Adam Bensman (the Roof Strategist) answers a LinkedIn question about contractors 'eating' insurance deductibles. He emphasizes that "eating" deductibles by falsifying insurer submissions is illegal (quotes Nationwide's policy language), and presents a legal, ethical alternative: use Actual Cash Value (ACV) payments for other damaged items the homeowner elects not to repair (e.g., fence ACV $2,500 of a $5,300 item) to offset the homeowner's out-of-pocket roof deductible, provided invoicing aligns with the agreed scope of loss. He explains practical caveats (cannot collect twice for the same paid item; painting/staining rules) and recommends bringing sample claim documents and scopes early to position yourself as a trusted insurance-restoration advisor. The video directs viewers to additional resources on contingency agreements and sales training.
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Oh, the deductible. How do we deal with the deductible? I'm pulling up a message here from John, who Messaged me on LinkedIn today. Facing the deductible issue. Now, John has watched my videos on the deductible, why it's illegal to eat, how to overcome it before you even present, how to use the contingency agreement as a closing tool, how to review all this insurance paperwork with a homeowner so it makes sense. And then he writes me today, he says, I know that deductible eating is illegal, but customers who leverage other roofers are offering to eat their deductible. And this is what I'm truly facing right now. Do you have any advice? So, John, thank you for connecting on LinkedIn. You are more than welcome to as well. Happy to chat. Because everything I do here is designed in response to the questions you're facing in the field. And if you're new here, my name's Adam Bensman, the roof strategist. And everything I do in these videos and my podcasts and my products and services are designed to help you develop personal sales strategies to smash your income goals. And if you're selling storm damage roofs, you're gonna face this because the deductible is the biggest objection. And yes, it is illegal to eat. However, in this video, I'm going to be sharing with you the legal and ethical way to help homeowners out with their deductible while putting you on the pedestal that they need you to help. So let's jump right in. I've got with me farmer or, excuse me, nationwide claim, farmers claim, and a state farm claim. Now, what I highly recommend is to keep a few sample claims with you. You can do what I've done where you just black out the private homeowner information so you can use these as a sample when explaining how the process works to homeowners. So first things first, this nationwide claim has some language on here that I'm going to explain before I show you. And what it says is, you will go to jail for trying to eat a deductible because the only way to eat a deductible is to do fraudulent behavior, which is telling the insurance company it costs this much money to do the roof, but then you actually do it for this much and then turn around, tell the homeowner, hey, I told them we did it for more. So you got all the money from them, but you only have to pay me less. This is fraud, and it is outlined specifically in this nationwide claim right at the bottom on the paperwork here. This under the Dear Valued Customer letter. And I'll read just the first few sentences. This is good to start with your homeowners before you talk about how you can help. It is unlawful to knowingly provide false, incomplete or misleading facts or information to an insurance company for the purpose of defrauding or attempting to defraud the company. Penalties may include imprisonment, fines, denial of insurance and civil damages. And then it goes on. So what's the takeaway? Falsifying information to the insurance company in the primary goal of trying to eat a deductible is frankly illegal. So you should bring this in and show this to homeowners so they know what they're unknowingly getting into with other people. Now I've done plenty of other videos on overcoming deductibles. If you search the channel for the word deductible, you'll see tons of them. So we're going to leave that out for today and assume that you've seen those or will watch shortly. Now that the homeowner knows that eating deductibles is illegal, we can transition to. But here's how I can help. This is how we prize you as the answer. So they need your help. So we can flip on over to the backside, the summary page and you will see on this backside we have on your. Would that be your right, the ACV actual cash value column. And we have our items listed here. Now not all of these items are items that may be done. There are two camps of contractors by the way. There's the roofers. The roofers are. We do roofing. We know we're good at. That's it. We're in and out. We do roofs. Then we've got the gcs General contractors. Hey, we are your one stop shop. We'll handle it all. Collect the OMP and we will get you taken care of. Now, it doesn't matter which camp you fall into, the roofers or GCs, this approach will work for you. So you'll notice on here we have fencing, H VAC and soffit fascia and gutters listed with some relatively high dollar amounts and the actual cash value payments are here. For example, the fencing was paid for by about $5,300 with the ACV of 2,500 bucks. So if the homeowner elects to not do that fence, they can legally and ethically apply the actual cash value. The first payment, the check that they receive $2,500 of that is allocated towards the fence that they can put towards whatever they want. And if that's to