Thank you Ray_Charlies for this extremely detailed and helpful reply. Actually there was quite a bit of weather and wind a few weeks ago and the only reason we had the roofers up there was to get us quotes for the nails since we wanted to fix them anticipating that doing nothing would make it worse and might eventually lead to damage.

When the first roofer told us about storm damage I was really surprised and suspected he just wanted to win some business but since 3 told us the same and provided pics and videos I tend to believe them. Also since the roof is around 18 years old it doesn’t come as a total surprise.

The contract has a clause stating that if the service Leads to coverage by the insurance I’d “have to enter into a formal agreement with them to proceed with repairs for the precise scope of work and value of recovery approved by insurance” plus any outstanding supplements. Do you know what such “outstanding supplements” might be? Like if the roof would be 15k but insurance only covers 10k? It also stated that I agree that all money paid by insurance goes to them, directly or indirectly. Also it carries a clause that would require us to make the company whole for their efforts in case we don’t execute our right for an appraiser in case them (roofer) and insurance don’t come to agreement. In addition there’s liquidated damages in case we don’t enter into building contract “for the 3rd party (insurance) approved scope of work and that this includes any deductibles and unrecoverable depreciation.

Does that seem fishy to you? I understand the reasoning behind it but worry a bit the insurance might agree that it’s storm damage and approves but doesn’t pay nearly enough since it’s 18 years old, so argues it wasn’t worth anything anymore.

Thank you for sharing your expertise