigh management was responsive to your various complaints and requests in this area, so I have to give them somewhat of a "hall pass". It is difficult, at best, to find reliable, honest field workers from the vast pool of unskilled labor available today. I have heard much worse horror stories in Florida. Trust me! This is the Promise land for con-artists and bad-###! At least this company attempted to correct their missteps.
I am also an insurance claims professional. I am not always “pro-industry”, but I am honest and pro-common sense. That being said, I would offer you - and anyone else in your position - the following:
Salesmen do what salesmen do…they PITCH products. In this case, it sounds like the salesman advised you that, with little to no effort or out-of-pocket cost to you, he could get you a new roof. What did you have to lose, right? You couldn’t sign on the dotted line fast enough.
Your re-roof sounds like a recent incident. Hurricane Wilma was in October 2005. What suddenly convinced you - 6 years later - that you needed a new roof? Or that the need arose as the result of Hurricane Wilma? Didn’t you just jump on the bandwagon and put the screws to the insurance carrier because unclosed loopholes in FL law allowed you to file a claim long after the storm, and you found yourself a henchman whose name was Skyhigh to process it for you? Did you make any effort to seek estimates or opinions from other contractors? Or do you suspect, like I do, that any and all of them would probably take advantage of the same situation?
Have you ever had a licensed home inspector look at your roof? A building official? Did you have repairs made to your home immediately after the storm? Did you use a licensed professional to conduct repairs at that time, or the neighborhood “handyman”, whose last name you can’t even recall?
How old is your house? Assuming that this is its original roof, have you ever heard of the concept of material breakdown over time? Are you wearing the same clothes you wore 20 years ago? What do you do to maintain them? Do they tend to wear out with repeated use, despite your best efforts? Humph. I thought so.
A contractor CANNOT, without your express permission and cooperation, present information to the insurance carrier or otherwise assist in the handling of your insurance claim. Your personal greed led you to readily sign on the dotted line (not once, but twice!) to achieve a goal. You got the new roof you wanted, and now you’re trying to put the screws to the contractor…just like you probably did the insurance company. And you wonder why we can barely afford insurance in FL!
Your complaint alludes to the fact that you can assimilate facts and comprehend contractual language, despite perhaps questionable health and, I would surmise, advanced age. You state you were asked to sign a new contract and note “the verbiage had changed” and you questioned the “no deductible” issue. I just have to ask, “Where did you think that “percentage deductible” was going to come from, if not from your pocket?!”
You accuse the contractor of perpetuating “a ruse to get money in order to cover the deductible” and suggest there “was never any intent on behalf of Skyhigh to do any interior work”. Is your reader supposed to believe your intentions were all pure? Are you expecting to convince anyone that you fully intended to get the interior repairs done? Had you even noticed the damage before the contractor pressed you for the additional information? Where is your personal responsibility?
Get real. Nothing in life is ever FREE…there is always a price to pay in exchange for gain. You might be wise to remember, too, that whoever you contract with to play “middle man” still requires YOUR cooperation.
Contractors, including this one, know that they cannot legally “cover” your hideously high deductible, so they will alternatively identify some additional damage in hopes of securing a bigger award for the homeowner during the appraisal process. They can’t do this without the cooperation of the homeowner. In your case, it sounds like you colluded with the contractor to include interior damage, the most common method of inflating the damage estimate for financial gain. (So common a scenario, in fact, that it’s hard for me to keep a straight face as I hear you lay the groundwork for your purported “victimization”!) YOU AGREED to play along FOR MONEY. You threw the dice on getting the interior damage covered under the existing claim, so you could use that allowance to cover the deductible, instead of ponying up – as would have been appropriate – from your personal check book.
If you were entering into a legal contract with a roofing contractor with the expectation and intent of having your deductible "absorbed", and from the story you tell, it sounds like you were, something had to give. It is illegal to profit from an insurance loss. This is called “fraud”.
Pursuant to s. 817.234, Florida Statutes, any person who, with the intent to injure, defraud, or deceive any insurer or insured, prepares, presents, or causes to be presented a proof of loss or estimate of cost or repair of damaged property in support of a claim under an insurance policy knowing that the proof of loss or estimate of claim or repairs contains any false, incomplete, or misleading information concerning any fact or thing material to the claim commits a felony of the third degree, punishable as provided in s. 775.082, 1s. 775.083, or s. 775.084, Florida Statutes.
Insurance fraud is a CRIME, specifically classified as such in all states. The chief motive in all insurance crimes is financial profit.
Fraudulent claims can be one of two types. They can be otherwise legitimate claims that are exaggerated or “built up” (sound familiar?), or they can be false claims in which the damages claimed never actually occurred. Once a built-up claim is identified, insurance companies usually try to negotiate the claim down to the appropriate amount. The process is not called "arbitration", by the way, it is called "appraisal". The process was put in place to give insurers and insureds a vehicle with which to negotiate a fair settlement via impartial parties. Of course, thanks to the perversion the appraisal process has endured since Hurricane Wilma, the current trend among insurance carriers – those few who still write business in Florida - is to remove the appraisal clause from the insurance contract. If successful, the only alternatives available for dispute resolution become mediation and law suits, much more time-consuming and costly for all parties. What a shame that abuse has the potential to make this a thing of the past! Thanks!
I acknowledge that insurance companies do not always make the right decisions and handle claims the way they should. Trust me, I have my own horror stories. My “beefs” about the industry by which I make my living are too long to list here. But homeowners bear a significant responsibility for fixing the flaws in the system. The claims handling process is a balancing act between consumers and insurance providers, requiring trust, honesty and integrity on everyone’s part. THAT concept is especially challenging in South Florida where there is an UNPRECEDENTED sense of entitlement from the general public and very little “buy-in” to the concept of “personal responsibility”. Involved in an accident…your fault or someone else’s… seedy lawyers salivate at the thought of gaining your valuable signature in exchange for “free money” in the form of $10K++ PIP payments. They smile down at you, enticingly, from the vast sea of billboards they’ve overtaken on our highways, offering you workers comp “funding” for the back injury you presumably sustained on the job. Need I go on? The common denominator is ALWAYS financial gain derived from the big, bad insurance company’s fat, full pockets. As if their losses aren’t going to cost us ALL!
It is hard to imagine any FL property insurers not making a killing in the last several years with the premiums we have been forced to pay. Yet, in 2009, with no hurricanes or significant tropical storms, over 100 FL residential property insurers reported losses. Is it a wonder?
I would say to you, congratulations on the insurance gift, the $25K+ roof you got for the cost of your $2K deductible. Now, MOVE ON, FOOL!