contribute towards their out of pocket expense for the roof, that is a okay, so long as when you invoice the insurance company, your numbers and what you collect from those, the homeowner align to reflect the scope of loss that's been agreed upon between you and the insurance carrier. That is entirely legal. So how do we put you on the pedestal to be able to do this? Well, if you're getting into the process early, you bring the sample scope, you show these examples and you say, hey, Mr. Homeowner, I am committed to supporting you every way I can. I know the insurance process, I know xactimate. I will go through this property with that adjuster when he is here or she, when he or she is gone with a fine tooth comb to get the fence, the fence post caps down to a gutter, a grill cover which I've seen paid for any of these items that may have been damaged. You, my friend, Mr. And Mrs. Homeowner are insured. You've been paying your premiums to protect your house. It is a black and white issue. If something was damaged, it is paid for. I will help find every little thing. And you've told me, Mr. Homeowner at the roof's your most important piece to do. So we can allocate these towards that. So working with me, you have me on your side as an insurance restoration professional to help through this process. We will go above board. We'll do the roof for what the roofing section is, including any supplements. But I'm more than happy to apply the actual cash value payments of anything that you elect either to not do or do yourself towards the roof. This is entirely legal. And then they need you to do it. And especially if they've had the insurance company out once and the scope doesn't look great and you're going to call for a reinspection or supplement, they need you. So no matter where you come in in the process, they need you there. And I touch on this in this video on how to use the contingency agreement as a sales tool. You'll learn more about that if you click that card. Couple of things, considerations to share with your homeowner because it's important for them to know the implications. Let's dive in. Let's say the fence, they decide, oh, we're going to use that 2,500 bucks of the 5,300 towards our deductible or our out of pocket expense and the homeowner option one says, we're not even going to touch the fence. Okay? So in the future, if that fence is damaged, it will not get paid for again. Okay, Slight little caveat that you should know about. If the fencing was only paid for on, let's see. Okay, so this was the actual fencing itself was. Was damaged. Oftentimes they'll cover for paint and stain. If the fence has a tree fall on it, for example, and the fence structure is damaged, the insurance is going to pay to replace the fence. But if the paint was paid for and you don't repaint and it gets damaged again, they're not going to pay to repaint. Fence that they paid to paint and you didn't paint. Here's what that means in simple terms. I was out on a roof, the roof was totaled, we filed a claim, insurance comes out. They said, yes, the roof is damaged. Unfortunately, we're not paying for it. Here's photos of a loss two years ago. Same box vents, same shingles. It was never replaced. We already paid. You can't collect on it twice. Okay, so if the actual fence material was paid for and then they never fixed it, it won't get covered in a future loss. If it was just the paint, for example, and the fence gets destroyed and they see that it was never repainted, they're going to pay for everything minus the repainting. Do you follow? It's quite simple when we break it down to you can't get paid twice for the same thing. So it's important that you communicate this to your homeowner so you stay above board. Because if you're watching anything here in my videos or on the podcast, you are clearly someone who values an educational sale. Doing the right thing, doing the legal thing, and taking care of people so you can install a high quality roof that you and your company stand behind. And this, my friends, is the absolute best way to do it. So now you know. The legal and ethical ways to help a homeowner with their deductible are simply by using the actual cash values payments. Wrong side. The actual cash value payments of items they elect not to do and that they need your help to make sure all that is identified to reduce or offset their expenses, which will help you in turn get that contingency agreement signed. Last thing. If the homeowner wishes to do the painting on his or her own, they can do that and they can submit that evidence to the insurance company and you don't have to deal with it. But the good news is that actual cash value payment and then they decide to do the staining or painting. That's cool. Now their fence is back to being insured because there's proof that it was done. So the next time you face this deductible if you bring this sample scope in of yours and you read from nationwide that it is fraud and you explain how this process works and you're still struggling, you now have a tool in your pocket to use that ACV amount to help towards that portion. I hope this helps you overcome that next objection so you can close that deal. And if you want even more click this video to learn how to use that contingency agreement as a closing tool which is your natural next step. And then if you want even more videos on how to sell and close and overcome objections and generate leads, click here for my free pitch like a pro roofing sales training video library and here here for my how to use the contingency agreement as a closing tool. We'll see you on the next one.
